Because of spoilers. Now that the game has a public release, I wanted people new to the plot to play through and be surprised, rather than being able to watch the entire intro.
Anyway, reports of my death are greatly exaggerated! I've just had issues with my internet, and with time - when your attention gets pulled in so many different directions, some things are bound to get a bit left behind, and SRT was sadly one of those things. It IS, however, still being worked on, and while the progress isn't significant, I like to think that I'm slowly but surely getting there...
Pre-alpha bugs/other things that have been fixed:
-You can choose Picture Two now and not appear as a Leaf recolor. Hurrah!
-When you die, you spawn where you're supposed to, not in glitchy areas on the outsides of the maps. This was the most difficult part to do as it required hex editing and repointing the flight table and all that sort of lovely fun stuff.
-Selecting the Long Stick from the bag while on the overworld no longer glitches the game.
-You are no longer able to get "stuck" in the hidden room within Golden Trail.
-A few small movement permission/tile errors have been found and corrected.
-The Tangle Thicket puzzle gives you a hint to make it easier to try and solve.
-The "bushes" which worked like the PC storage system are now for item-storage only. You will never have more than five team members at a time (plus you, the Hero), as they join and leave your company as the plot goes on.
-There are a few more items, although in keeping with the spirit of the game they're (mostly) still invisible and you have to hunt for them. Food is scare and requires effort, young Pichu!
-Mini Dungeons now contain visible healing squares as a sort of "freebie" (but not larger dungeons). They can still only be used once, however.
-Flash-born (wild pokemon) levels have been raised to be more challenging.
Bugs that still exist in the game include occasional strange errors with Pansy the Beautifly's mugshot (the image that appears when she speaks), and text boxes that sometimes appear for just a split seconds when the Hero warps.
Things you will hopefully see less of as the game progresses based on feedback from the pre-alpha:
-Due to the highly plot-driven nature of the game as opposed to the typical Pokemon RPG, SRT is by design VERY linear. There's just no getting around that. However, I am entertaining the idea of some dungeons having alternate exits, much like how Pokemon has some areas you can't explore until you get a certain HM. The alternate exits can't be accessed until you've completed the necessary plot requirements, but you can go through the "normal" exits to visit certain towns before they become plot-relevant, if you so choose (though of course you're going to run into a broken bridge eventually to keep the plot on track).
-Puzzles without even the most basic of hints. The traps, however, are going to remain as brutal as ever; and items are still mostly invisible.
-The intro was by its nature very text heavy, but I want to try and balance out the gameplay/plot ratio as I go on. This will get better as the dungeons get larger and have multiple floors; and as the traps that essentially take the place of Trainers appear more frequently. Of course, like Final Fantasy, there are still going to be points where there's massive cutscenes, but...I want to make sure there's plenty of gameplay surrounding those cutscenes to make them worth the player's while. Story doesn't matter if the gameplay stinks, after all; so reining in my writer's heart and not going overboard will be something kept very much in mind.
And now, a few screenshots:
Threatening to abandon you. Pansy sure is loyal....
And she has such faith in you!
A visible Uplift Trap within a Mini-dungeon. Think of them as one-time use Pokemon Centers...
Hey, it's that Raichu, Mjolnir! People who have been following this thread from its absolute earliest days will remember him. Seems he recognizes the Hero, too!
He wants to join your team. Needless to say, Pansy doesn't like him much.
It's made of black magic and sorcery. Duh.
The Blackriver dungeon. It consists of enclosed chambers, and your goal is to find the warp to take you to the next chamber - but watch out for the bad traps. Also, there's hidden items all around, but you need to go through the dungeon more than once to find them all.
This reminds me of something...