I’m currently working on the story events for Stage 2. There was a foundation I’d laid down before, so it’s progressing faster than expected, but the move keeps interrupting me with various tasks, so I’m hitting the brakes a little too often.
I was grateful to receive a gameplay video after a long time. And again, I saw several issues I hadn’t anticipated. There was a scene where the player couldn’t proceed and gave up because I had failed to add a hint to a feature I’d recently added based on feedback. The moment I relax or lose even a little bit of meticulousness, it immediately creates a problem that is close to a game-blocker.
To exaggerate a bit, whenever I fix something, the side effect often manifests as a subtle, game-breaking bug. It’s so diabolical and hard for me to find, yet so easily encountered by users, that it almost feels like something malicious is interfering with me.
This isn’t a move for a happy reason, but as I move homes for the first time in 20 years, the only hope I’m clinging to—a kind of shamanistic hope I’ve never believed in until now—is whether this unknown, diabolical malice I’ve experienced for two decades will finally disappear or change. If I go any further down this path, it’s delusional disorder, so I’ll stop. Still, I think it will have a considerable psychological effect. In any case, my physical environment will be much better than it is now, which is good. So good that I might just want to settle in and stay put.
Going back to the original topic, I can’t say much because of spoilers, but I’m working on a scene where you meet an important character at a place called Lotus One in the Threshold. This ‘Lotus One’ was the most core and important place in the game, but I had no idea how to design it. I came up with the current design after considering various settings I had to adhere to, but I’m still not quite satisfied.
Especially the mandala on the ceiling. That part was originally supposed to connect directly to the sea. (In the Threshold, the sea is above and the sky is below.) The part ascending to the sea was meant to be like a data stream. However, when I made that golden data stream scatter as it met the sea, it looked exactly like urine shooting up into the sky and spraying everywhere. I decided that was absolutely not it, so I covered it with a mandala and removed the scattering effect, but it still feels like something significant is missing.
Anyway, this is how I’m building it. Once the move is over and things settle down, I think I’ll be able to pick up more speed. I’ve been working on this title for quite a long time, so I need to finish it soon.