In August 2018, the Steam presence of Fabrication was paid for as soon as it started production.
In November 2019, I have managed to integrate the Steam presence of the game fully – in just two days!
This means that it is easier to send out builds to testers – as they can simply play the current build of the game on Steam.
Notes:

• Testers will be given a Steam key for the game, this will essentially make them get the final game on Steam for free
• Full Steam functionality will be available: achievements, Steam Cloud, and controller commands – all of which will, of course, require testing.

Those who have previously tested the alpha release build #1 (released Janurary 2019), will be contacted again to test Fabrication on Steam, titled the “alpha release build #2”, which will release sometime in December 2019 (January 2020 if the amount of work I need to do is too great).

*At November 27th 2019, the official Twitter account reported that alpha testing of Fabrication will commence on 22nd January 2020.

I’m still really early on in terms of development of the game, despite it being a year and a few months since production officially started – I would say the game has only had 7 months worth of full-time development. I would love to put a little bit more time into this project, but I don’t want to rush it, just need to work with what I can do! Once there’s a year more of full-time development, I can start worrying about where the game is -laughs-
So, the alpha testing phase is going to be a very strange phase for you testers, since the game is not fully functioning and a lot of content is missing. However, what is important is that you realise the potential and be very critical of it!

In addition, there are a few new QA testers that are interested – so they will be brought on to test the game on Steam, too. If you are still interested in testing Fabrication, send me a note at https://twitter.com/ottreadev or https://twitter.com/ottrea!

*Remember that this game is a work-in-progress. The alpha release build #2 will still have missing functions in the game, and almost all content will change when the game has entered the post-production stage.

Differences from January 2019 – November 2019 game

Playable chapters 1-2 -> Playable chapters 1-5
– The development of the story and locations of the game is still the main focus and not a lot of playable content will be available in the alpha release build #2. For example, the battle encounters and sidequests will not be developed, along with random NPCs, items, weapons, armor, shops, and additional areas in the game that are not integral to the story.

New crafting system: “Synthesis and Desynthesis”
This crafting system is not ready for release since the database hasn’t been worked on, but it is fully functioning – so it is considered as a new feature.

Missions
A mission in Fabrication will be available with the release of the alpha build #2.

Redesigned Menus
The design of these menus will not be final but are close to what I want the game to look like

Revamped sections of story
Certain instances of the story have changed since I have developed more of a plot and got an idea on the characters and world.

Lore Books
Some lore books will be available with the release of the alpha build #2.

Fabrication – Alpha Build #2 – Changelog

Known Issues

– The TP number is displaying in battle.

– The HP and MP numbers are unaligned in the party menu.

– If a textbox is a higher height than what the engine would normally allow (higher than 4 rows), if it using a dim-dark background, then it would stop rendering that background when above the fourth row limit.

– If the player is on the same x-axis (horizontal axis) for the right placement for a bomb to denote next to a cracked wall, then no matter how far the player is along on the y-axis (vertical axis), the bomb will still denote – no matter the distance, as long as the player in on the same x-axis f where they need to be.

– In the area “Ry’ner Jail – Underground” the player movement may halt when colliding with a certain dirt tile. The proper tile of this is yet to be ascertained, but for now, the issue has been partially fixed by replacing those potentially collide-stopping tiles with the darker variant, which the play can walk on fine.

– The Gold pop-up menu has an animation which slides down the screen to the bottom-right of the screen, but this is interruptive to any existing text boxes and will not be able to be seen.

– Of all the menus, the item and skill menu will still need revamping.

– The framerate may drop significantly in the opening area or Ry’ner.

– The arrows on the victory aftermath may not be visible and instead display a Russian character.

New Content

– Chapters 2 through 5 are now developed and available to play in the new build.

– New crafting system: “Synthesis and Desynthesis” is now implemented within the game.

– Missions are now implemented within the game.

– The menus have been redesigned, and are closer to how the final game will look.

– Certain sections of the story have been revamped/rewritten.

– Lore books are now available within the game.

– Full Steam integration. 

Missing Content

– The battle system is still unchanged from it’s “barebones” version, but a few more skills are developed.

–  No side content is available – so the total playtime is only 1-2 hours.

– The database is still almost completely empty, as story and assets need to be developed first.

