I just released version 0.10.0 of On Distant Shores and overall it was well received much to my relief. You would think after ten releases I’d be less nervous before publishing my updates. Strangely enough that feeling still hasn’t gone away.

As most of the people know who stumble on this site, my game is for adults only. This was originally designed as my public development journal. Hence, the family friendly images only. I update around once a quarter to show how the project has been going. I don’t think that’s how I want to utilize this site going forward. I haven’t 100% decided, but I think I’m going to convert this site to become the actual Professor Amethyst Games website. More of a flashy introduction to my one person development company and the games I’m working on.

Of course, right now it is just the one title, but it won’t be that way forever. Eventually I’ll wrap up on ODS and will begin work on a new title. Plus I need a place to land for people wanting to learn more about the games or about Professor Amethyst (your humble neighborhood game developer). I would keep the developer journal as a side page on this site, mostly for historical purposes. I’ll be completely honest, this site is not only a journal, but also a way of proving how long I’ve been using the title of the game and the name of my development company. Not that anyone is knocking down my door to copy any of the titles I’ve chosen, but this is my way of showing I have a history and precedence.

Maybe I will spend some time at the end of the year to put together a new flashier frontend and perhaps incorporate a cozy forum for people to get hints or discuss the game. Plus I could make an alternate location for being able to download the public releases. Private releases would still occur early on Patreon.

Okay, that’s all I have for now. This is the Professor signing off.

The fifth release came out late last year and I’m currently working on the sixth release to come out in about a month. What a fun experience this has been. I seem to only have two types of people commenting on my game. Those who are deeply unhappy with what I’m doing and those who seem to really enjoy it. I guess that’s normal. Ambivalent people aren’t as driven to make comments as those who have stronger feelings. Regardless I still feel the same satisfaction after each release as I have my first. Just a real sense of accomplishment. And for the small number of people who really enjoy it, you’ve made this journey a positive one and I thank you.

As far as development goes I have once gain spent a lot of time cleaning things up and fixing bugs here and there. They haven’t been too game breaking, but it drives me to want to improve my game testing procedures. Unfortunately, that is not a skillset I have, but I have been working on them. Ren’py continues to be a wonderful tool to work in and the fact that it is so regularly updated and improved is such a wonderful thing. Kudos to @renpytom for his amazing dedication to his baby.

I can’t remember if I’ve ever done a list of tools I use. In case anyone is ever interested, I use the following:

Ren’py – The scripting engine that runs On Distant Shores

Daz3D – Rendering and animation

Audacity – Audio editing and converting

GIMP – Image editing and conversion

Avidemux – Video timing and conversion

FreeFileSync – Backups

I also heavily rely on Excel for keeping track of story elements, variables, gameplay flowcharting and numerous other quality of life details that help me keep everything sorted and remembered

Well, back to development land. Thanks for tuning in. If anyone ever reads any of this. 🙂

The past few months have seen another huge jump in professionalism in my project. After having numerous beta testers I feel I’m just a few weeks away from the first public release of On Distant Shores. It was all made possible because I literally forced myself to stop making progress on the game and spend all my time streamlining the code, the interface, and dozens of quality of life improvements. I’ve changed so many hundreds of small things that make the whole project far more polished than I thought was possible for me. I’m starting to feel the beginning of pride in this artistic project that I started so long ago. I have two final serious beta testers that I am waiting on. Once I have their input I will put in the final touches for release.

I will then immediately begin pouring myself into making forward progress again. I want to have the first new content release ready to go. This way I can release everything up to Day 18 in May AND be fully ready with the June release. I will then push hard on getting the July and August release completed by the time I am ready to release June. My goal is to never be in a situation where I’m unable to further the story along. And having two full months worth of releases will put me in a very comfortable situation. Just in case anyone ends up deciding to sponsor me on Patreon (not that anyone will, but one can certainly hope).