ANNOUNCEMENT: Version 2.0

As you currently know, Less Blorbo, More Human is currently being overhauled, both in gameplay and under the hood. This effort was started a year ago and is still currently ongoing.

Why the Change?

For one thing. the original codebase is... messy to say the least. As it was worked on as part of a game jam, spaghetti code is to be expected. That's not fun to work with, so I (RippandT) decided to rework the game from scratch rather than trying to comprehend the codebase for 1.0. With it is an opportunity to not only upgrade the game from Godot 3 to Godot 4, but to revamp the gameplay as well. So we got to work!

Starting with Beta 3, the original 1.0 version is now on a new itch page as well since 2.0 will differ a bit (or more) in gameplay. Link below for the original version.

What's Changed?

• In-game time is no longer a timer! Instead, every action you do takes around 15 minutes in-game. No longer would you have to sit there and wait for Blorbo to finish whatever action they're doing, especially doing their homework.
• Speaking of actions, you can now interrupt Blorbo while they're doing something. Since time works differently now, it'll now take a configurable amount of time for that action to succeed. 
• Their "motivation" or mood meter is now split into three main categories: Energy, Hunger, and Fun (Happiness as of Beta 3, will change to Fun in Beta 4). Now you need to juggle all three needs + homework as opposed to a singular motivation need + homework. Those meters are intertwined with each other, but that's for you (and us) to figure out!
• The in-game UI now looks different and shows a bit more information than Version 1.0. Back then, the only information that's available to you upfront is the time. The homeworks completed and Blorbo's mood is told thru the game itself (the stack of books on the table, and the "speech bubble" on top of Blorbo respectively). Those information is now told on the upper-right side of your screen in percentage, and it now has a new type of challenge for you HAHAHA.
• Scoring now works differently. This is something that's still a WIP, but the idea is there!

There's a bit more changes in the game, but those are the only notable ones so I'll leave it at that until the official 2.0 release.

What's Still Needs to be Done?

Before we can confidently release Version 2.0, there's still more to be done:

• Like previously mentioned, tweaking the new scoring system. We still haven't solidified it and it's currently impossible to attain an "A" rating or above.
• An Android port! There's already a virtual joystick in the game since Beta 3 (currently inaccessible thru normal means), but there's still one more bug that needs to be fixed in order 
• A campaign of sorts. We have already thought of doing this from the start in 1.0, but we couldn't implement it due to time constraints. Now that we have a new workable codebase to work with, this is something that will be implemented too.
• Add in a bunch of SFX. There aren't much in the game at the moment, just the footsteps. On that note, I should fill in the SFX section in the credits now that I think about it.
• Improve/Add quality of life stuff.
• Bug fixes. One of which is required to be fixed in order to upload an Android build of the game.

What Now?

We'll continue to develop 2.0 and posts some updates here on itch (there's no social media account for Blorbo or for Vita Est Cocoes right now if you're wondering) as well as giving you all the betas when they're ready. We'll also make an announcement if 2.0's ready to be published as well.

You can also play 1.0 here if you want to see what the original looked and played like:

Also sorry for the late post, I only woke up just now from my September 17 2023 (not really) nap. On a more serious note, we we're just busy doing college stuff that our own motivation meter's are constantly low so updates are not as constant as we want it to be. That's just life I guess.