Hey there and welcome to the third monthly update, the July 2024 update! Let's hop right into it!

Development Progress

Since last time, development has progressed fairly well. I've done a bit of something each day [some more than others!] but the biggest thing I did during this last month was a whole lot of playtesting. It was the first time doing a playtest in over a year so I really enjoyed getting back into it. It might be biased coming from me, but I really enjoy playing Untold Story. Which makes sense, considering the whole reason I even started making this game was because it was everything I wanted in an RPG. I'll take more about the playtest soon, but for now I'll quickly discuss how Chapter 10 is going, aka the last big hurdle.

I didn't get nearly as much done on it as I would have liked, but I did complete a few major quests, and set up a lot as well to streamline it later. I still have about 10 or so quests to design, 3 or so dungeons, and about five boss fights to create.....plus the entire ending. Yeah that will be a thing. Once I'm past this hurdle, it'll be all playtesting and polishing, which is what I love the most. 

Now, as for the current playtest: I'm currently at Chapter 10 in it. Which is where I stopped, cause there's no reason to playtest something that isn't done yet. It took me just under 44 hours to get that far into the game, and there's still about 7ish hours of gameplay left, but that could obviously change. One thing I want to make clear is that my playtest time listed above is for 100% completion. Obviously not everyone is going to do that, so it is a bit skewed. However, I also play much faster than most will + know the mechanics well and know where to go. So I think it balances out somewhat for newer players. PLUS Untold Story is kinda designed to be something you can/should go for 100%, but you obviously don't have to. Once it's more finished I plan on doing more playtests in different styles such as a "only mandatory stuff" playthrough to see how that goes.

How Much Longer?

Still aiming for June 2024, that's my final answer. But if I stay on my current pace, it could be sooner. There's still four more months in the year, and I can easily finish Chapter 10 and the epilogue if I keep up on work. That would leave me 6 months of polished/playtesting to get it by my own personal deadline. It's very doable. For now, June 2024, and that probably won't change until I finally get past this last hurdle.

Something New

Here's something I'm not sure I've ever actually shown in any devlog or post about this game anywhere. It's the Save Screen!

It gives basic information, yada yada, but what I'm focusing on for today is those 8 things on the bottom. I did a lot of talking about 100% competition earlier. And those 8 items are what constitutes a completed save file. I just want to go over them really quick. The numbers in the (parentheses) are the total amount the game has. (They are obviously wrong at the moment!)

Chests: These are treasure chests in the game. Pretty self explanatory. I don't have an accurate count right now, but there will likely be around 400 of them in total. I'm still placing them down so no idea right now.

Quests: These are the quests of the game. This number includes both story required quests and side quests. The number is actually wrong, I recounted and there's a total of 190 quests in Untold Story. 

Pianos: These are for something I've never talked about ever. I still won't. Honestly, I plan on removing this one and replacing it with something else. Being on the save screen makes them appear more important then they actually are. 

Friend Conversations: I've talked about these in other places of the internet, but they are essentially Heart to Hearts or Support Conversations from Xenoblade Chronicles and Fire Emblem. There are 145 of them. Quite a lot!

Hidden Items: Are items that are hidden. That's about it. Not sure how many there will be since I haven't placed them yet. That's more of a final polish thing since it revolves around the maps and world being finalized first.

Counterfeits: These are just Untold Story's version of Mimics. They're gimmicky fights that lead to good rewards. There are 19 of them!

Music Tracks: This is a fancy and in-universe way of giving you a Sound Test. Yeah, boring. There's actually 73 of them in total, I have 0 because I haven't really implemented them yet. 

Exalted Ones: These are Untold Story's Super Bosses. There are five of them in the world, and they will push your knowledge of the battle mechanics to the limit! [Hopefully]

BONUS NEW CONTENT:

So Untold Story does NOT have a post game. Once you beat the final boss, that's it. There's no post-game optional dungeon with some post-game optional boss that is harder than the final boss. No. The final boss IS the strongest enemy in the game. 

"But what about those five SUPER BOSSES you just mention?"

Yes, those are designed to be beaten BEFORE the final boss as well. Every Exalted One the party beats actually makes the final boss harder. Likewise, if you beat none of them, the final boss is "easier". 

Wrap Up

That's all I got for July. I'll see you all in August and hopefully I'll have good news about Chapter 10, considering I don't have anything else to playtest anymore. As always thanks for sticking around and supporting this game. It's been a long nine years but I cannot wait to finally share this with everyone.