Bug Fixes & Event Changes

These bug fixes and event changes were carried out in November 2019, found while testing the build before release on Steam.

– Text boxes for system tutorials (e.g. bombs) are now transparent, with a dim-dark background.

– The maid in the house to the Underground would sometimes move left and right in the air. This issue has been fixed by disabling her movement route.

– There is no longer an option to “Engage in an Open Chat”; it will now happen automatically when advancing to the next textbox. However, the player will still be notified that they are in an Open Chat and will have to plan their choices carefully.

– Some colour issues have been corrected on text.

– Automatic text advancement has been changed in all instances: they will now wait for player input, unless in certain scenes and dialogue.

– Fog in the opening area used to disappear when switching between zones – now it stays the same for all zones unless otherwise specified.

– The textbox width always reverts back to normal once finished speaking to the NPCs at the Underground.

– Debug NPCs that are present in the build are now labelled as such.

– An additional tutorial for “Character Tags” has been added at the Inn tutorial.

– Events where the relationship level weakens has been removed from the game. This will not be present is release; you will only be able to increase reputation/relationship level, never decrease it under any circumstance.

– Forest boss HP changed from 1500 to 100.

Testing Requirements

All testers must test the following:

• Collision on objects in field
• Search for grammar/spelling mistakes
• Search for graphical bugs with sprites (e.g. sprites appearing when they should not)
• Search for audio bugs (e.g. BGM fading out at places where it shouldn’t)
• Search for plot inconsistency
• Criticise the plot of the game
• Criticise the current designs of the game while still understanding it is unfinished and will go through development

Thanks!

It just occured to me that I didn’t drop my YouTube channel here. It’s a good source of more development info, with commentary by me!

How White Pearl Was Made Series

White Pearl Boss Guide Series

White Pearl & Fabrication Trailers

Hello everyone. Gosh, it’s been a while. I have nothing to say except that uni work has basically demanded all of my time. Anyway I’m at a stage where I can answer a lot of fan questions now. As the game solidifies and becomes more code complete, I can answer them with more certainty and clarity in the future, but for now this will have to do.

I know a lot of players have questions about the next game, Fabrication. So I’ll answer them here. Where’s my tea…

(Okay, it’s 1:19AM, will I have enough energy to finish the blog post once I’ve made my tea…?)

Q: Why is Fabrication a prequel? Shouldn’t there be a sequel to White Pearl?

If you paid close attention to the story, you’d notice that “Fabrication” is actually in the game – as the form of a side story. That’s because it was going to be standalone title (separate game) developed in conjunction with White Pearl, before I eventually decided to merge the ideas of that game into White Pearl. You can read more about it here: https://white-pearl-rpg.fandom.com/wiki/White_Pearl_(game)#Development_Struggles_to_Release

Do you recall how Kurone mentioned that “a prequel is possible” in White Pearl’s ending, referring to the Chronicles of Ottrea? Well, she wasn’t wrong.
It just makes logical sense, since White Pearl had a really nice and bittersweet ending, in my opinion – it didn’t feel right to just undo that and come up with a completely new game.

Q: Why make another?

Ah, yes. Exactly what I thought after launching White Pearl on Steam -laughs-.

You see, consumer feedback is extremely driving to an independent developer. When I see the positive/negative reviews on White Pearl, I wanted my next game to be received better, despite knowing full well that White Pearl was received well – why stop there? Even though I was really burnt out from development, I started initially planning my next game just a few weeks after launch.
Then development started August 2018, and… Yeah. Also, I’m curious about sales. I’m 99.9% certain sales will be very low. But I don’t really care about that… What I care about is recreating the extreme joy of finishing a game you’ve shaped by your hand. Even if it’s hard, your mental state is all over the place, and it takes years – passion is what drives the industry forward. I did it once, so I want to see if I can do it again.

Q: We will see characters in White Pearl in Fabrication?

Sorry, I can’t say. I have a rough plot for the ending in Fabrication, but talking about it would be spoilers.

Q: What will ‘combo attacks’ and ‘team attacks’ entail?

