Lost Balance - Its future, and what you should expect.

It has been 4 years since Lost Balance was originally released.

And in those 4 years, it has gotten 736 views, 131 downloads, 1 rating (5 stars), 16 collections, 7 comments, and a single donation of $1.00 USD.

It has gone over any expectations I had for it, but as time went by... I saw more and more how bad of a game it is.

I barely did any marketing for it; I had no experience doing any before.

I rarely used the Itch.io devlog system, and I need to use it more often, so expect more in the future.

Now, for those who wondered where version 1.2.0 went: It was an update that "fixed many issues" with the game and "added some features", but when it was uploaded, I found that it just created more bugs than it fixed. So just a single day after it was uploaded, I took it down.

I apologize to the 10 people who did download that abomination.

  *Here, Eliza is crying for you.

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So, what does the future hold for this "unsupported" game?

I am about to upload an update after 4 years of doing absolutely nothing, and market the game properly.

The update that will be uploaded when I get it ready and polished is Version 1.3.1.

The .1 because it combines an old update that fixed very minor issues which never got uploaded to the public because I decided that with my poor internet (of that time), it wasn't worth trying to upload an entire game with very few fixes.

But the 3.0 will be with the 3.1, because enough changes are being made to make it worth uploading. And since my internet is decent enough, you could expect minor updates like the .1 to be uploaded when needed.

So, what does 1.3.1 hold anyway? Let me show you.

Here is a list of what I have finished so far:

1 - Removed unnecessary BGM commands and changed how audio transitioning works in some areas, fixing minor audio bugs.

2 - Rebalanced the economy.

   

Just look at that price drop! No more inflation, but that also means enemies drop less gold overall!

3 - Due to new arising, occasional bugs, the game is now capped to 60fps, but if you are using an actual machine and not a potato it will sometimes go up to 60-65fps.

4 - Fixed unoptimized events and removed ones that were not being used. Increasing overall FPS by 0-2 frames.

  Look at this amazing change. It was barely to no change at all, for my computer anyway.

5 - Fixed typos, "grammical"(aka grammar) issues, reworded sentences, and reformatted some text boxes. 

6 - Overhauled the Rat enemy into something beatable and quick-er.

  RATS ARE THE WORST ENEMY EVER CREATED!

Rats have been rebalanced; their stats have been lowered and moved around, finding the new balance. The more injured a rat is, the higher the chance of it simply escaping. Rats also give slightly more EXP for their worth. Rats also take 20% more damage from fire and have 35% higher chance of burning. They have 5% chance to poison your party, and 8% chance of causing bleeding. When a Rat gets injured for the first time, there is a chance that it or an ally will get "surprised" (using an already-made state), meaning it will not act for 2-4 turns, but with Yanfly's unreliable turns, this isn't a guaranteed 2 turns; it is more like 1-3 turns, according to my previous tests 3 years ago.

You might wonder, why were rats made in the first place? In 1.0.0, they were used to fill gaps to add variety to the area. Otherwise, there would only be bats and skeletons. And I kept them for that exact reason. Only if it gets rebuilt will I ever remove them (but at this point, they probably will get to stay).

7 - Added an anti-audio-delay plugin, improving overall performance and experience by a large amount.

How does that work? The plugin "pre-loads" the audio before it needs to be played, so the delay is gone. But the difference between this method and the previous one is that this will only save a limited amount of audio in cache and then remove it when it goes over that limit. The previous method was pre-loading the ones that had trouble starting on time at boot-up, but then it remains in cache until the game shuts down. Both methods are still in use, but the latter one is used much less, thus improving your overall performance on low-end machines.

8 - Rebalanced when specific skills are given to characters; added a new skill for an early-game-low-level-crowd-control attack.

The new Frenzy skill is given to Ryoma at level 3, shortly before the area where you would actually need it. And Richard starts with it whenever you get him. Cleave has been moved down to level 15 for Ryoma, so you get that slightly sooner.

9 - Guard is now more effective.

The vanilla guard, when used with Yanfly's battle plugin, worked weirdly and was semi-broken, so the original game just made the guard effect last a turn longer than usual. But even then, the effect was still so insignificant that it was barely used. So, this update rebalances the guard effect by making it only last around "2 turns" instead of the original 3-5 turns. But it also increases the user's Defense and Magic defense stats by 10% when used, so the effect is much more visible. Skills like Medi-Guard and Heavy-Guard are now effective in what they do!

The Guard skills might be removed from Saria and switched with a new skill to better fit her class.

10 - Rebalanced all enemies; they have slightly less overall armor but overall hit slightly harder.

Because people had way too much armor in the original, enemies now have lower defensive stats, making "weaker" weaponry more effective. And you will have to use those healings more often instead of hoarding all those potions and only using MP for offensives. But this is only a band-aid on a bullet-wound until I really rework everything evolving around damage and combat.

11 - When stunned, the victim will gain 60% resistance for 2 turns to being stunned again.

It reminds me of a certain game...

