Hey everyone,

First off, I'd like to apologise for the slight delay with this latest Devlog's release (as well as the general lack of updates this past week). I've had a fairly busy weekend and also had some things I wanted to wrap up in a nice bundle for what we're going to talk about now. Strap yourselves in, everyone, for this is going to be quite the Devlog update.

The End is Coming

That's right, you read that correctly. After months of speculation and half-hearted assumptions, NIRAVASI finally has a release date. Mark it down on your calendars, as the full-game experience will be released on July 9th, 2022. Now some of you may be wondering why I chose this date instead of the original February/April release dates I had proposed before. And the answer to that is that I wanted to give myself the time to get the game as polished as it could be before releasing it to the general public. Right now, the game is almost complete, with the seventh level of the game likely finishing production by the end of April. But from then on, there'll be a large period of time that'll allow me to run the game through a bunch of quality checks, as well as stamp out any bugs I may have missed. Furthermore, the extended duration also allows me to push the game's marketing into overdrive and getting it out there for everyone to see. I made a push like this when I launched the game's Kickstarter campaign, but I feel like I can take what I learned from that and put it into practice here.

Speaking of experiencing the game, you're probably wondering how on earth you'll be able to get your hands on it when it comes out? Well, I'll be releasing the game commercially on Steam, itch.io, and GameJolt. The itch.io and GameJolt pages are already up and will continue to be updated whenever necessary, but I'll be waiting to get a full build of the game roughly complete (as well as a proper Demo/Trailer) before making a push for a Steam Page for the game. I currently have no plans to make a physical release for the game, but we'll see what happens as time goes along.

Change of Heart

Some of the more observant users/fans of the project may have noticed that the game is no longer being marketed as an Adventure/Horror game (instead being represented as a Dark Adventure). This was something I'd been deliberating about for a while during the game's development. A fairly common sentiment most players had about the project was that NIRAVASI to them felt more like an Adventure game with horror elements, rather than a full-on Horror game. I initially chose to market the game as such as I had planned to aim towards a more psychological/theoretical sense of Horror, rather than an outright visual horror story. Other games made with the RPG Maker engine like Yume Nikki and OMORI had taken this approach, so I felt the project was fairly safe to fall under the same umbrella. But as work on the project continued, it's clear that people couldn't shake off the idea that NIRAVASI was an Adventure game. And if they felt this way before the game was released, that also meant there was a risk that I would be misrepresenting the game to any potential newcomers when the full release comes out in July.

Because of this, I've chosen to remarket the game as a "Dark Adventure", instead. This won't change anything within the game and is more of a formality for newer players, looking to see what this game is all about. There will still be the jumps and scares found in previous builds on the game, but the game overall won't be as heavily marketed to be one.

Direct Control

Finally, I just wanted to say that after some tinkering around with RPG Maker's controls, I've managed to make it so that NIRAVASI supports Gamepad controllers (Xbox One and PlayStation 4). If you're sick of playing the game through Mouse 'n' Keyboard, the game now gives you that option to plug in your controller and experience the world it sets out to create that way. I'll also be updating the Instruction Manual featured in the game to change if it detects you've attached a controller to your PC (I won't be able to determine what controller specifically, so I'm afraid I'll just have to list it down to a set of generic inputs). Furthermore, you won't be able to rebind your inputs to whatever you desire, but who knows what the future may hold?

I'll also be tinkering around to see if it's a possibility to get the game working with Nintendo Switch controls, but that's definitely a big reach at the moment. For now, I'm just happy knowing that players can experience the game with a Gamepad (saves everyone a lot of hassle, really).

That's about it for this Devlog for NIRAVASI. I'm extremely excited to get the chance to show the game off to everyone on July 6th. My goal right now is to get the seventh level complete as fast as I can, as well as sort some other things out outside of the game's development. With that said, thank you all so very much for reading this Devlog and I look forward to the next one.

Kind regards,
Angus (Sangos)