A Post About DT4

Hey look, an actual post about this game! After years of mostly staying quiet about it, it's time to talk about it a little! First up, I'm not showing any screenshots. Refer back to a post I made about making fangames/sprite-rip games. STFU about them until they're out. DT is pretty safe overall honestly, as it is still far removed from the source material it pulls from, but it's best not to test the waters.

This also isn't an announcement/release post, but I can safely say that DT4 will be (most likely) releasing next year or early 2027. Most of the content is in the game and I'm mostly designing the final segments of the game. Afterwards I'll be going through the game with my massive list of things I want to change/fix. Right now it's really about getting all the content in the game and 'playable' so I can give that to the testers.

Which I'd like to talk a bit about. DT4 has had a lot more people playtesting it than any of the other games and this has given it a lot more quality than even I expected. The game would not be in the really good state it's in without them giving me notes and finding weird bits about it. They've been superstars in this and I appreciate them a lot, even though I can't fulfill all of their requests for the game. There's a lot of varying opinions from the testers. What they like/dislike, but it's all valuable for helping to shape the game its become.

Project Length

I started this project way back in 2019 with only one other person ever seeing it. It wasn't until I had the first part of the game playable for testing in 2020 that anyone truly knew it was going to happen. So why has the game been in development for so long when all the other DTs were less than 4 years to develop? There's two big reasons. I don't vigorously work on it the way I did for DT1 and DT3. I take far more breaks from the project, sometimes pecking at it slowly. Life is much different for me now than it was in 2012. Not in a bad way, I'm simply more active outside of my digital life than ever.

The other reason is that the game is fucking massive! I originally set out to make a shorter game than DT3, but that didn't happen. I've had a blast making it, so stuff just keeps getting made. It's a more complex game and there's a lot to explore mechanically with it. It also takes longer to make some of the content than DT3. My tools are far more sophisticated, and that helps, but the content is better and more involved. Boss fights, for example. There are less than DT3, which had right around 58 iirc. (Don't trust the boss gallery, it segregates the boss phases, and displays 65 I believe.) Less bosses, but all of which are far more involved. You're not going to come across a Thunderbird in DT4, who just oscillates back and forth and shoots a few fireballs.

Most... no, ALL of the testers have over 150 hours of playtime. Part of this is due to how long boss grinds can take. I won't mince words, this game is far ahead of its predecessors when it comes to difficulty. It's a game made from the ground up for people who liked the end-game content of DT3 and stuff like the super boss 'Warmaster EX'. (aka WEX) More than my past games, this one really wants you to invest and understand its mechanics on a deeper level.

So that's all for now. Just wanted to update for anyone still following the DT games and to say that yes, it is coming... eventually. Also to fulfill the 1 post a year tradition. (Ignore that 2022 is a gap, just inception your mind that there was a post there.)

Use of AI

There is none. Fuck GenAI, it's useless. Why would I defer to something so creatively bankrupt for any part of my design? That's all! Have a great day and enjoy the holidays!