Oh boy, so I'm finally doing one of these, huh?
Welll, hi. Normally I prefer not to do devlogs because I much rather prefer giving small teasers instead. However, the current development of OIM has made it so I have to write one of these. The current things I'm working on are either so code-related or so spoilery that if I posted teasers of them it'd either be meaningless to the average player or be a spoiler too heavy to share. So instead here I am, writing a garbage blog post about how the mod is going so people don't lose faith I guess.
Now, before we start off, I want to answer the question that's in everyone's minds:
Well, the answer is what you'd expect since I'm writing a devlog: No. Development is still going semi-smoothly and almost daily. I work on the mod almost each day I get if I don't pass out or have anything major to do that day. Additionally, there has been quite the sum of content I've added to the mod whilst you were waiting for DEMO 3, alongside fixing most of the bugs in DEMO 2. Needless to say, no. Work on OMORI IS MISSING hasn't slowed down, nor has it stopped, nor have I cancelled the mod or gone on hiatus. Sure, sometimes I need to take a break due to either mental health reasons or something coming up IRL, but those breaks are usually 3 days max. I know 90% of you are probably thinking that consistent of a work schedule may be a bit too much, since everyone seems to be yelling at me to take a break whenever I mention it. I promise you that I'm fine, however, and that such a schedule is also necessary for OMORI IS MISSING's completion. I'll talk about that more in the later sections, though. Let's continue with what I have made so far in the meanwhile, though.
Well, first, foremost, and very fucking obviously: Bug fixes. Alot of bug fixes. DEMO 2 had a catastrophic amount of bugs due to there being not enough time to playtest. Needless to say, about 90% of those bugs have been fixed now, and the other 10% is to account for the small likelihood of bugs that have STILL not been found yet. It's possible. Sometimes people report to me bugs in MARI IS HOME even 1.5 years after it's release. It's fucked up! But anyway, most of the issues with DEMO 2 have been fixed bug-wise. Additionally, I've also made some parts of the game that were too easy a bit harder and some parts that were too hard a bit easier, and so forth and so forth, according to user feedback on DEMO 2. You will be able to find that 14th soda can in DEMO 3, trust me.
Next up is the battles. Now, if you've been with development since DEMO 1 you'll know that during the timespan of DEMO 1 to DEMO 2 that I reworked combat A LOT. From top to bottom basically changed everything to the skills, enemy AI, actor movesets and data.. anything you can think of. Now why am I bringing this up? Well it's because I kind of did that again. But also not really. Let me explain.
I am, unfortunately, never satisfied with how the battle system works. I always feel like it can have more, it can do more, include just a feeeew more mechanics to make the combat less boring to play. And as such, I have also been working on some more mechanics for the combat. Here's a bunch of screenshots I took testing out new combat featuresn:
Now I know what you're thinking: Completely underwhelming, right? You'd be right to think that. Unfortunately, I don't have any footage of these in proper action, since I was too lazy to actually record fights, so all I have to show you are these test screenshots I took while getting them to work. I will, however, explain to you what each screenshot is and what they stand for so they are somewhat less underwhelming:
The first image is a screenshot of the tutorial for the elements system. To be honest, I'm surprised I didn't add one sooner. But I think it's pretty self explanatory: Your skills can have innate elements to them (or granted elements by certain buffs), and in acccording to their element, they will deal more or less damage to enemies with certain element weaknesses/ressistances or if your opponent has a certain state. Typically, an enemy weak to an element takes about 30-50% more damage from it, while ressistant enemies take 25%-40% less damage from an element. This also applies to party members if the enemy attacks have elements, obviously. Right now, basically every element is currently in ingame use, with each enemy or party member having some element traits to their attacks to further spice up combat. Yes, I had to go back and add new elements to EVERY old move. It wasn't fun.
