The Future of Dango Thief (To Wolf or Not To Wolf)

Hey everyone! I made sure to put some of this on the game's page. But for those who are interested in more details, here they are!

The Hiatus
Now I know I tend to go on sudden unannounced hiatuses. Many times something has come up in life. I've had two pet chickens pass away on me in the past year. My latest was my sweet Golden Girl, Zelda, who left back on April 19th. Just shortly after my birthday. It was sudden and it stung. Then at the beginning of May my girl, Cleo, has been ill and I've been nursing her as well as I can but her issue is incurable. So it's only a matter of time. As you can imagine, I've been stressed and pulled very thin. Of course, this doesn't explain the absence I've had prior to April. And for that, I'd like to talk about my vision for Dango Thief.

The Vision
When I first started working on Dango Thief, I had basically been wanting to make a video game for a long time. I had several game ideas all worked out in excruciating detail in various word documents. My biggest issue was the game engine. I considered making my own but with my limited coding knowledge, it felt too unrealistic. This was probably back in 2014 or so. I've really learned a lot over the past decade, wowsers. Anyway, I came across some of those games like The Strange Men series by Uri and other Wolf RPG Editor games. That's when I learned a little later that the engine was free to use. Not only that, but an English translation of it was nearly complete. I jumped right onto that and it's been a wonderful ride!

I chose Dango Thief as my go-to game. It was the only game I had come up with at the time that I didn't intend on being 3D. (Not that anyone asked, but the 3D games I had started work on in Blender's built-in engine before finally trying out Unreal for a bit.) Since the original story concept of Dango Thief was my pathetic attempt at writing an American manga for a contest (I forget the name, but it was yearly - I didn't finish my entry in time and then just said screw it), it was the perfect choice for an RPG-esque 2D sprite game.

However, I knew pretty early on that I really didn't like Dango Thief being done in sprites. My vision for the game was more like those 2D hand-drawn horror games. Think somewhere between Detention by Red Candle Games and Yomawari: Night Alone. Unfortunately, this is a limitation of Wolf RPG Editor that I cannot get around. And I love pushing the engine to do things that aren't exactly intended, but very possible. Just look at my little demo, Running Paint. It was so much fun coding gravity and projectiles in an engine that doesn't exactly support it.

The Limitations
The art isn't the only limitation I've faced. The zoom in I added recently has been a huge hurdle for me. It's easy to do, but even in the engine's manual it warns you that zooming in can create a lot of issues. This is in part because the screen dimensions and map dimensions are separate. There is good and bad to this. The good, zooming in doesn't affect where the UI is because the UI is set based on the screen resolution. The bad: things like my spotlight on Kazuki at night no longer work correctly. To summarize as well as I can, some things rely on the map to determine positioning and other things rely on the screen. There is no way around it. When zoomed in, the map still has the same "size" despite appearing larger. You are only zooming in the view, after all. As such, the spotlight no longer aligns with the character. In order to combat this, I did what I could with the coordinates of the character, but there is still a jerkiness to the movement that I despise. All in all, it's a mess and I did the best I can, but I'm not satisfied. There are other things, too, like dynamic lighting. Though I might be able to code something if I hit my head against my wall and desk for a few more months.

The Conclusion
I'm at a standstill now because I can't decide if I should continue forward despite the limitations or pursue my true vision for the game. If I choose to pursue my vision, I would have to fully recreate the game and I would do so in Unity. But the idea of having to re-code the entire game's code in C# for Unity is daunting. So much work and time for nothing. Or so it feels. But I also believe if I really really liked the remake, it would be worthwhile. The loss of coding would be okay because I already know the layout of what I need and how I need it. I guess it's like writing a book in English and then rewriting it in another language. Nothing is truly loss. Sure, the English version won't be read but it gave the basis for the rewrite. Sorry, I'm babbling now. But you get the idea. I'm trying to psych myself up.

So anyway, my current plan is to make a trial of Dango Thief in Unity. I don't need the entire game's code upfront and I don't need perfected art. I'll likely do the nightmare portion, that way I can test out dynamic lighting and other spooky elements. Plus very little of the base game's code is used during nightmares since they are pretty self-contained. I hope to be back around soon with this trial. I'll likely share it with everyone when it's complete. Until then, take care and thanks for reading!

P.S. I know I won't get any replies, but I would love to know which choice you all would go with. Continue as-is or remake in Unity.