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Monday Update #101 | Reworking and Renovation
🕑 Added 2024-01-17 12:43:09 +0000 UTCHey Everyone, the next Monday Update is coming your way. It's too late and I have no apology for it. No, that's a lie I actually do. I'll talk about the reasons after I tell you about everything I did in the past weeks:
What's new?
But this I'll also do in a different format than usual, as I want to explain a few things first or you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. There will be changes coming to Children of Morn. Like I said in my last post, I'm very much determined to listen to feedback and am now taking some serious steps to improve the game. That means:
- A rewritten and rerendered prolog.
- Changes to Enna as a whole character.
- Slight adjustements to the plot, to fit the new prolog and new Enna.
- A few changed environments.
- And lastly, a new name.
Now let me explain. After looking through a lot of feedback, judging my own perception of the game and listening to my editor, I've identified a few key problems to the game. Enna, the way she is right now, needs to be changed. I'm not talking about completely removing the person she is, but I'm talking about adjusting her to be a lot more interesting and engaging for the player. She's supposed to become a real love interest, and I'm not saying more than that. You'll see in the next update what I did.
Another problem is motivation. Why is the player character doing what he's doing? I'm taking steps to hopefully strengthen his motivation and give him more agency in the plot.
I'm also remaking a few areas and adding a few renders were I felt something was missing or could be explained and emphasized better.
The changes to the plot are small and mainly aim to keep things consistent with the changes. Overall, the plot is staying the same.
And now to the name. This one might be surprising to many of you, or at least to some. But it has come to my attention that the name could become problematic in the future. It might sound silly to some, but simply having the word "children" written in an adult games title can produce problems on various websites and makes the chances of another Steam ban unnecessary high. So even though it is a bit painful, I've decided to change the name of the game with the next version. I've already honed in on a few possible replacements but haven't made the final decision yet. You'll have to wait a while longer until I unveal the name.
Now, when will all of this happen? Hopefully at the end of February. That's the date I'm aiming for with the next release. The release will include the reworked opening of the game + The first section of the first dungeon. Another thing people critizice is how there's very little gameplay apart from the minigames and you're right, I can only tell you to wait. I like my games with gameplay. Like I did in MIST, Children of Morn will also feature quite a lot of it. It only takes time to develop. Children of Morn is a slow burn, I realize slow burns really are slow and I should have probably done it a bit different from the start, but what's done is done and you'll soon get your hands on the actual gameplay of the game so now it doesn't matter anymore either way.
The Renovation:
But, there's a disclaimer on it. I moved to my very first own apartment. Until now I've always lived in flat-shares, but I finally managed to get an apartment where I live. It's not much, but It's still a lot of work to get everything done, especially because I made the stupid decision of building everything on my own. Which I very much enjoy, but it takes a lot of time and effort. I've managed to not let it influence my worktime too much, apart from completely forgetting the monday updates, but moving and the holidays still took a toll on my work. So in the end there might be a delay to the February release. Right now I'm on time and think I can get the update out like I want, we'll see.
That's all from me for today. I whish everyone a great week and you'll hear from me again soon!
Comments
Lavan
Hadn't played since the initial release, was nice having a good chunk of content to go through, sadly its back to waiting now. Didn't really see much problem with Enna, shes got issues that need to be worked through and secrets that will be fun to unravel, don't think she needs much change she just needs time but should be good either way.
Sauv
"Descendants of Morn" idk what the story entails as I'm waiting a little longer to give it a shot, but the acronym "DOM" could be useful. Looking forward to giving the game a shot in the near future. If it's got even half the quality of MIST, i'm excited
Theo
Yes, it is understandable and kinda impossible to moderate. And I agree, it doesn't matter too much, two years from now no one will remember the old name and it's just too great of a risk. Especially considering that it's really the only risk for this game and it would be a shame to see it banned for that dumb reason.
MuteButtonHero
You're exactly right about the pedo problem. I've tried to point out to other authors when they've had child-like depictions of their characters that they were risking getting banned from Steam and possibly even Patreon. Really, if someone decides to report your game for these issues their default position is the ban hammer. YOU have to prove you're not depicting or even hinting at pedo and neither platform makes it easy to even communicate with them, let alone make your case. Nor will they have any interest in some involved logic as to why that child-looking character isn't actually a child. I think Steam also sees incest the same way so you have to be careful there too. Is worrying about the word "Children" in the title paranoid? Not when it actually has a chance to get you banned. Someone can say, well fuck em, but that's where the money is and no money=no game. I have the tiniest sliver of sympathy for them because they too are trying to avoid getting hammered and don't have the resources to vet every character in every game. Patreon already got threatened with having their access to funds from credit cards (the vast majority of their payday) pulled if they didn't clean things up. But yeah, it could easily be rechristened "Spirits of Morn" or "Disciples of Morn" or "Sorcerers of Morn" or whatever and it will still be a same game.
