Patch 1.0.1 and future plans

Hello dungeon divers,

I'm delighted to see baby Fallen of Tau getting a warm reception. Of course, the game as you see it is far from finished (hence "development" demo): even despite all the time I've sunken into this project already, there is still a lot to be done from this point.

Firstly to that end: with the release of this devlog post, I've also released a small Week 1 Patch™: Development Demo 1.0.1 fixes some of the terrible issues found by me and others which I'd rather deploy fixes for before the next major update.

• Defocusing the game window now only pauses the game when normal (esc) pausing is allowed. This fixes several game-freezing bugs, including alt-tabbing during dialogue with the Pawnbroker.
• Fixed a certain item's sell price remaining at the default price until the next Level.
• Fixed dropped items having a different, more exaggerated "wobble" animation depending on refresh rate.
• Fixed a typo in a line of Migo's dialogue. (Game ruiner. Achilles' heel. Top priority.)

Yes, I said major update! The plan from here is to add a little more content to the development demo, and then roll into the plethora of content which exists outside the demo's scope: the "full game." I am planning two content releases for the development demo, which will respectively feature:

1. More rooms and items (both pain points in the current gameplay loop)
2. Shrines and lore collection (two entirely new systems to explore)

Work on these updates has already begun in parallel to v1.0.1! You can also expect standard bug fixes and QoL changes to go with them. After these patches, focus will shift from the development demo to producing content for the full game. Patches will most likely stop at that point, unless any bad enough bugs are found to warrant another x.x.1 patch.

Now to shift gears: to think about what the full game implies. Deadlines are notoriously difficult to predict in game development, but to give an epoch of how much time we're talking: I give it up to 6-7 years before the game will be truly complete. Do not consider this a release countdown; I don't want this game to become another meme of "ohhh it will never be released", there are enough of those already.

So: remember that Fallen of Tau is a passion project, and I am one person handling everything about it, working in my free time without a budget. This is something that someone less passionate or more wise than me should generally not attempt. All I can ask of you is to be patient, and to rest assured that the game will only be considered shelved/cancelled/"dead" if I explicitly say so on record.

If you haven't already, I recommend joining the official Discord server. I send out pings for announcements like these so that you can read them the moment they go live, and I will reveal teasers there which I probably wouldn't in this devlog! https://discord.gg/XfSbgVz3bQ