Back to work!

Hello. This is actually my second time writing an update post. The old one was finished and ready to save, but itch.io servers didn't work in my favor and I had to refresh the page.. anyways! take 2!

I am officially back to work on Utmost Cleaning!  In this devlog, I want to share some things regarding the development of the game and going forward with it. 

The first thing thing I would like to talk about is what is new in the game. I had created a brand new medium sized map, a revamped main menu, a revamped interactable NPC system, a revamped jukebox script, a dithering effect, Xbox and Dualsense controller support and graphics, a new highlight system that is inspired by the 4 bracket highlighters found in the PS2 port of Half Life and the PS2 Sims 2 games, a slightly altered art style and some other smaller changes that aren't really worth mentioning here.

The second thing I would like to talk about is when is a new build going to be released for the game. As you may have noticed, all downloads of the game on itch.io and GameJolt has been taken down. This is because I want to prepare for an upcoming build of the game, which is going to be the first stable and proper build of the game rather than a bare bones 5 second gameplay prototype. I am aiming to release, but not rush the new build this month. Most things are complete for me to release the build! I just need to tweak some thingies and replace some placeholder art assets :)

The third, and last thing I would like to talk about is about once the game releases. I already know what the base game should have and what content must be added later on in an update. This is due to making workload easier and to prevent update delays. Some features that I consider low priority that will be added into future updates are Split-Screen, Localization into different languages, Online Multiplayer, and the map editor. Especially the last two features. Online Multiplayer and an in-game map editor are the most complex things for me to try and create, but because of this, these features would take too long for me to create and will just take up my time when I could be working on something else in the project, so those features will be added after the base game had been finished.

I can't wait to release the upcoming build for the public to experience, but until then, keep an eye out for when the build is released. Thank you for your patience!