Hey everyone,

It's me again, back for another NIRAVASI Devlog update. Last week, I spoke about how things were ending in regards to Ishani Bazaar's development and I'm here to say that this still rings true a week later. But that doesn't mean to say I'll be jumping immediately work on the game's fourth level. After all, how is a game in development supposed to flourish if there's no playtesting to be had? In this Devlog, I'll be taking some time away from the development of the main game and spending a bit of time working on some additional side stuff. Just what exactly, who knows. But I can assure you that little moments of development like this go a long way for the quality of the game. With that said, let's get straight into it.

Improvised Improvements

As you know, NIRAVASI is a very ambitious project and has already had hundreds of hours put into its development. My end-goal with this project is to create an experience that pushes the boundaries of what an RPG Maker Game is capable of. RPG Maker MV (and the MV3D plugin in particular) is a very solid engine and I wanted to create a game that not only shows off some of its skills, but also inspire others into giving it a go for themselves. However, as this project is taking me a very long time to develop, my current plan at the end is to monetise the project and upload it onto Digital Marketplaces such as GameJolt, Itch.io and Steam.

To ensure NIRAVASI is a project that's worth investing in, the game needs to be almost flawless in its flow and direction and that's especially why I'm always looking for feedback that's critical of both the horror-aspect and enjoyment factor. Are the systems I made easy to understand or need improving? Is the game scary at times, or does it feel like a walking sim? Questions like these are very important and I feel that in order to truly make this game something amazing, it'll only be through the combined efforts of both myself, the developer and you, the player.

Over the past 3 months, the game's received significant overhauls to its visuals and designs. Mura and the rest of the cast have received new facial/overworld sprites, Ishani Bazaar is an incredibly ambitious level in its design, the game now has a dedicated HP/Flashlight Charge Bar and most importantly, we now have a monster that won't stop chasing you until you hide inside a tiny locker. And who's to say that the game in its current state will remain the same? Let's talk a little bit about that down below:

Another Demo

It's been a while since I last launched a Demo Build for NIRAVASI (February 2021) and I believe it's time to rectify this. While I can't give you any accurate dates at the moment, I plan to make another Demo build release for NIRAVASI, as well as update all of the social media pages for the game. Who knows; I may even launch a Steam Page for it to generate more hype for the project. But in order to do that, I want to first make sure that this current build of NIRAVASI is bug-free (no more crash bugs or sequence breaks), so I'll be sending copies of the game for private tests. You'll be able to go from the first level of the game, all the way to the end of Ishani Bazaar, before the demo ends peacefully there. While I did debate on whether it'd be easier to simply have a demo that only shows of the 3rd level, a significant amount of changes were made to the first two levels that I thought it would be better to make it into a total package kind of deal. But this time, I won't be so pushy to Let's Players or content creators in finishing the project. All I'll ask is that they give it a try and give me their honest thoughts. It worked wonders for the previous builds and I'm sure it'll work well here too.

Supporting Things

This is going to seem like a really odd statement, but recently I've had a number of people come to me privately about wanting to invest/support NIRAVASI's development after the Kickstarter's conclusion. Some explained that they wanted to donate to the project, but because Kickstarter doesn't allow users to pledge via PayPal donations, they couldn't. Now I was initially hesitant about bringing this topic up mainly for two reasons. The first being that the game's Kickstarter Campaign had concluded and that the project did not reach its goal, so I assumed the project was not yet ready to be at a state where I could take donations for it. The second reason is that currently NIRAVASI is a product of SOVERAM LTD, my sole-propriety ship company. I have received funding to further development of the game and my worry is whether or not I'd be allowed to take donations for the project if it belongs under a business.

But since more and more people have been asking and wanting to pledge to the project after the campaign's end, it's come to a point where I've seriously begun thinking about opening an official channel for donating to the project. I don't have any solid ideas just yet, but know that I will potentially be setting up donation pages to help with NIRAVASI. Again, I want everyone invested in this project to have complete agency in how they choose to spend their money, so I will be carefully researching and planning on how best to make this sort of thing work.

That's it for this Week's Devlog for NIRAVASI. Sorry if it's not a big or meaningful update. I only recently came back from a trip with my partner and still getting everything sorted in my end. Right now, the game's going back to a stage of Pre-Production in regards to Lotulanda's development and you'll be seeing a lot more work going into cleaning up the game right now. Also, before I go, I just want to announce that there will be no Video Devlog until the end of June. This is because I've got an extremely busy month ahead of me and don't want to be overworking myself too hard. Anyway, I hope you all have a lovely evening and I'll talk to you all again next week.

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)