Huge development update

2023.

Whether you've been actively following 'Round The Mind's development progress or not, this devlog will most likely confuse you.
If you were hoping the delay from this year was the last, I'm sorry. But there's a reason:

Back at the beginning of this year, 2022, i made a promise. To everyone who watched that video, I know it seems really dissapointing as 'Round The Mind IS being pushed back from anywhere between Q3 2023 and 2026, but...

MiKe Adventures is now released.

Most don't know, but my game has been called many things, one of those names (and the original name) was MiKe Adventures. For 11 years I've been trying to find my real vision for the game and bring the most fun game possible. Since I've miraculously failed at that, I'm just gonna publish the very first version of the game raw. That's right.

MiKe Adventures' source code is now available here via Google Drive. It's also got a repo on GitHub for those interested. For anyone with Game Maker: Studio version 1.4 (preferably specifically v1.4.1760 for compatibility reasopns), you can tinker around and see how broken and spaghetti the game's code is lol

In other news, like mentioned above, the new target release window for 'Round The Mind is between Q3 2023 and 2026. Sorry for the huge range, but considering how long it already took me to decide on what the game's main gameplay loop is going to be I had to set a range that large. Granted, the worst case scenario will only really happen if i finish one level per year, which doesn't seem likely, so expect 2023-2024 to be the more likely release date time. I'll update on release date time again in Q3 2023 if development is super slow for the 4th time in a row.

As for what to expect: Expect the expected... and the unexpected. The plot for 'Round The Mind has a lot of twists and turns that will hopefully feel deserved, not forced, forced and undeserved. I'm willing to break conventions as to how games and other media present their narrative: I'm really excited to fully use the videogame medium to it's fullest potential to tell 'Round The Mind's story. But a game has more than just a story, there's also presentation, audio design and, at the center of it all, gameplay! The switching back and forth of Platforming and Exploration is staying; i think I'm able to pull off something crazy and amazing with it.

I also ask you to expect the game to be kinda broken when it launches as I will be focusing dev time solely on design and only do polish when needed. It's intentional and hopefully adds to the experience: Bugs and glitches will be quite common when the game launches, but I'll try to keep the annoying ones away to make the experience playable. To me these unintended features can create a really funny and personal connection to the player (even if it was not intended). Although, again, expect the game to be playable, just sometimes feeling like the oven undercooked in really odd spots.