Topic: Castlevania: Seal of the Eclipse

[Shinobi]

This game was announced last january with a little progress and you expect that it will be released around this year especially if it was developed as a non-profit game? Even Lecarde Chronicles 2 or Wallachia Reign of Dracula took about more than two years before it was completed and released.

[theplottwist]

So is this project completely dead or what?

It is. We actually moved on to greener pastures. I apologize for not clarifying. The reasons are many, I'll be super direct:

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It isn't, I was kidding.

I'm writing this impromptu and ahead of consulting the team as I believe I will not step on any toes, so please understand if something changes out of the blue or even this entire message gets retconned.

The project made significant progress from the teaser. The gameplay section of it no longer accurately corresponds to what we have. In the sense that it has been improved by a significant margin and continues to.

In the scope of professional gamedev, progress wasn't that impressive. There is no way to be more transparent, unless we show what we did with no context, which we are not doing. There's currently no way to "dress" it in a way that you don't see what you're not meant to see.

But we did accomplish more in a year than any of Umbra did in its lifetime, which is pretty nice.

There is no big update planned, that much is confirmed. But changing the project really did increase its chances of existing. So, good news I guess?

Oh and:

This game was announced last january with a little progress and you expect that it will be released around this year especially if it was developed as a non-profit game? Even Lecarde Chronicles 2 or Wallachia Reign of Dracula took about more than two years before it was completed and released.

Yes, absolutely no way this is releasing this year or even 2023. Time is a cruel mistress.

[EstebanT]

OOF

[Chernabogue]

FOO

[Foffy]

Don't swerve me and nearly break my heart with that kinda post! 

[X]

I got caught too 

However if the fan game was really going to be cancelled theplottwist would give out a far more in-depth explanation as to why. He's thorough that way 

[Dracula9]

I'll weigh in from my end of things as well.

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Everything Plot said is truthful and accurate...well, barring the fakeout, of course. This thing has made more progress than Umbra ever did and it cannot be understated just how significant of a report that is, nor can it be accurately compared in detail without massively spoiling a lot of shit -- so as much as I'd love to list out every aspect built and improvement for the sheer satisfaction of doing it, I cannot and will not.

I will, however, list the major things (that aren't spoilerific) to give an idea of where things stand:

• too many tiny physics/control adjustments and corrections to player characters (currently just Julius, no sense applying the new code to others until the changes are tested and working correctly) to list without taking up half an entire thread page, but I will extrapolate on one big one just below

• revamped how stairs work to be more precise and less prone to inconsistent player alignment, with additional work to make stair behavior as close to NESvanias as I could (little slide movement to align to stairs when triggered, etc.) as well as finally getting stair jumping to work which I troubleshot since well before the initial reveal with no practical success

(my deepest appreciation to ThouAegis on this one in specific for his extensive work on documenting the inner workings of the NES titles, since many of his breakdowns here and elsewhere have been instrumental study guides, even if I don't write code working with hex values and register formats and the like the way he does, it's not particularly difficult to find ways to translate to my style of coding -- if you end up reading this you're a fuckin' MVP dude, and I appreciate the hell out of your efforts and all the potential they unlock)

• many things have been added in the way of (we feel) enhancing and improving upon the existing classicvania format for certain gameplay elements to expand the depth of versatility and complexity a player would have access to, in ways that take notes from more modern gamedev philosophies

• a fuckload of graphics have been made or updated since trailer, to the point that many things seen in said trailer are almost unrecognizable in their current form (in the best ways possible)

• music and audio departments are very extensively fleshed-out and/or outright completed already

• design/planning/writing/etc. have also seen extensive development, though obviously that's all predominantly backend stuff the public will likely never see in its current states as it's not meant for that

This thing has seen easily five times the amount of assets and progress made in just a year than Umbra did that entire time we worked on it. I don't say that to downplay our work there, but just to illustrate the world of difference here.

As for why there've been no major updates since January, or at least "major" in the sense of gameplay reveals since stuff flying and exploding is typically regarded as more interesting that character profiles and some art/audio showcases: these things take time, and while that initial reveal did what it needed and intended to do and showed what it meant to show, the next time gameplay reveals are posted publicly it is our intention to polish every single pixel they show as exquisitely as we can (so no more floating rubbish bins lol). It is our belief and trust in the communities at large watching this that everyone wants to see the best we can show, and we'd be hard-pressed not to bust our asses to ensure what we show from here on out is able to live up to, if not exceed, that high standard. Alternatively, we simply want to show our best for ourselves as artists and creatives. Best foot forward and all that.

So, yeah. Stuff's coming, I promise. We're not dead, it's still being worked on, we just need some more time to get everything where we want it with every little thing exactly right and nice before we show it off. Patience and faith is all we can ask for, since if we truly were abandoning or dropping it we'd shout it from the rooftops so as to destroy any chance of confusion.

And we're nowhere near the roof right now.

[The Puritan]

Can't believe I didn't realize this back in the Umbra thread, but the town of Iomi is absolutely a nod to Yomi from Simon's Quest isn't it? The last town (a lifeless one at that) you visit on your way to the castle ruins? Good on you guys for the reference.

[theplottwist]

Can't believe I didn't realize this back in the Umbra thread, but the town of Iomi is absolutely a nod to Yomi from Simon's Quest isn't it? The last town (a lifeless one at that) you visit on your way to the castle ruins? Good on you guys for the reference.

That it is. Not only a nod, but the same town centuries later. Expect a few more nods like this.

[EstebanT]

Any updates on this?