It's been one year already!

How time flies. I'd like to take this opportunity to not only provide a general update on the progress of the game's development, but also to take a look back and compare Mycorrhiza's initial state to its current state.

So, how's progress?

You're probably quite curious about how the game is coming along and when it might release. I'm not comfortable with giving an exact date yet but I'm still confident that we will be able to release the game in summer. 

All art assets are done and implemented! This includes BlackWing's awesome sprites and CGs, as well as Alfred's awesome CG animation implementation. I've also tried my hand at animating sprite movements to make everything more dynamic, which has been going more or less well (I've since figured out how to move May without yeeting her off screen).

Audio is also close to being done. The new mini-routes within doors 1 and 2 have all received SFX, ambiance and music, the 1st and 2nd door have received some minor audio adjustments, and door 3 audio is well underway!

After all audio is actually done, all that will be left to do is add some post-game stuff (yes, there will be a bit of post-game!), creating marketing assets like a trailer, go through the whole game meticulously and adjust anything that can be perfected and then have playtesters check it out. Also can't forget about the slimmed down version of the game for people with older graphic cards which aren't compatible with the animations and implementing some fun easter eggs. You'd think a game is as good as done once the assets are implemented but there's still lots to do!

A bit more info on the new mini-routes

While I might still want to keep the inner workings of door 3 secret for a little while longer, I'd like to at least give you some hints as to what's up with the new mini-routes within the first two doors.

Once you get to play the full version of the game you'll notice one major change: At specific points in the game you get to make a choice where no choice was given previously.

These choices lead you to meeting Amy and Lanny, the two kids you saw in our last devlog.

Just like everyone else, they too are not immune to the sudden horrifying changes around them. Scott of course does all he can to keep them safe. But can he really help them if he can't even help himself?

Within door 1 Scott meets Lanny who is desperately looking for someone to help his sister. Have they also been attacked by one of the "pets"? Or did something even worse happen?

Within door 2 Scott meets both of them wearing masks. Is something wrong with their faces? Or are they wearing masks for other reasons?

Both mini-routes also feature one new CG each! I can't wait to let you experience these new routes for yourselves!

Mycorrhiza changed quite a bit compared to the first demo.

The first Mycorrhiza demo was released exactly one year ago on April 17th. I'm almost getting nostalgic thinking about it. The game initially took off thanks to all the YouTubers and Streamers that were interested in the game and that way helped it reach itch's trending page. This all of course wouldn't have been possible without the Mycorrhiza team doing awesome work that caught people's interest in the first place! Back then we used our doggo as the model for the game's thumbnail. We later changed it to "The Most Hilarious One" to celebrate the release of the second demo. We kept the doggo as our Twitter profile picture, however.

Back then the UI and the way the art was implemented were way simpler. There were no CG animations, no cool quick menu, no manga inspired main menu (instead we used RenPy's default menu) and the text boxes looked different. Below is the most recent change, the text box. But you can check out more of the above mentioned changes in our post from July: 
https://fulminisictus.itch.io/mycorrhiza/devlog/272862/general-update-july-2021

The story also somewhat changed. The general premise and the lore stayed approximately the same throughout. The progression, however, was switched from a continuous one where you had to play doors 1 to 3 in order to one where you could choose which doors to play in which order. To quote myself from our second demo release devlog: "But as our game is more focused on showing mini episodes, akin to Junji Ito's and Masaaki Nakayama's short stories, rather than a continuous progression, we felt that making the game less linear was way more effective. This doesn't mean that there won't be any callbacks to the previously played acts, though! Either way you're free to choose in which order to play through the doors."

Another big change were the characters. They were initially rather bland and didn't even have names. This was originally inspired by the fact that many horror manga short stories don't necessarily provide you with everyone's names since the names are oftentimes not directly relevant. I received some feedback and advice by a fellow VN dev, though, and decided that giving the characters more personality would benefit the game. This lead to us reusing the same major characters throughout all doors to give us more opportunities to hint at their individual personalities, obsessions and worries.
On top of that, their sprites also changed! Originally I had used creative commons assets by Tokudaya but we received a lot of feedback stating that the sprites didn't fit the rest of the assets. Because of that we decided to get some character sprites done by BlackWing! You can see a comparison between the old and new sprites below.

Alright, these are some of the major changes that Mycorrhiza underwent since the first demo release. I can't wait to share the full game with you. One year might sound like a short time for a game but considering it has technically been a work in progress since 2018, I think it's more than ready to be released this year!

Thanks for all your support so far and make sure to follow us on Twitter (@MycorrhizaVN) to be kept up to date on the latest news and to be the first to find out when Mycorrhiza is fully released!