First, combo attacks will be like a “follow-up” action – once you have attacked the enemy using a skill, you press a button, and the next skill, the combo, is executed. I’ve still yet to fully implement it with the code, but I don’t have a concrete idea on the battle system yet until I’ve finished all of this game’s content.
Team Attacks (tentative name) are related to the character’s relationship level with the one whom you’re doing the attack with. For example, you use the Team Attack: Reaper’s Fury” with Sarah, whom you have a relationship level of 2 with. The higher the level, the more Team Attacks can be unlocked and executed, which brings me onto my next point…

Q: What is this “relationship level” and “reputation level” I see in trailers?

Finally, something I can take about with complete certainty, since it’s fully in the game.

Let’s start with relationship level: this increases as you talk to your allies at an inn. This happens everytime you stay at the district’s inn for the first time. When you rest there, you get a choice of who to talk to – for example: “with Jack” will make the player, Crimson, talk with Jack, learning more about his backstory, and increases the relationship level. When you rest at an inn, the relationship level is always guaranteed to increase. The level can be in/decreased through various means: such as making choices during the story and battles, but I won’t go into detail about that. I’m sure you get the idea. As the relationship level increases, you gain access to more Team Attacks, their stats increase, etc.

As for reputation: a higher reputation level will mean that you can buy more/unique items from the shopkeepers of the respective district. To increase this, you undertake sidequests (in the form of “Missions” from the base of operations, The Underground), engage in Open Chats (a debate) at Inns, and by making certain choices in story sequences.

Q: Will the crafting system be different?

Yes, far more intuitive than White Pearl’s. It is menu-based, and also has a new system called “Desynthesis”.
I actually finished implementing this in the game as of June 2019, but none of the database is done yet, so I can’t really get a feel for it – but… it is going to drastically reduce development time, player pain, and not make the event pages look like this…

You won’t have to scroll through choices anymore, and it’s easier to see the implications of what you’re crafting. It’s leagues better. I can’t wait to play the game and breath a sigh of relief.

That’s all for today. There will be a few more posts like this in the future. I hope this made you excited for Fabrication to launch in 2089. See you all then. 🙂
– Harry

Download White Pearl for free: https://store.steampowered.com/app/761280/White_Pearl/

Fabrication development is slow… The thing is, I want to get this game done and out asap to show everyone what I’ve been working on and thinking about. But, you know, I’m kind of okay with this! RPGMaker is an excellent hobby engine. You can pick it up anytime, it’s easy to learn, not too hard to get into… and provides great tools at your disposal. All it needs is a “create the rest of the game” function…

Of course, games take time to make when you’re the only one working on it – regardless of engine. Let’s see… apparently White Pearl took 3 years. I say “apparently” because I don’t know when I really started. All I know that I started writing some concepts at November 2014. I was 14 years old at the time, so… I wanted to be an author, but I wasn’t really sure. As I started playing video games some more, I really liked it, and wanted to make my own mark on the world. At some point, I took it seriously and developed at least a bit each day. Actually, I think I followed through on that… I can’t think of a day where I didn’t do something at least related to White Pearl.

With Fabrication, I do not have that privilege. I am usually working, studying, relaxing or gaming. And that’s fine! In truth, I do not feel as compelled to develop this title as I did with White Pearl. So I will let this motivation come to me – and work on it when I feel like it. Even if it means I take a month’s break, etc. Because of my slow pace, I feel like it’s in “development hell”. But what does that mean to me? Nothing. Nobody has paid for this game yet, nobody has knowingly funded it’s development, there is nobody but me on this project. And that gives me relief… It is nobody but me that is putting pressure on myself for not working too much. Yes, we’ve nearly come 50% through now. But that’s only on main content development… none of the database is done, additional programming is not provided yet, additional assets for free-use animations are needed, I need to get the new music in, I need to make lots of unique side quests through the mission system, with this: comes the need for special events and cutscenes, special mobs, skills etc. So that should give you an idea on how much I need to do (even for an RPGMaker game, there is a lot of heavy-lifting yourself… the main goal is to finish, of course!) This mentality was the same in White Pearl – which ended up being a very big game for me to make. So, I don’t know if it’s going to be “half the scale”, as I previously advertised… After it’s done, I will have to adjust the price accordingly!

