Proof of life, yes I still exist and am, in fact, real!
New Update: Build 3 - Playing Favourites
Build 3 of True Love Covers All Bases! is a VAST overhaul of the core baseball gameplay from the previous demo.
With a larger focus on the chaotic nature of baseball, the story spotlight also turns to your rivals. This update carries on the story from the first demo, including in-world rationale for the change in gameplay across the two versions.
Approximately 40-60 minutes of new story scenes and choices to be made, with a fresh take on our perspective character, who is now deeply involved in the personal stories of all of the players!
The BIG Changes
Two important factors influenced what the game has now become:
- Baseball is an established, complicated sport.
- Visual Novel players are possibly looking for a more casual gameplay experience that doesn't strongly distract from the story.
While the baseball elements that existed in the game will be necessary to present Quest objectives for the future versions of the game, we have developed from the ground up a 3-card action system for every inning of baseball, which has allowed us to retain the spirit of the sport whilst also condensing the action and player choices down to meaningful card play, and additionally a smart selection of player positions that then influences what happens when a ball goes to a play for Runs around the baseball diamond.
'Build 3: Playing Favourites' is the next step towards exploring the full dynamic of Questing - Social - Sport that the full game will provide to a player.
Player Identity
Another factor that was revisited when reviewing where the game-feel ended up after the Build 2 prototype was finished was the 'voice' of the player. In some respects our player character is an observer within the world of the game, but we wanted the player to feel like they were making meaningful investment in the cast of characters beyond the baseball matches.
To that end, a new voice for the player, largely written from the first-person perspective allows for more player expression and character building. There are more choices to the dialogue to insert your own ideas into where your character has come from, their interests, and even the alias they use in place of a first name within the game world.
These characteristics are something we're very happy with and want to continue moving forward as the game story grows and the world-building fleshes out even more detail in who we are, and what our presence means to the cast of characters.
We will have another update soon about the direction of the game moving further into 2024.
For now, please enjoy the new baseball action system and the continued story of the characters you met in Build 2 of the game, which will still be available to show how the game is growing rapidly and improving with every update.
Thanks for supporting our project!
What else?
Looking for more honest feedback on the new card-based action system in the baseball minigame for this one, especially from people that played the first iteration that was vastly different.
The save system that's been implemented and still in the early stages of fleshing out the features, but should mean that as the game develops more content it'll easier to have a persistent story experience and I'm mindful of allowing the save structure to be compatible through future versions of the game.
Additionally, I have included the ability to play the baseball mini-game standalone from the main menu. Play ball, if you wish!
It is my intention to update this particular version through a few content refreshes before any major new features are added into the mix.
Take a look over at https://yesitsesther.itch.io/true-love-covers-all-bases for the downloadable build of the game.
