Kept you waiting, huh?

It's finally here, the full 1.0.0 release of Tenebris Dominus. Over the last few days I did what I could to package what was here into a playable state and polish up any loose ends that needed it, though it is worth noting there are likely to be issues with the end-game and especially post-game content. Despite this it should still be playable with minimal issues for a normal casual playthrough, with a 100% completion run taking somewhere around 8 hours to complete.

I'd like to give a huge thanks to the people who helped with playtesting throughout the Demo 1 and Demo 2 process, as their feedback was invaluable and saved this game from being even worse than it already is. 6 years on and off of development meant a lot of ideas had to be cut, pulled back in scale, or were just so bad they shouldn't have even been conceived in the first place. Some of those awful ideas are so deeply ingrained that they couldn't even be removed fully, but this was a huge learning experience and I'm happy to finally have a finished, (hopefully) playable experience at the end of it.

Speaking of unused content, if you want to dig through the project files yourself I've uploaded the whole game to the RPG Maker MV Steam Workshop for people to poke around in. Don't expect it to look pretty in there...

I will be continuing to offer support for major issues (such as game crashes, there may be a couple due to missing assets that I didn't catch while pruning the unused files) but new content and any minor issues or balance changes will likely not happen.

In addition to the game's full release, I will also be releasing the game's main menu theme on Bandcamp. It should be available on streaming services at a later date. Other songs from the soundtrack cannot be released due to the licensing arrangements, but I'm sure nobody is clamouring for a full Tenebris Dominus OST anyway.

So with this all done and tied up, what's next?

As previously stated I do want to make more content within this world, but before I do that I want to take a step back. I've been working on writing up rules for a tabletop system set within the world of Aretisia which, when completed, will eventually be adapted into a full remake of Tenebris Dominus. The world has seen a lot of rewrites and changes over the last 6 years and the current story within Tenebris Dominus does not accurately reflect the current state of the world. It's best to think of this game as a prototype of the full world and story, with the eventual full game being vastly, vastly different.

This doesn't mean that the next game will be the remake however. I have ideas for some other stuff set within the world in the meantime such as a potential platformer or metroidvania style game, but I need to flesh out the details and figure out where I want to go from here.

I know that Tenebris Dominus will not be for everyone, but I hope that you can get some enjoyment out of the game if you choose to try it.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have a fantastic Christmas, and I'll hopefully have some news on the future of Aretisia next year!