Hey everyone,

I'm back with another Weekly Devlog and this week's a special one, as it involves a certain demo being released. As you might've expected, I'm going to talk about the Ishani Bazaar demo that was just released, what's going on in my life currently, as well as the plans going forward with the game's development. Without further ado, let's get straight into it:

But before I do that, please consider donating towards NIRAVASI's development if you've enjoyed this project so far. All funding goes directly towards the SOVERAM LTD business account and anyone that donates over £5 will receive full-access to the current full-build of the game (and any future builds I release)!

https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=LG3KWDCJXA3LA

Whispers of the Fallen

So if you haven't already figured it out, I released two new demo builds for NIRAVASI. The first is a free-to-play demo accessible for all players that you can play right now. If you need a link to a Download File, I've got you covered here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/lun618i7le4venf/Niravasi%20%5BIshani%20Bazaar%20Demo%5D.zip?dl=0

The second demo is a copy of the full-edition of the current build of the game, but will require you to donate a one-time £5 or more fee to access it. If you pledged over £5 to the project's Kickstarter back in the day, however, you'll get these copies regardless (consider this my thanks for believing in the project).

So Ishani Bazaar is the latest level in NIRAVASI's development and the one that's taken the most amount of effort to complete. Now I know that I'm not the best artist, so many of the assets seen in-game can often be a little rough at times. But I really wanted to bring the feeling of an abandoned city to life, so I made sure to go the extra mile to accomplish that goal. And it's not just the sprite art that's taken me a while to create either. I've also went through the trouble of creating a number of logos and posters for the organisations and advertisement banners you'll find while exploring the streets of Ishani Bazaar.

While I'm extremely happy with how Ishani Bazaar looks and feels in-game, I'm not opposed to making any significant changes if needs be. If you think something's a little too confusing or unfair with the design/feel of the level, please let me know in either the comments down below or on any of my social media channels. I've already had a few notifications regarding the build since then, so let's talk about the biggest offender I've had to contend with recently.

Bug Smashers

If you weren't aware, there was a significant crash bug that I failed to spot when releasing the Ishani Bazaar demo last Friday. If you reached a certain point in the demo (won't spoil it for those that want to be kept in the dark), you'll eventually find this error plaguing your screen.

Failed to load: img/characters/$MakeupDrawerSpriteSheet.png

For some context, this is a sprite for the object you see in the picture above. Now the reason this error slipped my grasp is because in preparation for releasing the Ishani Bazaar demo, I wanted to optimise the file size of the build and remove any assets that weren't being used for the Ishani Bazaar demo. While I successfully nailed down most of them, this sneaky so-and-so slipped my grasp. Even worse, this one's used for an important cutscene that plays, which cannot be skipped, thus essentially leaving player stuck with a nasty crash bug.

I've since rectified the issue with the latest build, but I fear that the damage of my hastiness has already been done. I can only say that you all have my deepest apologies for this mistake and I'll do my best in future NOT to screw up vital image files. Players with access to the Full-build of the game need not worry, as the issue was caused by removing files from the Ishani Bazaar build, not the current development build.

What Now?

So now that all of you have gotten access to the two NIRAVASI builds, I'll be keeping a close eye on the discussion boards and nailing down any pesky bugs that may pop up (there's one involving a red door in an Alleyway that'll softlock you, so don't do that), as well as taking any feedback/suggestions you may have for the game. However, I should warn you that progress on the game's development may be a tad delayed for the rest of this week and the next, as I'll be moving into a new property starting tomorrow.

However, I'm also happy to announce that pre-production work on Lotulanda is going extremely well. I've decided (thanks to some back-and-forth idea planning with my friends) that Lotulanda will not only be a large library complex, but also include exhibits just like a Museum would (think giant statues and bones). Furthermore, I've finally figured out how I want to separate the different wings of the facility, but I'll save talking about that for another day.

That wraps it up for this Weekly Devlog for NIRAVASI. I've been keeping an eye on how things are going with the new demo releases and it seems like people have REALLY taken a liking to them (both the GameJolt and Itch io pages exploded in views and download numbers). I'm so happy to see Ishani Bazaar's peaked so much interest and I can only hope the rest of the game will be able to do that as time goes along. I have high-hopes for Lotulanda and want to ensure every level in the game feels unique and fresh in its own way. With that said, thank you all very much for reading and I'll speak to you all again soon!

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)