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Monday Update #101 | Reworking and Renovation
Hey Everyone, the next Monday Update is coming your way. It's too late and I have no apology for it. No, that's a lie I actually do. I'll talk about the reasons after I tell you about everything I did in the past weeks:
What's new?
But this I'll also do in a different format than usual, as I want to explain a few things first or you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. There will be changes coming to Children of Morn. Like I said in my last post, I'm very much determined to listen to feedback and am now taking some serious steps to improve the game. That means:
- A rewritten and rerendered prolog.
- Changes to Enna as a whole character.
- Slight adjustements to the plot, to fit the new prolog and new Enna.
- A few changed environments.
- And lastly, a new name.
Now let me explain. After looking through a lot of feedback, judging my own perception of the game and listening to my editor, I've identified a few key problems to the game. Enna, the way she is right now, needs to be changed. I'm not talking about completely removing the person she is, but I'm talking about adjusting her to be a lot more interesting and engaging for the player. She's supposed to become a real love interest, and I'm not saying more than that. You'll see in the next update what I did.
Another problem is motivation. Why is the player character doing what he's doing? I'm taking steps to hopefully strengthen his motivation and give him more agency in the plot.
I'm also remaking a few areas and adding a few renders were I felt something was missing or could be explained and emphasized better.
The changes to the plot are small and mainly aim to keep things consistent with the changes. Overall, the plot is staying the same.
And now to the name. This one might be surprising to many of you, or at least to some. But it has come to my attention that the name could become problematic in the future. It might sound silly to some, but simply having the word "children" written in an adult games title can produce problems on various websites and makes the chances of another Steam ban unnecessary high. So even though it is a bit painful, I've decided to change the name of the game with the next version. I've already honed in on a few possible replacements but haven't made the final decision yet. You'll have to wait a while longer until I unveal the name.
Now, when will all of this happen? Hopefully at the end of February. That's the date I'm aiming for with the next release. The release will include the reworked opening of the game + The first section of the first dungeon. Another thing people critizice is how there's very little gameplay apart from the minigames and you're right, I can only tell you to wait. I like my games with gameplay. Like I did in MIST, Children of Morn will also feature quite a lot of it. It only takes time to develop. Children of Morn is a slow burn, I realize slow burns really are slow and I should have probably done it a bit different from the start, but what's done is done and you'll soon get your hands on the actual gameplay of the game so now it doesn't matter anymore either way.
The Renovation:
But, there's a disclaimer on it. I moved to my very first own apartment. Until now I've always lived in flat-shares, but I finally managed to get an apartment where I live. It's not much, but It's still a lot of work to get everything done, especially because I made the stupid decision of building everything on my own. Which I very much enjoy, but it takes a lot of time and effort. I've managed to not let it influence my worktime too much, apart from completely forgetting the monday updates, but moving and the holidays still took a toll on my work. So in the end there might be a delay to the February release. Right now I'm on time and think I can get the update out like I want, we'll see.
That's all from me for today. I whish everyone a great week and you'll hear from me again soon!