 *Stunned an enemy while... Power-Leveling a low-resolve character.

The idea came from my 20+ hours on Darkest Dungeon. The mechanic that the stunned are resistant to being stunned again for a time might seem like "a thing to make the game harder", but it is genius, and I knew I had to put it in my game. Just Darkest Dungeon has it at 50% resist for around 1 turn, and I have it at 60% for around "2 turns". But because I am using Yanfly battle, the "turns" aren't as reliable as vanilla (or Darkest Dungeon).

12 - The sword clanking in the intro and final battle will no longer destroy your ears, with all new randomized variations and timings.

It is way better than what it was before, but I still would want to do some more polishing on it.

13 - Fixed the broken visual and audio transitions, no more ugly abrupt changes.

14 - Ryoma no longer gains Heal skills besides First Aid.

Even back in 1.1.0, I thought that it made no sense for him to have it; I originally gave it to him just so that his "magic" would have "magic". But it is useless for him to even have it, so it was finally removed. In 2.3.1, most of the combat will be overhauled anyway.

15 - Saria now starts with a Tech skill.

16 - Added an effect to the camera so that it will "lag" behind the player, making it look much smoother than the vanilla.

17 - Edited Terence's class.

From Assassin to Spymaster, wow!

18 - Updated used plugins.

19 - Updated the boot-up screen and made it slightly faster.

20 - Slightly changed the menu/text boxes color tint to better fit the overall game style.

21 - Fixed a graphical bug in the first cave. (originally from 1.2.1)

 

Like, how did that even get there? And why did it take so long for anyone to notice?

22 - Fixed a possible previous bug where the game boot-up loaded the wrong image.

23 - Fixed a loading error at the ending scene.

I don't know if 22 & 23 were even active bugs. In 1.0.0 and newer, I think I had them fixed by replacing the file it was wrongfully using with the one it was supposed to use, but it could have caused some issues due to encryption, but it was fine. In 1.3.1, I made sure that such "bugs" will not even occur.

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So, what do I want to do before releasing this update?

- I want to polish it up and do some bug fixing, all that fun stuff. 

- I want to rebalance the weapons and armor of the game and add descriptions to everything.

- Update the game's nw.js and PIXI. I have been doing a lot of testing with this, and I think this is the way to go. It improves overall performance by an insane amount, but I need to test it thoroughly as this was bound to cause bugs; some I might be able to "fix", others I would not. I've tried with 0.49.2, and that caused way too many issues, but 0.44.0 so far has not caused any.

- Rebuild at least the maze in the introduction, because what it is currently now, is complete garbage and even at 1.0.0 I wasn't too fond of it. Why haven't I changed it? It meant work, and I didn't want to work at the time. 1.0.0 was to be released on a strict deadline that I set myself, with the purpose that I would actually release it someday and gain much needed experience by doing so.

- Make everything interactable to a degree and do a bit of changes to the wandering NPCs.

- Improve the stealth system by having it use a reliable system (Q) instead of the semi-broken Yanfly one that I have no power over.

- Finish rebalancing the game's classes.

- Do some minor changes to a few maps.

- Clean messy skill lists and the such.

Everything else will be for 2.3.1.

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What will be in store for 2.3.1?

I can't guarantee anything at this stage, but this is what I want to accomplish:

- Fix any issues found in 1.3.1

- Compress overworld into a smaller map and switch "loop" to both.

- Overhaul the camera to add a ton of effects I want to use. Like an experimental 3D camera used for specific purposes.

- Diagonal movement.

The reason I am adding this after 1.3.1, is because the plugin that I will use to add this will also be used for many other things.

- Complete combat overhaul

- Overhaul the classes, items, enemies, maps, etc.

- Overhaul the game audio, from the files to the systems.

- Add several visual and audio plugins for more immersion and experimental puzzles and effects.

- And much more.

This is not a remake, but 2.3.1 is to give you a taste of what the remake can hold.

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Lastly, I want to talk about porting the game:

So far, Lost Balance is only on Itch.io for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

The Windows version is as stable as it can get. I use a windows computer to develop it and to test it.

I have no way to test Mac and Linux versions, and people have downloaded both, but none have given any feedback.

When I do update the nw.js, the Mac and Linux will potentially become unstable to a degree (because I don't know what I'm doing with those versions). But I will probably have both versions for Mac and Linux, with the old nw.js and the new, until someone can properly test them for me.

I will not put this game on Steam; I will only do so with the remake, and only if the remake makes enough to fund its own Steam port.

RPG Maker allows for HTML, iOS, and Android. Itch.io allows Android games to be published, and I have been looking into browser games.

Lost Balance potentially will have an Android or HTML port, but depending on how difficult the Android will be, I might only work towards getting a "demo" of Lost Balance on browser game sites.

I am also looking into other sites for uploading games.

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Thank you for reading! I wish you a grand day, week, year, etc!

I have not done a devlog of this style or size, so feedback will be very appreciated!

If you wish to play the game before any of these updates, then you may do so by downloading the game.