Hello, it's Chattercap!

I've released the demo of my new game, The Deepwater Witch! You can find it here. It's a surreal, romantic retelling of the Little Mermaid set in a post-apocalyptic world.

Synopsis:

In a world ruined by pollution, the oceans have swallowed the lands. Ramil is a scavenger, a lowlife who digs through the trash littering his once idyllic hometown. One day he finds a mysterious girl on the beach. She can't speak, and she says that she doesn't remember where she came from. When Ramil meets her, he is dragged into a surreal dreamscape...but are they dreams or delusions?

As the mysteries surrounding the girl's identity unravel, Ramil is forced to answer a question: What price is he willing to pay to be happy?

Features for the demo:

• A post-apocalyptic retelling of the Little Mermaid!
• 25k words (~2 hours playtime)
• 5 CGs, 22 backgrounds
• Live 2D-style animated illustrations
• One mysterious girl
• One prince with neither a heart nor a house of gold
• A sweet, slow-burn romance
• Copious fairytale references
• (Way too much talking about the environment for a romance game)

Gosh, where do I even begin when starting to talk about what I did in December...it was pretty hectic, to say the least. Luckily, the demo released successfully.

Now, as for what I needed to do to release that demo...

HURDLE ONE: FINISHING THE SCRIPT

The first thing that I had to do to release The Deepwater Witch was...finish the script? I had completed the first draft, but after receiving beta reader feedback, I found that there were additions that needed to be made. In the first few days of December, I wrote 4500 words, bringing the total of the script to 52k. After receiving additional edits, the script was finalized by December 15th.

HURDLE TWO: DOING THE ART

Heading into the second week of December, I only had a bit of art done. After completing the script, I had revisited the storyboards and basically made entirely new drafts of what art needed to be completed. At that point, I only had sprites and a couple of CG sketches.

From the beginning of December until the 20th, I worked almost exclusively on art, doing 24 backgrounds, 5 CGs, and an additional sprite during that timeframe. It was BUSY, but it was well worth it! I'm happy with how all of the assets turned out.

HURDLE THREE: ...EVERYTHING ELSE???

Heading into the last week of December, I was faced with the daunting task of...doing everything else. Up until this point, I was cool as a cucumber, but I started to panic a LITTLE here.

If you've been following my development up until this point, you'll know that I made the switch from Unity to Godot a couple of months ago. I had done...about 50% of the work that was needed on the engine before pausing to finish TDW's script. So not only did I have to implement core features (things as simple as saving and loading), but I also had to make sure I added polish - a nice looking GUI, animations, and the general polish that I want people to be able to expect from my games.

Here is a non-existent list of what I did from the 22nd of December onward:

• BGM/SFX/VA functionality
• Mute function
• Flexible 2D animation controls
• CG management (+ idles, animations)
• Sprite management (+ idles, animations, positioning)
• Dynamic dialogue layouts
• Expression popups.
• Credits screen.
• Screen shake.
• Story flags.
• GUI functionality (page toggles, buttons, etc.)
• Designed and implemented all GUI.
• Save/Load.
• Save screenshot function.
• Chose and implemented BGM and SFX.
• Annotated the script with BGM, SFX, story flag, sprite, CG, expression, and background tags.
• Playtesting.

WHAT'S NEXT?

The next thing that you can expect from me is an updated version of MacOS version of The Deepwater Witch. I understand that there are some security issues with the current build (as Apple is very strict when it comes to unauthorized applications), and so I've decided to pay for an Apple Developer License. My application was already processed and approved, so I should be releasing that version in the next few days. You will still receive a pop-up notification alerting you that TDW is not from the App Store, but hopefully it lets you open it without any further hassle.

After that, I plan to release the full version of The Deepwater Witch. Almost everything is done besides some coding and art, and I expect to release it around late January/early February. Following that, I have two projects that I have planned for early spring!

For more details, you can see my 2024 Roadmap here. I have some notes about Actala there, if you're interested! 

I wish you all a good 2024!

Until next time,

Chattercap