Alright, this is a post I didn't think I'd end up making. Unfortunately, I've decided to put CapyQuest on long-term hiatus. It's been really hard to find motivation to work on it, and honestly my expectations of the final game are too high for me to reach by myself. I'm not giving up entirely, but I'm going to stop posting to this blog for the time being.
If, or more likely when, I return, I'll probably need some help with puzzle design, mechanics, level design, audio design, narrative, and animation. Who knows, maybe I'll put together a little team? Only time will tell!
While I'm sad I have to set CQ aside for now, I'm excited for the future where I'm able to rekindle my motivation and keep going.
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Life has been crazy busy for me these past few weeks, so unfortunately I once again had a week of no CQ work. I'm going to try to trim down my priorities to find more time to work on CapyQuest, but be prepared for veryyyy slow updates, maybe none at all for a couple weeks. We'll just have to wait and see.
So. I was playing through the mountainside level to figure out what needed to be fixed or finished to publish it and redirect all of my focus to the remake. Unfortunately, everything is broken. I don't know when any of it happened, but here's a brief list of what no longer works! :D
Drowning/respawning is broken
Grappling no longer works at all except for swinging (???)
The pull box for one of the puzzles, which can no longer be grappled, also doesn't respawn after falling into water
I would have to remake all the capys that were using an old blueprint (so, like, all of them) Not a huge deal, but very time-consuming.
The skeletal mesh SKM_Capy_1 is not compatible with the Capy skeleton... which makes no sense at all, it was working just fine a while back and I didn't make any changes to the skeleton OR the skeletal mesh. I've tried fixing it many times, but it's just not working, unless I want to completely re-rig Capy 1. However, SKM_Capy_2 still works.
I don't know when or why all of this stuff broke. Maybe there was something wrong with the way I was backing it up? And it is partially my fault, since I knew about some of these problems for a while and mistakenly thought I could just fix them easily in the future. Well, the future's here, and there's not really any fixing them.
So instead, I'm just going to, unfortunately, have to abandon it. I learned a lot along the way, though. It just kinda sucks that I added so much and lost all that progress, but hey, I'm remaking it anyways! And the remake will be much better and more exciting! And I'll remember to playtest regularly this time!
Fortunately, I still have the original demo and level 1 packaged and available on itch.io, so I'm not losing everything! Here are links, if you'd like to play them! They're both free to play with optional donations, so don't feel pressured to pay. Just click the text that says "No thanks, just take me to the downloads"
Original
Level 1 (Password: DFX452)
That's about it! It's a bummer, but there's a lot I can salvage, and what I can't salvage I will make even better than before. This isn't the end, it's just the beginning.
Alright, this is a really big decision I've made that I've been thinking about for a LONG time. I'm not really sure how to introduce it in a nice way, so I'll just say it. I'm starting from scratch.
I have a lot to say, but TL;DR I'm a better artist and game developer now than when I started, and it's time I learned how to do things properly and apply what I've learned over the past few years. It'll be really good for my growth and for CQ in the long run. But, I will finish up what I've currently got and release it still!
Click 'Keep reading' to read my super-big text dump about this!
CapyQuest has its roots in my college career. I made the original demo my second-to-last year, and expanded it to a larger demo for my final year's final, which is what I've been working on finishing for ages now, documented here.
I'm a much better artist than when I started for one, and so many of the assets I've made are just not what I'd consider acceptable from myself today. A lot of my assets were super rushed, being for a college final and all. Not to mention I'm a better technical artist as well, meaning I now know how to make sure everything has the same texel density/resolution, how to optimize models with poly count and texture, how to monitor rendering performance, etc.
I'm also a better game developer. I used to be so impatient with doing things the "right" way that I would find a way to make it work for me. I didn't realize how messy and complicated these things would end up being (like the dialogue system that I just improved - it's still not as nice as I'd like it!) I didn't even realize all of this until I started following a masterclass for a different game development project, and so many of the things that took me days could actually be done in just an hour or less. I'm more open to learning new things properly at my own pace instead of just watching 30 seconds of various tutorials and mish-mashing them together.
Also, I'm nowhere near being done with even the first section of the forest grove area. Not great! So I think it'd kind of be a waste of time to do what amounts to, like, 60% of the demo's content, just to redo it in the future if I make CQ a full game. Oh, and don't even get me started on the grappling mechanics. So many of the mechanics are so jank that it's impossible to fix mistakes, since they're so poorly made and disorganized.
WHEW. That was a lot! Well, I'm really excited to start fresh - I'd been feeling kind of stuck for a while, so this is nice. It's honestly a relief to have settled on this decision. I'm sorry if this disappoints anyone, but it's for the best. I promise it'll be worth it! I will finish up what I have and post it to my itch.io page, but it'll remain unfinished.
Thanks for sticking around and reading this! I know I don't have many followers, as this blog is mostly for my own use, but for those of you that do care, thank you so much for your support.
Over winter break I didn't really post, partially because I was making slow progress, and partially because I just forgot to. Well, two days before classes start back up, I'm now finished! Now the demo has sound effects, music, a main menu, and a pause menu.
If you want to play it, it's available now on itch.io! And yes, it's free!
This coming semester I plan on continuing this project and adding more gameplay elements. It will be a puzzle platformer with some light combat. Well, I'll see you all soon when I get started on making a full level. I've got a lot planned.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