The second image showcases two new features: HP-Locking and expanded party member limit. Expanded party member limit speaks for itself: You can now use a maximum of 8 party members in battle. While you will rarely ever get more than 4 party members, this feature will still be used as there are segments intended to have more than 4 characters during them, alongside a new SUMMON mechanic which has been added to let you summon allies into battle temporarily, which very obviously can be used even if you have 4 party members (which was previously the maximum amount). Unfortunately, almost every SUMMON except the OMORI summon in act 1 (which was already present in DEMO 1 and DEMO 2) is deemed spoilers at the moment, so I will not be showing any. What I can tell you, however, is that there are currently 7 functional summons implemented into gameplay, each with their own obtainment methods. Good luck finding them!
As for HP-Locking, this one is also pretty self-explanatory. When this feature is active, you will not be able to see the HP of any of your party members in battle. Do not worry, however, as this feature isn't used too commonly, and reserved mostly for special encounters and bosses. I figured it'd be too annoying if you had to deal with it constantly.
The third image shows the JUICE-HP system. This one was intended for a boss which is now actually scrapped. The gimmick is that rather than using HP, the boss uses JUICE for their health, which means you need to exhaust their JUICE by using JUICE drain moves or making them use strong moves to exhaust their JUICE bar. While the boss is scrapped now, I plan to reimplement this feature in the future for other bosses to not make sure it's completely wasted.
The final image shows how skills display in your skill equipping menu with the current reworks. Now, instead of each skill's costs and cooldowns being manually written into their description, it's displayed automatically alongside with the skill's element. This both makes my job easier, and makes it so there's more space leftover on the skill description to properly explain what it does. Hooray!
That's a summary of what I've been doing combat-wise. There's still alot more to show, but they're either minor changes made to optimize gameplay/code or too spoilery, so I'll be skipping out on them for now. Now, onto the actual main content I've been working on...
Also too spoilery. Sorry!
Alright alright I'm kidding. I CAN discuss some stuff. I'd mainly like to talk about the console. What's the console? This thing.
The console is unlocked once you reach a certain level of progression ingame. As you can see, it offers a multitude of .CRT files to with, one of them being OMORI IS MISSING İtself. And yes, pressing on OIM.CRT essentially redirects you back to the base game title screen. You may ask, then, what are the other 2 choices for?
Well, I do want to add "side stories" or rather "DLCs" to the mod. But unfortunately, I cannot make them paid as OMOCAT would have my head on a pike. So instead I've opted to the console, where rather than paying for this stuff, you can unlock it via finding .CRT files throughout the game. For DEMO 3, I want 2 of these .CRT files to be playable (both can be seen unlocked in the image I put). Currently, progress has been done on DAY1.CRT and PTE.CRT is fully completed. Isn't that nice? Maybe I'll put some PTE footage in the next devlog, if I ever make one. What I can say for now is that the method to unlocking .CRT files is probably one of my most proudest additions yet, and definitely doesn't work the way you think it does.
Now then, I can imagine a question has been forming in your head as you've read this portion of the devlog, and you've been aching for it to be answered. The next section will be dedicated to answering that question, which is:
And to that I say: Good question! Let me explain.
Now I know DEMO 2 ends on ACT 5, and as such you're expecting DEMO 3 to have ACT 6, most likely. But unfortunately, this both is and isn't the case, particularly due to how ACT 6 works.
You see, ACT 6 is a continuation of ACT 4, in the sense that you pick up from where you left off at the EVERYDOOR, except you're given a new bunch of keys this time. What this means is that aside from getting new keys to further progress the storyline, you also get a second chance to visit back the optional keys you may have not finished or just not found at all. And that's also where the main mechanic of ACT 6 comes: Which is that it's basically shared with ACT 4. While you can only get the "necessary" keys to progress the story past ACT 6 in ACT 6, the optional keys of ACT 6 can still be found in ACT 4, and vice versa for ACT 4's optional keys. As such, I have been working mostly on the optional keys for ACT 6, as the mandatory ones still have a looong way to go before they can be put into actual gameplay, as it means I'd essentially have to finish the story segment of ACT 6 to put them in. I could do that, yes, but I've moreso preferred working on the optional keys for now, due to one particular reason (which will be discussed further below). What I'm trying to say here is that, basically, every single optional key for ACT 6, except for one, is currently complete, and can currently be accessed in ACT 4 (though they may be a bit difficult to discover as they are meant to be found later). So yes, in a sense, you can play ACT 6 in the planned update, but only the optional content of it. You will have to wait for the optional content. SOZ!
