The Road to Early Access Release

Hey everyone! We're closing in on our Early Access release of Robin's route!  I'm on track to finish writing Robin's route by the end of September, so here's our schedule for the months ahead:

September: Complete Robin route script, it's looking like it'll be around 70,000 words once both Chapter 4s are done.

Early October: Coding Chapters 3 & 4, Made Marion featured in Steam Next Fest.

Late October: Robin Route full beta test and Steam certification process.

Early November: Early Access launch!

What can throw off this schedule?  

1. Delay of critical art resources (we have a few more that are required for the full experience). 

2. Steam certification difficulties. 

3. Geez, I dunno, another global pandemic? I never know what's gonna happen these days.

I will keep y'all notified both here and (for more granular progress reports like Little John's Tuesday Tidbits, previously the Monday Mini-Update) on Tumblr!

The Made Marion Extras Menu

We completed one of the final major changes to our overall game systems this month. Our fabulous coding consultant Feniks/Shawna built our extras menu for us!  You can access the Extras Menu from the Main Menu that appears when you haven't yet started or loaded a game.

As you can see, there are all sorts of goodies available in the Extras Menu. You can view the game's full-screen illustrations as they're unlocked, listen to the music from the soundtrack, read the love interest point-of-view scenes that unlock after you complete an ending, view the three movies associated with the game, and see your achievements.

Here's how the CG (full-screen illustration) gallery looks.  This player has gone through the Sherwood common route and has unlocked the first of Robin's five illustrations. You can click on it for a full-screen view.

And here's the Achievements Menu. Our achievements work in-game (so Itch players can enjoy them too!) and will be connected to Steam's achievement system once the game leaves Early Access. I will add more achievements with each Early Access release, and they may not all be unlockable right away (in fact, that second locked achievement requires viewing multiple scenes across several routes).

Depending on budget, I may be able to hire somebody to draw unique pictures for the achievements later in the Early Access process.

And one final small but mighty game system update: You will now see choices that you have previously made in italics, so if you want to make sure to make different choices in your next playthrough, you can!

It looks like this player previously chose to trust the shadowy figure that saved them from being captured by Geoffrey's men. Shall they try running away this time?

Things are getting exciting!  See you next month!