The revisit isn’t always nice the third time around…

It’s been nearly a few months since the last time I’ve posted an update to this project where I mentioned some minor changes being made as the game progressed. Now that it’s nearly the end of August, things haven’t really changed. What’s going on?

In the previous devlog, I briefly mentioned that I was looking into rearchitecting some parts of the game:

Second, I will be revisiting the premise of the game as a whole and determine how to proceed with the project in the future. While having a mix of a visual novel and an RPG seems fun and unique, I’m not sure if the story is well set up for this approach. Likewise, I’m partially considering 3D games or games designed for mobile devices.

This major task has been looming over my head since I started a new job, and I’ve done lots of thinking about the game and what I want to shape it into. I’d like to share some of these thoughts with you as I finish deliberating, although some of these thoughts may not fully make it into the game.

A swift breakup

The Godot game engine has been an indispensable tool to creating a lot of the games I’ve worked on in the past such as Bug Bounty!, Package Resolved, and The Costumemaster: Reloaded. It’s quick, easy to use, and allows you to make games across platforms with ease. The internal scripting language, GDScript, is very Python-like and easy to pick up. There’s a lot to like about Godot as a tool for making indie games, and I love making games with it.

However, I feel that love is starting to fade a bit, including the general prospect of creating cross-platform apps. While I understand the appeal to create an app that works across platforms with little to no effort, I’ve come to fully appreciate writing apps native to the system it was designed for. Performance, integration, and compatibility are a few advantages I can name.

I've always been enamored with developing apps for iOS and macOS since I learned the Swift programming language years ago. Time and time again, this love has faded and rekindled. Swift 5 and SwiftUI, SpriteKit and Game Center, Swift Playgrounds, and newer versions of Xcode have contributed greatly to this; in fact, some internal tools for Indexing Your Heart have been written completely in Swift. This love has rekindled again as I work as an iOS developer, doing the things I've always wanted to do.

I'm torn. I could make Indexing Your Heart in Godot, tune it for the various platforms it will win on, reach a wide audience, and be happy. Or, I could make Indexing Your Heart the game I want it to be with the absolutely best integration at the risk of a small audience. In a lot of ways, I’m facing the same potential issues I would with the original version of The Costumemaster; however, I feel it isn’t as bad because I’d be designing for iOS first, which has a much larger market share than macOS does. It’s a tricky situation to be in, and I value making a quality product with the best tools and skills needed.

Of course, this doesn't necessarily mean I'm thinking of dropping Godot from my toolbox entirely; a good handful of games I'm developing still use it, and I want those to be as accessible as possible. Furthermore, I may have plans for smaller games that I want to develop with Godot in the future.