I will never cancel the game. Because, with the release of White Pearl (I know it’s been two years now, but…) I feel like I achieved something that I thought impossible in my head. Somehow, I finished this game, and to a good standard. That’s pretty amazing for my standards… So, no matter what, Fabrication will release eventually. Just knowing that keeps me going on this project. If I work on even a tiny bit each day – it’s better than nothing, right? In some of my videos relating to Fabrication development, I usually end with a title card saying “releases 2079” or some gibberish. Obviously it’s a joke, even if this blog post seems like it’s not – but that’s still a release date, right? Even if I’ll be on my way out when I release it, at least it’ll be done!

Thank you for reading.

Also, I want to keep releasing more information for Fabrication on this blog! It is refreshing to talk about instead of saying “White Pearl” all the time.
How many times have I said it…? Maybe 4319 times now….

Hello… It’s been a while. I have a release plan for Fabrication. The Steam presence is sorted too – all that remains is to finish the store page, but that won’t be until closer to the game’s release. I’m actually doing all this, like, years in advance? Well… I know to be prepared now. The game is far from finished!

Before I get into the main content of this post – I wonder which description will be better…

Bugs in Fabrication will be handled differently than White Pearl. The player reception to White Pearl was good, and players were satisfied by the developer support. However, as Fabrication will mark the emergence of my second game, I plan to increase the support even further.

The biggest problem with White Pearl’s release was bugs. As such, I will take countermeasures for this.

• After the master build of the game is finished, around 2-3 months will be dedicated to Q&A and polishing the game. Once that is finished, and the game is completed and tested to a satisfactory standard, I will release the game on Steam several months after that.

For example, the master build was finished on August 1^st 2019. I will spend up to October 10^th to QA the game. Then the game would be released on December 2019. That’s how I will go about it! The reason why I want there to be a gap between development and release, is to focus on my release plan and to make sure I’m rested and ready for launch, being able to solve any major problems that may arise on that day.

I will identify bugs into categories and, depending on how I classify the bug you submit, it will be handled accordingly:

• Fatal = Bugs that I class as “fatal” will involve the game executable crashing. Even if the bug cannot be replicated under normal circumstances, it would still be classified as fatal because it halts the player’s experience. These types of bugs will be fixed as soon as possible – within 1 hour of discovery.
• Major = Bugs that I class as “major” will involve the inability to progress the main story or any other quests due to a bug. These types of bugs will be fixed as soon as possible.
• Minor = Bugs that I class as “minor” will be small graphical glitches (either to do with sprites or any other interactable). These types of bugs take lowest priority, and the fix will be present on one of the major patches (i.e. 1.0.1, 1.0.2 etc).

*These are just examples of many more bugs that I can classify accordingly.

Regarding Major Patches to Fabrication

Those of you who have watched White Pearl after release are surely familiar with patches such as the 1.0.7 patch adding a new alternate ending, as well as fixing myriad issues.

With the release of Fabrication, I aim to provide content as-is. That is, no further content besides an alternate scenario will be made. In White Pearl, I added a lot of new events in different stages of the game. Because most players had already played the game by then, it was frustrating. I will not be doing this with Fabrication. If I was to add additional content, it would be post-game. Also, I would like to make access of the alternate ending available through the main ending area, too – if I was to add it with Fabrication. Patch Notes will still be present and uploaded on itch.io for Fabrication, but the changes will not be as huge. Because it is a long time until release, I cannot foresee what would need changing and what doesn’t. There was a lot of quality-of-life adjustments in White Pearl’s patches: such as the addition of “potencies” on tooltips with Patch 1.0.8. This will be carried over to Fabrication’s design.

White Pearl Patch Notes Archive

https://ottreadev.itch.io/white-pearlrpg/devlog/52479/patch-20-notes

-checks time-

I’m going to talk more about Fabrication, but less on the development side – or anything about me, for that matter. I will be explaining what you will get – when the game launches (in 2099)! I haven’t developed much recently, since I’ve been playing FFXIV: Shadowbringers. But, of course, there’s so much left to tell to the public. I would hate to drip-feed you information, but…!

The World of the Fourth Dark Era

Is called “Ottrea”! Not surprised? You shouldn’t be. Though, the world will not be as you remember it from White Pearl. Four calamities have torn the world asunder thus fur, with Ottrea being reborn at the end of every Era. Fabrication begins at the start of the fourth, much like how White Pearl began at the fifth.

