First, and foremost, my divided attention between projects and life events, and being a solo developer working on the demo, ended up not being able to wrap up a public release during the summer period. While that is indeed unfortunate, as no one would be happier than me if this project was any closer to the finish line, there are varioius perspective changes at work here.
- Cardia into Esophagus. How is it gonna be?
Initial discussion with participants about the demo led me down a path that involved creating brand new puzzles and even storyline for it, on my own, to keep the final product without major spoilers. Well, that is still happening!
But as you can see, it's taking a while..
The first realization as summer was nearing its end, is that the concept of Cardia as I showed in the trailer, and the events and story I have crafted for it, was way beyond such a deadline that I set for a single person, being myself.
With the TDD workshop getting updates, I was certain I want the mod to be featured there, and Cardia requires a custom exe with 64 bit features, outside of the scope of current Steam workshop functionality. So it was to time to break down my own ambition, and produce something managable in a reasonable time window.
So as it can be seen on the screenshot above, let me introduce the final demo concept: Esophagus! A custom story-esque showcase from parts of the initial 8 levels that will be made available for everyone in 2023 Q4, at which point the project enters early access.
So there, that's what you can expect of this mod for the rest of the year. While I realize delays are disappointing, it really weighs me down to carry this whole project on my back most of the time. Which leads us to the next point!
- HELP WANTED! From the community, for the community.
If you read the excerpt above, you realized my initial idea for the project was breaking down, and ambition was set aside. This means, I am now officially asking for help, and putting together a support team, that will help me realize the final concept. While my participants were immense help in making the project, and the levels reality, most of them even left the Amnesia scene already, and has no further interest in taking part of the mod's other aspects.
I overhauled my ported HPL3 assets, ported some from the Bunker game additionally, and set up proper github repositories and links, so the project doesn't cause aneurysm on the first look :D
So if you are experienced with HPL2 , and has time to spare, I'm looking for people with the following skillsets (one is enough, more is even better):
- Level design details
- Coding more events and new mechanics
- Literary English grammar check and proofreading (having read works of H.P. Lovecraft is an advantage)
- Photoshop and Blender/Maya skills to fix some broken assets and reexport others
- Experience with entity creation (handling custom monsters is an advantage)
- Creating sound effects
Feel free to contact me anywhere, in a moddb message, on discord, etc. and we will discuss your role in the future of the project. I will put together a discord group after Esophagus reaches the finish line.
- Afterword, and my impending departure from the HPL2 scene
This has been planned for a while, but once the year ends, so do my plans for this game. I am willing to carry only Pandemia into next year, and some overhauls on old projects to catch up with the workshop functionality expansion.
But don't worry! My work on the game might end, but I've already started working on HPL3 as part of the current Frictional Modding Jam, and I'll be moving back to Unity game making too mid-2024 or so.
Thanks for reading this if you did, hope to see you soon at the estimated release date!
Take your time, don't worry about deadlines too much, just do your thing. 👍
Don't limit yourself too much technically speaking, if you prefer working with your 64 bit exe in mind do it, i.e. make a lite patch later just for the workshop, or a low details mode with an internal value like I did for Forbidden Trip.
For helping sadly I cannot at the time, I was already waiting for September to see if I have time again to work on my map(s) for the project, so I cannot imagine working on anything else at the moment; I'm way too busy IRL.
Good luck and take your time! Will try that new demo when it's out!
thanks for the kind words, and I am aware of your situation :D what you're doing thankfully has no time limit and is perfectly enough for the time being!