Hi all! 

Welcome to the devlog for 'Runic Link', the otome RPG game I'm working on!

The game is being developed by myself, Mandi! I'm doing all the art, coding, engine work, script etc. etc. by myself. This is a story I've been working on for years (as you'll see if you read this blog ;) ) and can't wait to share it!

I thought I would start out by talking a bit about what the game -used- to be. This is a project I've come back to many times after dropping a previous idea, over the past 8...9...almost 10  years. I've finally settled on what I want to do with it, and a lot of figuring that out came from what had previously failed. 

First up, I started the project in 2015, with the idea of making it a platformer game, with visual novel story telling elements. 

I was able to pull off the art to an okay enough level, but oh BOY did I not know how to design a fun platformer level. I implemented a mechanic where you could quickly swap between one of three magical girls with different abilities. Each girl could kill certain enemies or complete certain puzzles. It just wasn't fun. Platformer design is an art that is beyond me. Those of you that are able to create engaging levels in games like these; I am in awe of you. 

Following that, I wanted to present the story in a visual novel style, as I thought I could play to my strengths a bit more (which was the art side of game dev as I did not know much about programming at this time). I came back to the project in 2017 after dropping it for over a year. 

The story at this point had a character named Matus as a male lead, as I wanted to go with a more traditional visual novel: man meets a group of girls, picks one to date while saving the world or whatever is happening. Matus has definitely had his role repurposed in the otome game I am working on now... 

The art style I had while working on this iteration didn't really look that great however and the game went back to the shelf to gather dust once more. 

It wasn't until 2021 that I picked up work on the project again, keeping with the idea of the visual novel with a male lead. I won't get into story details in this post but the story in this iteration has been almost completely scrapped for this project. However, I might return to the idea for a future game so I don't want to spoil anything.  Here's an image showing a few of the old characters.

I actually made quite a bit of progress with this version before dropping it again.

In 2023, I started working on the game again, this time as a more traditional RPG with an otome game style (female lead with male romantic interests), and began using RPG Maker as an engine. It was pretty fun to use, but I quickly found I could not implement all the ideas I wanted in this engine, at least with relative ease. Given I hate Java with a burning passion, I didn't want to go down that road. However, I did figure out a few things that will be present in the final version of the game. Yes, I said final. I mean it. Posting this here publicly to manifest this reality. 

Here's a screenshot of a map I was working on. You'll see quite a few of these assets repurposed in the future. :D

All this being said and done, I did learn a lot from these dropped projects that will really help going forward! Oh, and I got diagnosed with ADHD and have treatment for it, so now I can focus HAH. ;)

I'll end this 'short' little blog here. Next blog will start on the new game version I'm working on! 

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful day!

-Mandi