Mysteries of Raziel: With New Screenshots!

Posted on October 13th, 2015

I know it’s been a while since I’ve written about this game. I apologize for the lack of updates; hopefully, this will help make things better.

First and most important, progress IS being made. It’s slow to the point of glacial sometimes (sometimes for lack of energy; sometimes for lack of time; sometimes for lack of having Clue One how to proceed and wishing upon wishing I had thoroughly planned this out beforehand, but this game was supposed to be soooo simple… funny how that works), but it is still progress. Optimistically, I’d like to get this done by mid-November. Realistically, I’d say “By the end of the year” at the point. But I really like how the game is shaping up, even if it’s grown into something of a hydra compared to the short, easy affair I thought it would be at first. (And it’s actually less complicated than some of the crazy stuff I’ve left on the cutting room floor. I want to get this cool-game-I-never-really-planned-on-making knocked out before the turn of the decade.)

And second… here’s some fun process type stuff on how it’s getting made.

Just to emphasize: I want this thing finished. I want it finished; I want to move on. I also want it to be good enough to meet its basic potential. So, I had to figure out how to just get it done without sacrificing stuff that was genuinely essential. The biggest essential in Raziel is what the realm of Otherworld means to the people who go there. Not the fancy gameplay whatsits I’d thought up early on: the people, plain and simple. So, the most important thing was to give these people stories.

Those stories will be kept pretty straightforward since it’s not going to be a long game. But I hope the way I tell them will get the point across. Also, Otherworld itself is a living, breathing entity — a character in its own right. I’m trying to make its identity (as well as its creepy subconscious of Etherworld) as certain as anyone else’s through its visual design and the soundtracks that I’ve chosen. I want it to be understandable why some people want to stay there forever and why they would fight for that… which is probably asking a lot from a game made by in RPG Maker by a no-name weekend designer on a budget of about $60.00. :p

Nonetheless, as much as I want to wrap up this project for good, I really like what I’ve come up with so far and I’m still enjoying the process of bringing it to life. I plan to have a short trailer(!) posted by the 28th.