It has been several months since the last update here at Zero Break Games, and around a year of time since the collapse of Advent Heroes as a project. A multitude of events have occurred since then, including the start of Tail Force as a replacement project in an entirely different genre than with the original plan and the creation of several new characters that would be dedicated to that project. However, over the past several days prior to this update, I got to thinking about what I could have done differently with Advent Heroes, and if it would be worth using the advice on design and writing that I have been acquiring for Tail Force and during the testing of ideas and gameplay that has occurred throughout the course of my game development work – if not for an actual game release (that’s yet to be decided) then to at least go back and see what if anything that such changes would have done in terms of what could have been. And I have decided that I owe it to myself for that question to be answered with respect for if and how much things could have been improved if given the time…

…or if I had simply overestimated the commitment that I thought would have been required to address the concerns that were brought up back then. As it is, the story was mostly complete with only writing refinements and design polish as the final perceived concerns before the narrative and pacing issues were piled on at the last minute.

With that in mind, I made the difficult decision to delay Tail Force indefinitely while I go back and reevaluate the concerns that had been raised with Advent Heroes while also implementing the feature additions that were in progress at the time that the project came to what was then assumed to be the very end of the line. And as I did so, it was determined that what seemed to be extensive issues with the design, narrative and pacing may have simply been a series of minor inconveniences.

Case in point: during the initial setup for the story for Advent Heroes, and immediately after learning of being targeted for elimination over a false sense of fate, an inability to defeat the assailant leads to the failsafe being set off, forcing a timed evacuation before the automatic destruction system kicks 8n. This sequence, inspired in part by similar situations in the Metroid games, was one of the first portions of the game project to be criticized as it was designed like an office tower, with a central member of the party directing everyone up a corner stairwell to save time only to be forced by loose debris from the villain’s side attempt to derail their escape to take the long way out. Although this sequence was designed to be straight and direct, the lack of having traversed these halls caused my tester to time out.

Back to the drawing board as the very first thing that I wanted to address (as just before Advent Heroes work had come to a stop an entirely different issue from the test had already been mitigated). I copied over the necessary progression points from the office tower design, deleted all but the map file on which the attempted elimination of the party occurs and completely redrew the map (both figuratively and literally) while keeping the necessary elements from the original design.

The result? A streamlined, straightforward A to B with only one floor to work with, and a straight line that’s exactly the same as the way into the watchpoint control room. (And the added bonus of being able to dock a minute off the clock.)

In short, the pacing of Advent Heroes during this sequence was far easier than I made it out to be. That doesn’t mean that the project is anywhere near being confirmed as salvageable, but it’s a step in the right direction. With time and patience, I may be able to decide once and for all of I can fix this and other issues with the design of Advent Heroes on a schedule that would be reasonable to manage within any reasonable time limitations.