This is a screenshot of one area of the Spirit Forest, mentioned in White Pearl’s version of Ry’ner. Don’t mind the clipping tree there, it’s fixed.

The locales, though some may be familiar in name, are entirely different. Of course, with the exception of Ry’ner – that was introduced near the end of White Pearl.

Ry’ner looks just about the same as it did in White Pearl – but you can now explore every house and even the big building at the top, known as the “House of the Caelus”.

As for locations same in name… this is Kolan! Or one area of it, at least.

“It’s a desert…?” You say to yourself, “I though Ancarna was supposed to be the desert?”

Well, that’s what you know in White Pearl – in an age after the events of Fabrication. Though there is not much reason why Kolan is called the way it is – when you play through the game – you will find some hints about the history of Ancarna. If you completed the Desert Sigil questline in White Pearl, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

I advertise Fabrication as being a world in an “age of science and technology”, though this is true – not all have advanced, be it from the Government’s rule or by other reasons – most of the world is not as technology advanced as the Government has proven to be in Ry’ner. This is why they are still many, more fantasy-like environments to explore in the game. You will learn more as you uncover the history of the Government, and what drives it.

If you’ve seen the YouTube video, then I will confirm that Fabrication will not have a world map. All areas will be connected to each other. There are three main locations: Ry’ner, Kolan and Terra. All areas have their own, original lore tied to them. I decided not to make a world map this time, because I wanted to keep the feel of an “ever-advancing journey”. It feels more intimate, in a way, when you traverse through each area in the story and slowly uncover more about the lore be it through the main story or sidequests. Those who enjoyed the towns of White Pearl will surely enjoy the world of Fabrication.

Thank you for reading!

Hey again! I’m going to try and make one post per week, but I don’t know if I’ll keep to a set schedule.

Starting off, I’m going to go talk about the ‘stages of development’ within Fabrication, with this blog post focusing on what ‘main content’ is! I’d like to make a really important update, too. As of today, Fabrication is 40% main content complete.

What is ‘main content’, you ask? Well, main content includes the following:

• The areas of the game
• The field gameplay of the game
• The story of the game
• Any additional graphics for the game (such as facial expressions or icons to go with the progression of the story)

Ever since I started development of Fabrication nearly a year ago (mid-late July 2018), I wanted to split development into sections and be more concise. ‘Main content’ covers the very basics of the game: simple story progression with finished areas and cutscenes right from the start to finish. Because this is a story focused RPG game, it is quite important. In fact, I’ve always wanted to do it first since it takes the longest – and I find that making additional content like sidequests and foreshadowing scenes more interesting.

I actually completed the story plan of Fabrication at 28th September 2018. There’s going to be 10 chapters in Fabrication, compared to White Pearl’s extensive 16(!) chapters. However, the focus is more on quality rather than quantity now. The development time for the chapters so far has been as follows:
(You can view updates here: https://twitter.com/ottrea/status/1129730085152526336)

• Chapter 1: July 2018 – August 2018
• Chapter 2: September 2018 – February 2019
• Chapter 3: February 2019 – March 2019
• Chapter 4: April 2019 – May 2019

You might be wondering: ‘what’s up with the erratic development times?’ Well, development of this game is more of a ‘hobby’ now, no matter how seriously I take it… If I need any additional art or money for the game, I’m going shift focus to working for it, so that makes everything longer. It usually only takes a month for a chapter to be completed if I’m working on it full time every day. But that’s not very healthy…

So, taking this erratic workflow in mind, don’t be surprised to see weird jumps in timeframes. But, the more I develop in the ‘main content’ section, the easier it gets to create the rest of the game: because all of the gameplay is available. I’ve also developed unique gameplay sequences within the chapters too, like the bomb system, sneaking system… You will see when you get to play it in 2098!

Crap, it’s “became“, isn’t it?

I made this blog post to address some questions from my fans and what people ask me quite often. I hope it’s insightful to you!

The Creator™ Answers

What made you want to be games designer and who’s your biggest inspiration?

