Long time, no see, friends!

Recently, some good changes have started, and we're currently coming up with a brand new road map for A Slasher Dating Simulator. Before I get into that, I want to apologise for the hiatus; I've had some time to distance myself from the project and come back with a fresh mind and new motivation. Today we're back, and I'm feeling a lot more confident with better aid in managing. I won't get too much into detail about it so let me go ahead and give you a run down for what I want to do first! 

1. Changing game engines  

at the moment, the game engine that slasher sim uses is Ren'Py. Ren'Py is a Visual Novel engine, and it has done the game pretty good... However there are some things about Ren'Py that has been really bothersome for me. You might have noticed one of the issues unique to Ren'Py when playing the demo, mainly the issue where the animated knife menu-buttons would get stuck on the final frame if you had hovered over them before and opened another menu. I had spent SO long trying to fix that issue and find work arounds but I never ended up finding one that animated well, on time, and without glitches; I even contacted some programmers with years of experience to find a solution and they couldn't. It was concluded that it was an issue unique to Ren'Py and we couldn't do anything about it until it was possibly patched (and who knows how long that would take)

It was difficult to search through the entire code to find a single thing I wanted to tweak, since its mainly just raw code, I want to move to something that's more visual and easy to find. Next time it'll be made from scratch. There's also lots of overly complicated issues that did not need to be related to audio and music. I'm certain using another engine will make this process quicker and easier. 

 The other issue we have with Ren'Py is that making mini-games is extremely complicated and not always possible, as the engine is very limited. A lot of time and energy would be put into coding in a mini game only for it to look horrible and stiff. I was going to make them myself but it was just a pain in the butt, so the only solution to this is to find a different game engine where making mini-games will be easier, look better, and be more intuitive.  I could probably go on longer about Ren'Py but I think you catch the gist now. 

Some engines that are being considered might be a lil overkill, but worth it for the mini games I want to include. I think having a powerful engine will also let me make the UI look a whole lot better and lively. I want it to be animated and fun, I'm thinking similar to how Dream Daddy looks and works! 

Right now, Unreal Engine or Godot is what's being decided between. I would've liked to use Unity as many other Visual Novels I like use it, but I simply can't trust Unity after the recent events. 

Also, while we're moving engines, Slasher Sim is also going to be playable in higher resolutions instead of 1080. I feel the resolution was very limiting when making art as I am used to drawing on larger canvases. As technology is progressing, there more people with access to higher resolution monitors as well, so even more the reason so. This however might mean I will have to redraw some backgrounds (like the harry warden menu screen) since I lost the PDF where it was drawn in a higher resolution before being scaled down. There is a possibility of more artwork having similar fates... 

 Goodbye Ren'Py! I probably won't miss you :) (light hearted) (i appreciate it being a stepping stone) (i learnt a lot from it) (i hope i never see it again) (stomping on it until it's a small brown stain)  

2. Title change   

"A Slasher Dating Simulator" was never actually meant to be the final game title, and mainly a place holder. An official name has already been planned before the hiatus even begun, but we need to sort out legal things with that to be sure no one else has taken it, and so nobody else can steal ours once its known to the public. 

 If you're worrying about not being able to find us after the name change becomes official, don't worry; "a slasher dating simulator" will still be part of the title (like Dream Daddy: a dad dating simulator) 

3. New road map 

 As I briefly mentioned at the beginning of this devlog, we are coming up with a new roadmap. It isn't complete yet, but once we have everyone sorted out and have a solid realistic plan, we will tell you. Working on passion-projects can be hard if we don't have a foundation OR communication, we also have to be sure not to burn ourselves out, but we are determined to lift this project back on its feet.  

4. Remastered sprites and UI

I believe I might've already shown a glimpse at one new remastered sprite of Jason before, but I want to restate that this is something I'm going to continue working on. The character sprites we already had in the demo were good, but I know that I can make it even better! Not only sprites, but backgrounds are also a thing that is going to be greatly improved; I am pretty horrible at it, so all the shitty backgrounds you saw at release were mine, but I'm hiring an artist to create new backgrounds or fix ones already made by myself. It's a bit pricey, but it will be worth it for their high quality art. (check them out! their username is iSwimmi. They drew that cabin right there!)

This goes without saying, but I appreciate all of you who are still keeping up with this project. Thank you very much for sticking around, let's get this project back on its feet!

A DOUBLE thank you for people who remained supporting the game, believe me it has not gone to waste. It definitely helps to know people are still interested and waiting patiently.

If you'd also like to become a supporter and join the discord, check out the slasher sim membership tier. Keep in mind though, since this is an 18+ game, that also applies to the discord server. We have a very strict 18+ rule and all minors will be removed from the server and blacklisted. 

Please do not try to join if you are under 18 years old! We do this to keep you and the community safe. 

Thank you for reading the update, and happy slashing! I hope you had a very spooky Halloween!

- Noir