Hey all! It’s been almost 2 months since the Mother Direct trailer, and almost 4 months since the Act 1 demo was initially released. Time sure flies by, huh?

Progress on Act 2 has been going great, so far! All major gameplay areas are playable, and all meta puzzles have been implemented. In fact, at the time of writing this (September 13th), the ending portion is all that remains, and Act 2 is fully playable from start to finish! Act 2 is definitely bigger than the first, both in overall length and ambition. Without spoiling much, there’s definitely a bigger emphasis on dedicated gameplay segments here, as opposed to the more open-ended approach of Act 1.

Of course, Act 2 is still rough around the edges, and there’s a lot of graphics, sounds, music, and general quality assurance that needs to be done; but this is to be expected this early in development. Hopefully by the next progress report it will be fully finished and I’ll be starting work on Act 3! A developer can only dream...

Act 3

There hasn’t been any in-engine progress regarding Act 3, as I’m currently focusing all those resources on Act 2. However, the general flow of events, areas, gameplay concepts, puzzles and story beats have been mapped out. Most major characters have also been designed, and there’s even been some music work done! All that’s really left is to get Act 2 to a satisfying state, hand it over for testing, and then we’re onto Act 3!

Act 1

Yes, there’s also news to share regarding Act 1.

With the release of the full game, there will be some minor additions/changes to the first act. A few more illustrations will be added, some cutscenes will be reworked slightly, and there will be some minor script changes, mostly for better pacing. Really it’s just a few minor touch-ups to make sure it’s on par with the rest of the game.

(Important Note: There’s currently a bug in the latest version of the demo during the balcony scene, where the camera prematurely goes up, and Alex just walks to the top left of the screen. This has been fixed, and while I’d love to roll out another update, I’m already too deep into Act 2 to republish the demo. Just bear with it until the full release!)

Oh! I almost forgot...

Benches!

A nice place to sit and relax! These function as Save Locations, meaning the game saves data upon sitting on one of these. Moreover, every party member has their own unique sitting animation! Make sure to view them all when you get the chance! I figured the current saving function could be a little confusing for some players; that being the game automatically saving when you close it. Plus, if the game was to crash or be forcefully closed for any reason, all that progress would be lost. These save locations eliminate that issue, and are also good stopping points for game sessions, something the demo did relatively poorly.

Anyway, that’s about it for today’s progress update. Hope you enjoyed it! Huge thanks to everyone who played the demo, I hope you’ve enjoyed it so far! Here’s hoping that the rest of the game will be even better! I cannot wait for you all to see what I have in store! Stay safe everyone!

-George