My answer to this is quite simple: passion. When I played through games I really liked, like JRPGs, I felt a desire to do better than them and improve things in my own game. When I played through games before I became a designer, I always thought about how I would do things differently if I had the chance to work on it.

As for my biggest inspiration, that’s Toby Fox. I don’t think I could ever make games like his, but I really liked his attitude and philosophy towards game development. I’ve listened and played through DELTARUNE and UNDERTALE a lot…

Actually, while I’m writing this, I’m listening to DELTARUNE’s soundtrack. Oh! Hello, past me, I’ve now finished writing the article and I’m onto UNDERTALE’s…

Can you tell me why White Pearl was free?

White Pearl wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t free. I use graphics, scripts and audio belonging to other people – and unless I buy a license for it – I can’t use it in a commercial game. White Pearl isn’t commercial. It’s freeware. The reason why I used these assets was to create the game of my dreams without hurdles, like having to find a team, getting in the way. Obviously, I’ll never do something like White Pearl again, though.

Did you like making White Pearl?

To tell the truth, mostly not. I set a task too big for myself. Although, surprisingly, in the end I managed to achieve it – making White Pearl really drained me. It’s made me appreciate how much effort it takes to make a game. This is why I say: “I won’t make a game like White Pearl again”, because I can’t feasibly make a commercial game like this by myself. I’d need a team. That’s not to say it isn’t fun, however. Creating the database was fun.

How old was you when you started making White Pearl?

I started playing around with the RPGMaker engines when I was 14, and I wrote some lore concepts for White Pearl at that age, too. I didn’t know I would end up making a game, haha.

Do you have any pieces of advice for aspiring game developers?

I only have two pieces of advice to give to game developers who want to make a game:

1. Make sure you can make it!
2. Make sure you finish it!

Did you really make White Pearl by yourself?

With the exception of what I said previously, yeah. All the main game development was done by myself, and it took around 3 years or less. I learnt a lot, like how to use RPGMaker efficiently and well enough – how to not make baby’s first RPGMaker game – struggled for sure, and went through depression towards the end of development (Summer 2017), and I realised some mistakes I made.

Can you make an expansion of White Pearl that will be paid for?

Because it’s going to be paid for, I will have to create a lot of new assets from the ground up, so I may as well make a new game by that point. I’ve seen the demand for it – but, sorry, I just don’t think it’s possible. I’m making a prequel, though, and that will be paid for (original assets included).

Is being a game developer your job?

No. I’ve never been paid for this. I just view it as a hobby that is quite a big part of my life now… But, because it’s a hobby, I only have so much time set aside to do it.

What makes White Pearl stand apart from other J/RPGs, in your opinion?

The humour and the ending of the story. I intentionally made some characters flawed as a person, too.

Any closing words?

I’m shocked why over 20,000 people decided to download this game, to be honest haha! The game is very slow to start… but it’s so rewarding to play to see the end. It feels like a real, full-length RPG, too.

I’m making the prequel, Fabrication, but it’s going to take quite a lot of time. Please look forward when it releases in 2079.

Fabrication Development Details

I want to make this section of the post a little more fun now, giving you insight on how I create things. Do you know the one thing I regret most? Never saving a 2016 build of White Pearl. So, as I am developing my next game, I’m taking screenshots of what I’m doing – so I can go over it here! I will not go into great detail, as I will talk more about it in a future post separate to this – but… Take a seat!

Well, if you’ve seen the latest trailer for Fabrication (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZKAcMlDTU4), you would know that original art and music is going to be made.

In addition, there’s also an advisor – that I will disclose in the full credits of the game – who initially wanted to do a Russian translation of White Pearl. He’s been helping a lot with how the battle system will play, and I still haven’t made any progress on that part.

What is important to me is getting the locations, assets and story done first. These are the sections of game development (at least for RPGs), that take the most time. But, after around 3 months focusing on just that, I found myself being quite bored. So I decided to go through my huge list and start adding more detail to the game (i.e. creating the database)! I find that creating items, skills and systems is really fun. Finding the scripts isn’t, though…

One day, I will go through the bug books (yes, books) for White Pearl, and cry.

This is it for now, but did you like the blog post? I made sure to make some time off my usual schedule to write something new! It’s fun to write, but I want people to be interested in reading it, too.

Thanks for getting to the end!