Time sure flies when you're having fun... or stuck in the middle of a pandemic. With that said, it's time for me to make an update on what's been happening with Unscripted in the past few weeks.
Fixing bugs (of bugs, of bugs, of bugs)
Besides minor quality-of-life improvements, the past developer beta cycles have focused on doing lots of bug fixes. While Unscripted does include lots of interesting things, it suffers from bug creep, and the next few betas to insiders have tried to squash a lot of them. The latest betas have been focusing on the minigame's bugs, and I'm pleased to say that the minigame is a lot more polished now than in July.
Testing, One-Two
Back in May, I launched the Unscripted Playtesting Program as a means of getting feedback for Unscripted. Since then, I've received lots of reports that have helped make the game better now than when I launched the program.
Recently, I had launched the Steam page for Unscripted, which was something I was hesitant about at first. Thanks to feedback and internal discussion, I pushed through. After publishing the page, I started testing Unscripted through Steam to see if there were any hiccups. I'm pleased to say that, as of right now, no reports have arose due to an issue with Steam.
Steam aside, I recently moved the playtesting program to its own separate page, https://beta.unscriptedvn.dev. This portal aims to help centralize a lot of developer-related things such as beta release notes, reports, and update announcements.
What now?
The end of 2020 is coming a lot closer than anyone's probably anticipated. With this in mind, I feel confident that the major features of Unscripted have been solidified. I hope to accomplish the following things before working on finalizing the game:
- First, a slight update to the minigame where players can use pre-made NadiaVM scripts in the interactive mode to speed up the game a bit. I'm undecided on how this will work, but I'm confident I'll think of something.
- Next, focus on completing the story. Most of the chapters have been written, but I'd like to get the last couple of chapters done to wrap up the game and tell the story I want to tell. Now that features should be done, I can spend the rest of the time to finalize the story.
- Furthermore, I aim to fix any continuity issues, bland parts, and in-cohesive parts of the story so that it flows better.
- If time allows, I'll try to add more choices to get specific dialogue points, though it isn't guaranteed at the moment.
- Additionally, I will focus on gathering the rest of the assets needed for the game, including CGs and music. The story and game itself is fine at the moment, but it doesn't feel unique or as polished yet. I think adding new music and CG assets can greatly improve in this department.
- Finally, I will do my best to squash any remaining bugs. I'd like to get Unscripted to be as bug-free as it can be while still maintaining the "developer" image.
There's a lot going on for the remainder of Unscripted's development, and I can't wait to share a final product with you all!
