v0.4.1 - Project Update and Carefully Guided Return

Project Update

• Going forward, Misreflection is going to take a minor pivot in terms of scope and scale.
  • Rather than having 3 separate volumes of 3-5 levels + 1 Confrontation each, there will instead be just 5 levels and 2 Confrontations in total.
  • This decision is being made for the sake of the health of both myself and the game. While an intuitive idea and great fun, I do not believe I currently have the skill set to make Misreflection a wide-scale commercial success. Additionally, I have come to the realization that it may not be a great idea for me to spend several years on my first-ever large game release.
  • However, by no means will this change the passion I am pouring into this project or the bar of quality that I’ve established for myself for the game’s final version. Rest assured that I will try my best to make Misreflection the best possible version of itself that it possibly can be; I’m not going to let such an interesting game concept go to waste!
• Upon release, I now plan for Misreflection to be completely free. No longer am I planning to sell it.
  • Upon release, it will continue to be freely downloadable on SideQuest and Itch.io, with hopes to also release it on Steam and the Meta Quest store as well. We shall see how that goes, though!
• For the foreseeable future, Misreflection will now receive constant updates leading up to the game’s final version.
  • No longer burdened by the responsibility of withholding surprises for a big launch, I will release more consistent in-progress game updates (as opposed to what was mentioned in v0.4.0’s notes). Expect to see one major game update every other month from now on (hopefully)!
• Currently, the plan is to release the final version of Misreflection in Spring 2024.
  • First-pass content will be completed at the beginning of September at the current rate, with loads and loads of polish to follow!
• This game listing will no longer be branded as a demo. All versions will represent the currently most-complete version of the full content that is planned for the final version of the game.

Additions

• Re-introduced the Carefully Guided level!
  • I still have a lot of grievances with the design of this level, but I’m confident that I’ll be able to successfully tackle them at a later date.
  • To note, the level is practically unchanged from v0.3.0.

Changes

• Changed the main menu and level select UI to be more streamlined.
  • The main menu UI will definitely be revisited at a later time!
• Changed all color instances of Collectibles and Crystals to blue.
  • This is an idea I am playing with; we will see how it evolves!

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where drag would occasionally not be properly applied to the swimming player in Swim-Switch.

Regarding Save Data

• Save data has yet again been completely wiped, unfortunately. There was another major refactoring to its layout with this update. I apologize for any inconvenience caused by this.
  • The good news, however, is that the new system and design allows for me to more easily implement soft-resets on specific levels in the case of future save data system changes. Hopefully, another large-scale wipe will not need to be done, but I do not want to completely promise that.