Hey all, I know I've been quiet but happy to say I've had some good time to work on the game. I plan to have a new release soon that will include the character gallery for the Celeste level. That should fully complete the Celeste level and bring us to the next chapter...
...which is still kinda TBD. I think the storyline is at a good place for a break of sorts. Val has a new 'power' and she's much changed from her first night in the woods. The game also feels pretty full -- it would take a new player 5+ hours to complete (based on players' feedback), and with 50+ anims, 40+ CGIs, and god knows how many background characters, I feel like the game has a very respectable amount of content. And technically, the game is getting heavy. All those animations are weighing it down, making compile times much longer and clogging up the commit workflow.
So given that, I'm thinking to end the game and start 'chapter 2' in a new game. Let's just call the new game 'VK2' for now. It will look and feel just like VK, but with new content. However, I don't see the game having enough content for another 5 levels. Instead, I think 3 new levels is more achievable, for a total of 8 levels. But I don't want to have 5 levels in game 1 and just 3 levels in game 2...
So my thought is to rerelease VK1 with just the first 4 levels. Level 4 (Backdoor) actually ends at a good transition point with meeting the artifact. I'll then release VK2 with the Celeste level already created, and build on that game going forward.
Let me know your thoughts on this. Before I split the game I'll need to polish up the codebase so it's in a good state to use across both games. I'm eager to get started on the new content -- I've actually created a bunch already for the next level -- but need to decide if/how to split the game before I can do much more. So yeah, let me know your thoughts and if you see any issues with this approach.