Part 2 in development!(...ish.)

I figured I'd make this post since it's been a few months since Part 1 released. Did you enjoy Part 1? If so, then I'm glad! If not, then !

(SPOILER WARNING! I recommend you reach the demo cutoff point for Part 1 before continuing your reading.)

I'm sure at least a handful of peeps are curious what Part 2 is going to be like, and if there's any release date. Well, I can answer one of those questions pretty definitively, at least. To get the release date question out of the way first, though: IDK. I literally don't know. Game development takes a long time when you have a lot of plans and ambitions for the project. Even if you know what you're doing, the sheer amount of work it takes can be dizzying at times, especially when it's a solo effort... I'll touch more on that later.

So, what should be expected from Part 2? Or, well, that's the colloquial title which I basically pushed. To give a solid answer: when Part 2 releases, that's gonna be *it*. I Wanna Lockpick will be completed, released, and given a nice "DUNZO" stamp. I have a 90% fleshed-out outline of the game at the moment of writing. The main progression is more or less sealed in stone, but two things stand out as wild cards: the story I intend to add to the game, and the level design itself.

If you saw the tutorial metapuzzle for Part 2, and you have any insight into what puzzle design is like, then you probably understand how designing puzzles for Part 2 will be significantly harder than puzzle design for Part 1. Making puzzles which are fundamentally interconnected is a process incapable of being bruteforced; consistent work no longer guarantees a good end result. The only option is to think very long and very hard about the scope of each puzzle and what aspects, techniques, or restrictions they may involve. Obviously, the style of metapuzzle I've set up for Lockpick might immediately remind people of a different notable and mindblowing game's metapuzzles (if you know, you know). And, having made levels for that, let me just say: It is *so* much easier in that game than it is here. At first, I honestly considered the task impossible without an extreme amount of railroading and micromanaging, at the expense of the quality of the non-meta puzzles. However, over time I realized more and more little "tricks" to actually create the type of hybrid puzzle gameplay my ambitions for Part 2 asked for. I still haven't figured out an actual flow for making puzzles, yet, however with the new set of tricks, I have a bunch of things to fall back on whenever I run into any difficulty. Anyways, that's to get you caught up on the puzzle design difficulty. Of course, the actual game design and progression is another thing entirely. I'm not going to get into that here.

About the other wild card, I foretell the following questions reverberating through your mind: "Why is there a story in this game? What in the world type of story could you even tell??? Shouldn't you work on the gameplay first?!"

Legitimately, fair. Scope creep has already hit this project like a truck, but at the very least I have it contained now. So, to actually address the questions: firstly, the idea for a story came as a direct result of a hilarious puzzle which you'll encounter in Part 2, which needs the setup of a story to have its full payoff. That is the only real function the story has on the gameplay; it is auxiliary in pretty much every other aspect, and you can absolutely play and beat the game without engaging with it. But I think it'll be much funnier if you do. Next up, the question of what type of story would even be told. Essentially, it's a story about Lily's participation in a puzzling world made by a magical entity, strictly for the sake of fun and enrichment. Throughout the game, you'll be able to have conversations (mostly with said entity, but also maybe sometimes with other in-universe friends) and learn more about the characters involved, as well as the strange world they inhabit.

Of course, if you played Part 1, you'd probably wonder where all of that is. Well, for the sake of time (and because I hadn't figured out the scope yet), I actually didn't add any of the story stuff to Part 1, even though technically you should have been knee-deep in it by now! Devilish of me, I know. I did leave some very tiny hints of what the actual story will involve in Part 1, though. (And I might silently retcon certain aspects of the ingame narration once I'm finished. There is a really cute actual explanation I have prepared for it!) Finally, the question of why I would be so focused on the story first when there's a game to make. One half of it is that I need to write out enough of the story to make that one puzzle I alluded to actually possible. And, for the most part, I've actually got most of that requisite writing finished! The other half is that...I sorta just really like writing stories. It's hard and takes a lot of time and rewriting, but it's super rewarding to have my silly ideas channeled in a tangible form. For the most part, you're just going to have to take my word for it that Lockpick's story will actually engage you, and hopefully make you laugh on several occasions.

Next up, I'd like to address the actual scope of Part 2. Obviously new concepts and a story are fun times, but both for my sake (so I don't scope creep again) and for yours (so you have an idea of how much work I have on my plate), I have prepared a very simple means of comparing the size of Part 1 and Part 2. Which is to say: I've made full maps of the game! You may want to avoid paying too much attention to them if you prefer being unspoiled. Of course, there's not *too* much information you can glean from it. If anything, the main spoiler is just the scope of everything... Here's the maps now. I even kindly labelled a few areas with acronyms, so you can give your brain a workout trying to predict what could possibly be in store! (You're probably going to be way off base anyway, since Part 2 is legitimately unhinged.)

Next up on the list: QoL and feedback. Now that it's been 3 months and people have reported a bunch of issues with the game (lack of settings/config, jank movement, colorblind accessibility, etc.), here's where I'm at: ...You're gonna have to wait until full release. Apologies. Since work on Part 2 has already begun, and this game doesn't have any version control in place, I'm no longer able to retroactively add changes to the demo. I am well aware of the "bruh momento" status of this situation. All I can say is, I intend to resolve pretty much the wide majority of issues reported during the development of Part 2. It'll still be on the tail end, though, since making a functioning game in the first place is the more pressing task to me. Again, gamedev is hard... I hope you understand!

Now, for one last thing, before I call it quits on this little writing diversion... I guess the best way to describe this is as a little ask for helping hands! If anyone is interested in contributing puzzles and maybe something else to the game, please tell me! At the very least, I'll hand out the level design tools (jank as they are) to anyone who asks. It's been long enough at this point, and everyone has the right to make cool puzzles for a game they enjoy! Although I'm not equipped for (nor interested in) directing a group of people to work on the game, I'm still perfectly capable of taking submissions and talking with fans about the game, and even sharing more confidential stuff with people who are genuinely interested. If you make a good puzzle, I will gladly put it in Part 2! I have already decided on a good place for such things. If not, then I'll still try my best to enjoy your puzzles anyway.

Thanks for listening, anyone who read this far! It's, uh, a long journey ahead of me, but piece by piece, I hope to eventually get everything sorted out. Look forward to Part 2, whenever it happens to come out! Have a wonderful day!