It’s almost done.

The game is playable and the story is complete, from beginning to end. There’s only a few things I have left to do in terms of game content, like the world map and that giant dragon that will definitely take a while to complete (you’ll know when you see her; that will not be the final sprite). Another thing on my to-do list is the credits, right now it just says “Made by Immanent Death.” I’m even thinking about adding a few more secrets to make things more interesting, just for fun.

But the biggest problem I’ve been facing, because of how much bigger this game is than any other game I’ve made, is how many bugs there are. They’re anything from barely noticeable details that don’t affect anything, to game-breaking glitches that have flown under my radar. Figuring out how to fix one could take anywhere from a few seconds to several days or even weeks. And keeping track of them has been extremely difficult; my bug list is enormous, and a mess, and it’s probably outdated, too. Because what baffles me the most is when I don’t touch the game for a while, and then come back to find bugs that never existed before. How did that happen?! I don’t know if something changed in the browser or HTML5 or Stencyl when I wasn’t looking. And I’ve also had bugs completely disappear with no explanation. I have no idea how many bugs in my list still exist anymore.

This is why I keep making games where bugs are personified antagonists.

No matter how much progress I’ve made, finishing this game hasn’t gotten any less daunting. I still don’t know if I ever will. But here’s the thing; I’m tired. I’ve been making, giving up on, and returning to this game for over three years. I feel like the finish line is moving away from me the closer I get to it. I just want everyone to finally play my game and enjoy it and/or have mixed feelings about it.

So I’m starting an open beta. The game is available to play right now, right here, in all its epic, janky glory. It’s about an hour long and there are save points, so you don’t have to play through it in one sitting.

This begins the second time I’ve publicly developed a game, the first being for my very first game. On itch.io I can just set the release status to “In development,” but on Newgrounds I’m trying something different. I’ve made the preview page public, and when I feel it’s ready for an actual, official release, then I’ll publish it to the portal.

I cannot guarantee that it won’t crash or soft lock or do other catastrophic things. I have a list in the game’s description of the major bugs I’m aware of, as well as a complete bug list and changelog on my website, so you’ll know what you’re getting yourself into. But I also have a couple tools to help find and bypass bugs.

First, I have a Google Form for bug reports and feedback. I would really appreciate it if you could fill one out whenever you find a bug, or if you just have some feedback to share. It’ll help me organize and prioritize what I need to work on, since my bug list’s reliability is inversely proportional to its age. But also, if you just have a small comment or detail you want to point out, you can just send me a message or leave a comment.

Second, there’s an option in the settings menu to jump to save points, both as a testing tool and just a QoL feature. Whenever you see the save icon, that save point is unlocked and you can jump to it any time; just keep in mind if you go back to a previous save point, your score will be set to 0. But if the game is breaking too badly for you to progress, there’s a cheat code to unlock all save points; just type “quintessence” on the title screen.

I’ll definitely have more to say later as development continues, but you should probably still expect me to be slow about it. I should also mention that my 3+ year old laptop has really bad memory issues and could die any day now. I’ve already had the most disastrous System 32 error of all time, and it’s a miracle it’s still working. It’s especially tough running Photoshop on it, which sucks up all the memory it can get ahold of and ignores the limit I’ve set for it. So it’s quite possible there will be more unplanned delays.

But at the end of the day, what really matters to me is that my story is finally out there, even if the game itself is pretty scuffed. I encourage you to try your hardest to break everything you can and then complain to me about it with descriptive details. And thank you for being patient with me while I try to finish this game.