Devlog

Honest talk

It's been quiet here. Let me be honest with you about why. 🙈

Nightmerge is made with AI. I'm saying that openly now. A while ago it was really important to me that nobody found out. Today I honestly don't care anymore. 😄

Because here's the thing: AI kind of exploded for me. A whole new world opened up, and I fell right into it. Most of my time went into my website Cardea Studios: AI security, agents, how you connect agents with each other, how you build your own LLMs. 🤖🔐

So Nightmerge had to wait. I just didn't have the time for it.

But I'm slowly starting again. Nightmerge is my first big love. ❤️ And it's the reason I started with AI in the first place.

So no, she's not forgotten. Not for a second. 🌙

Thanks for sticking around, folks. More soon! ✨

Version 0.3.7

We are on version 0.3.7!

I'm now working on a new feature that has the potential to be really, really fun for the game.

I can't tell you more yet. But stay tuned, folks.

Taking our time

Today was a cleaning day. We spent pretty much the whole day optimizing and tidying up, because so much old baggage had piled up along the way. It feels great to have it gone.

We also used the day to look at what comes next and what is best for the game.

The answer is simple: Nightmerge needs more time. So that's exactly what we're going to give it.

More time means more care, and I think you'll feel that when you finally get to play.

Some things stay in the dark

A small change of plan for the devlog, and a little apology to go with it.

For now I'm keeping screenshots and gameplay tucked away. Nightmerge needs a bit of room to grow before it says hello to the world, and I want the first look to be a good one.

I'm sorry if you were hoping for a peek. I know it's part of the fun.

What I can promise: I'm working on it every day, and I'll tell you about it here. What I'm building, what I figured out, the occasional stubborn bug, one system at a time.

Some things stay in the dark until the night is right.

Thanks for keeping me company while I build.

Thankfully we have Bruno

Sometimes you just need a place to relax, drink something, have a nice talk and forget about all the troubles. Thankfully we have Bruno.

Miri can fly

And another long night. Finally we can make animations: Miri can finally fly. That was a long desire of mine.

Behind the scenes

This weekend we focused on a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff: code improvements, some old ideas we threw out, and some new ones came. In the meantime I worked on a side project to learn more about AI. Some of it could help NIGHTMERGE too.

The next step is the first game cycle, then I will start posting some gameplay. It's going to take a long time until NIGHTMERGE is ready, because of daily life, and because my own standard is a bit high. I'd rather throw something out than ship it half good.

But back to Nachtland. Miri is waiting.

Long nights

A lot of work in progress. Making a game is really harder than I could ever imagine, even with modern tools and support from AI agents. A lot of information, I still struggle, long nights, a lot of reading.

I want to mention this site: howtomakeanrpg.com. It really helped me a lot today.

I need rest and some time away from monitors, but Milky says: "Naides or humans, always sleeping, just wasting their time."

Back on track

Sadly I was sick the last couple of days, so I couldn't work on NIGHTMERGE. But no need to worry, I'm back on track. Our Dantefabric is working 24/7 to make the game better. And Milky is working hard on his Earthborn Manners. Stay tuned!

Our first boss

Finally we have our first boss, Rubik, and he is really hard 😃 The UI still needs a lot of polish and he is still a bit too strong, but we are working on talents. When I say we, I mean my team: me, my wife, our AI code and art engineer and our own DanteAI. Stay tuned for more ;D