News & Dev | December 23, 2023 (9:19 PM EST)
Been A While - Clown Clear
Hey all, quick blog post to give a quick progress update. Probably nothing insanely new to anyone who's been in the Discord server for a while, and a little ramble-y, but I haven't written one of these in a while and I thought I might as well.
Recent Progress
To begin, I'm still actively working on Clown Clear. Been ironing out the core systems for the inventory, interaction, and pickup systems. Actually making some good progress so hopefully I can move onto the more fun mechanics like actual weapon mechanics, kind of sucks that I've spent so much time on this but I've been trying to make it as polished as possible so I won't have to redo anything or spend more time on it in the future.
Current Plans
I've had some issues with gaining motivation but I'm trying to snap out of that and hopefully the aforementioned cool stuff I'll be working on will help with that. My current plan is to push out a very simple gameplay video with only the very basic stuff, that way I can publish my Steam page and start doing other marketing-adjacent things.
Trailer Stuff
The trailer will hopefully include some basic clown AI, nothing intense, probably a barebones spawning system and a lack of special infected, but just something to shoot at with hopefully some okay models. A few weapons and items, like the medkit, a pistol, maybe a few primary ranged weapons just to show off the inventory system and simple gunplay mechanics, nothing outstanding but like I said it's mostly just a prerequisite to the planned non-silence. No melee weapons because I plan on having fairly complicated logic for them and I'd prefer to take my time on that first. Some other miscellaneous things are a basic map segment, the bash attack, a molotov, just simple things like that.
Post-Trailer
After that, like I said, I'd like to maybe start doing more community-involved development things, like streaming development sessions on Twitch. Obviously going to be posting more footage on Twitter, Discord, whatever else I decide is worth my time. Might start a Kickstarter, but that'd probably be a little later because I want to have a solid base, once I start taking people's money it becomes an issue of "Well, don't want to look like a scammer." and that's just a little too stressful for me.
Failed Conclusion
Don't want to make this too long and I covered pretty much everything I think I really needed to. Wrote it all sporadically without any bullet points or anything, so let me know on Discord or I guess my email if there's anything I should make another blog post on or clarify. Clown Clear's still on track for a Halloween 2024 release, whether or not that'll change is beyond me but I'm very much trying to aim for somewhere around there. I plan on releasing those character bios finally on January 5th, 2024, mentioned that on Discord but yeah, for once I paid someone to do work for me so I don't have to rely on my horrible schedule to push that out, hopefully that'll be cool to see.
Conclusion Pt. 2
Rambling again so I'll end it here. I appreciate everyone who shows even the slightest interest in the project, I'm very passionate about the project and know I've been slow, but I'm always improving even if it's as slow as the development. BUT, I'm trying my best. Have a good day / night / morning readers, see you in the next one.