Hello there! It's been a while since I've written a real update. Sorry for the radio silence! The scope of the project has increased quite a bit in the past year (more on that later), and I’ve done a lot of under-the-hood updates to increase the quality, so I've mostly been keeping my head down and working as much as I can. That being said, there's a lot I have to write about here, so I'm just going to jump into it!

Improvements

- Color Mode! -

I've been messing with this for almost a year before officially talking about it - but Gas Station Story will also release in colors other than green! I've been trying to get the color palettes right, and make sure all of the art lines up correctly still. Here's an example:

the original color palette

the same background in color mode

But I don't want to show off too much just yet! The character portraits will mostly be centered around a single hue, since I can't easily alter the artwork without messing with the readability of the faces, but a handful of them will have two hues! Here’s one I’m really proud of:

the two-headed man!

- Mini-Games -

A handful of the mini-games have been improved using GBVM (the coding language used by GB Studio), optimizing performance and allowing for gameplay closer to what I originally envisioned. Beyond the stocking mini-game, I've added some new interesting types of stages in the later levels, some of which can be seen near the end of the current Demo. These were part of the scope increase I mentioned earlier (and will get to in a little bit) as they are part of the core gameplay loop and are not optional experiences.

this version more closely resembled Simon Says than anything - with free movement for the player and a set drink pattern for each stage

this one has specific positions the player can move to, and randomly generated drink patterns - much closer to a certain letter-sorting mini-game...

- Save / Reset Overhaul -

I've gone back and reworked how the Save and Reset feature functions, allowing the background art of the Continue / Reset scene to change over time as your save progresses. This will also allow me to potentially add in the ability to rewind your save back to previous levels, or even implement a “New Game +” mode, but those are features I will look into near the end of development (depending on how large the ROM for this game becomes).

- New Point-Of-Sale System Features -

For the POS System, I've rewritten the tutorial to be easier to understand (and not crash the game after you run it), as well as added in an entirely new feature: Auto-Scan!

This function is mapped to the Select button, and will automatically scan the items placed on the counter in case you forgot what the customer grabbed -- or if you're just feeling lazy! Be warned, however, as running the Auto-Scan will affect your Employee Productivity Rating, and could lead to the Boss showing up when you least want him to...

Current Build Statistics

As of right now, I've just moved up to build version Alpha 4.0, the last major version before I move on to Beta. Level 4 is also complete! It had a couple of nasty bugs that took me a while to smooth out, but it appears to be running stably now. The opening scene of Level 5 is finished, the rest of the level has been outlined and the dialogue has been scripted. Here's where we're at on statistics right now:

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Word Count: 24,237 Words

Cast List: 24 Human Models, 1 Cat, and 1 Mannequin

Total Character Portraits: 157 Portraits

Total (non-portrait) Game Boy Camera Photos: 18 Photos

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The Core Gameplay Loop

This has been the main reason for the radio silence, and the primary culprit (other than myself) of the scope creep. My initial concept for this game included only the core gameplay of watching what customers are buying ("Customer Phase"), dialogue in-between ("Dialogue Phase"), and then ringing them up ("Checkout Phase"). What I didn’t anticipate was how dissatisfied I would end up being with the lack of evolution over the game's narrative. The Point-of-Sale system adds new challenges into the Checkout Phase over time, but I wanted to put more space between the Customer Phase and the Checkout Phase, and not all characters have enough dialogue to actively extend the Dialogue Phase.

So, to make sure the gameplay loop evolves throughout the game in a satisfying way, the checkout process becomes more complicated in Level 4. In between the Dialogue Phase and the Checkout Phase is a new phase: The Mini-Game Phase.

During the Mini-Game Phase, your POS System displays graphics akin to an Adventure game (and other styles as well, but we’ll save that for another time…). I’m using the GB Studio “glitchy fade” plugin by Y0UR-U5ERNAME to quickly swap scenes as well as stay in line with the updated Q Boy’s glitchy aesthetics. Complete each stage to progress the story, while keeping an eye out for side quests! There are a handful of secrets in these stages, ones that will majorly affect the plot and ending you receive, so you definitely won't want to breeze through them too quickly.

These additions make the later stages really fun to play through, but they have required me to add a whole new set of mechanics and systems to the project, significantly extending the development time for the game. During development of early Alpha, I estimated my release date to be Summer of 2023. That, obviously, did not happen. I don’t have an official release window yet… But on that note, let’s move to the next section of this update!

Roadmap

This is all still in the air right now, but I think I’ll be able to have the final build released in Summer of 2024 (barring any unanticipated development challenges). I've just finished up Level 4's major bugfixes, and am now starting on building each customer encounter in Level 5.

Here’s a simplified graphic of the timeline I'm looking at right now:

I’ll be working less hours at my job come Winter so that I'll have more time for development. I believe that by January, I should be knee-deep in Level 5. I’m hopeful that the systems built for Level 4 (that carry into Level 5) will have all the kinks ironed out, so there won’t be as long of a bug-squashing period after 5 is finished. 

By Spring, I want to have Level 5 finished and polished and be working out the endings. I’ve been tracking all of the different paths players can take through the narrative, and the minimum amount of endings needed to satisfyingly wrap up each path comes out to 23 (!!). I’d honestly love to have a few more secret endings hidden in there, but that’s going to be limited by ROM size (more on that down below) and development time.

So, by Summer, I should be finishing up the last of the polishing and quality testing! Again, this will only be the case if nothing unexpected pops up in development (and as long as nothing unexpected pops up in life either).

Final Notes

- Demo V 3 -

I've updated the Demo build to actually play more like a demo, instead of just being the first several levels of the game. There is still a way to access those full levels, though, if you can figure out how to activate Developer Mode ;) I don't know how long that will be the case, though, but good luck to those of you that search for it! I'll be updating the demo to add color in with the release of Demo V 4, once music and SFX are added in as well. 

- Portland Retro Gaming Expo - 

Gas Station Story in the wild! I got to showcase the new demo build at the Portland Retro Gaming Expo - It was really wonderful to watch you all smiling and laughing as you played through it. The fact that this happened is still so crazy to me. Thanks for stopping by, and big thanks to the Portland Indie Games Squad for inviting me to showcase with them :) 

- ROM Size -

I just recently crossed the 2MB mark on my compiled project file, and music/SFX has not been added yet (which takes up more space than I would like)... and the max size for a Game Boy game cartridge is 4MB. With about 15 minutes of planned audio, a few Game Boy Camera photos left to take, and an entire level left to code + make assets for, I'm really hoping I won't have to cut any content out. I've been trying to scope the last few levels appropriately so I'm not creating too many new graphics, but I'll re-assess these plans once music and sound effects are fully added in.

That's pretty much everything! I don't know when the next actual development update like this will be, but I have some content coming over the next few months to tide ya'll over until I can set an official release date. I'll also be updating the demo with official music and sound effects soon, so keep an ear out for that. Until then!

- issumatek