This essentially means that, gameplay wise, the only thing left are the CRT files, ACTS 7 and 8 (whcih will probably be a little short, sorry), and the rest of ACT 6 before I can call this mod a wrap. How far we've come, huh?
Small warning, this is the part where I get personal. This section will discuss mostly me and the team's own condition and how they affect the development of the mod. I'd highly recommend to skip to the conclusion part if you don't want to listen to me talk about myself for an hour. That being said...
First of all, I'd like to talk about my own end of development, and how it has affected ACT 6. Now, I know I said development has been progressing consistently, but that doesn't mean I haven't had issues. One of the biggest issues recently, for example, was how I wanted to deal with the mandatory keys for ACT 6.
I did not like it. At all. I thought that the story for ACT 6 was an absolute clusterfuck and did not match up with what I wanted for OMORI IS MISSING in the slightest, it was lackluster, tried to do too much at once, and kind of missed the tone of OIM completely at times. As such, I decided to scrap it and start over with a new key. This was.. kind of a setback, as I had already done a significant amount of progress for the ACT 6 mandatory key, but I'd rather I start over midway rather than finish it, hate it, and start over anyway.
It also goes without saying that I've decreased the scope I had for OMORI IS MISSING. Not because I don't think it's possible: With the current mindset I've had for the past 2 years, it is TOTALLY possible. However, something I've noticed recently was that my mental state is dwindling. Alot. It's been declining, not in a direct plummet, but a constant downfall as time has went on throughout, well.. The entirety of 2025, it's felt like. To be safe for the future, I've decreased the scope for the mod to make sure I don't hit rock bottom and take out my frustration on my own work and cancel it or whatever. Better safe than sorry.
Though it isn't just me, either. The team's own condition has also kind of been why I have reduced the scope. And the reason for that is, well, this may sound a bit harsh, but I'll say it upright:
The OMORI IS MISSING team cannot handle the full scope I had for the mod.
Now, why is that you may ask? And it's simple. There's no money (or any concrete form of motivation) involved. Sometimes you have to get real and embrace the fact this shit is a passion project and done mostly with volunteer support. And there's nothing wrong with that. I can't expect them to have constant, stable passion for something ALL the time, especially when they're working purely on motivation. I guess you could say that for any mod, or for basically any project in this fandom.
Alot of the people working on these mods are, as you'd expect, teenagers. Teenagers who work mostly on bursts of motivation they get from being "hyperfixated" on something, as you'd call it. Unfortunately, this is also why most projects fail. They start off these projects with the burst of motivation they get from their "hyperfixation", expecting that hyperfixation and motivation burst to never fade. And when it inevitably does, the project crashes and burns.
While yes, I do mostly rely on others for the art and music of OMORI IS MISSING, a good portion of the code, writing, mapping, design, etc. is still done by me so the project doesn't fail. That is mostly because, to not toot my own horn, I don't really work on "motivation". I work on self-discipline. I don't get myself to work on the mod whenever I want to, but rather make it a sort of "homework" for myself to do a bit of work on it daily, even if little. Working on something with the mindset that you "have" to, rather than that you "want" to, does wonders for a consistent work schedule, even if it makes you hate what you're doing sometimes. Like a job, if you will. Let me put it like this: Would you actually finish your homework if it was optional? To me, I try to convince myself that it isn't "optional", so that I actually get it done.
However, I can't expect this type of working from the other team members. They aren't about as committed to the borderline psychopathic extent that I am. That's also part of why I've decided to reduce the scope. Sure, yes, I would survive finishing the full scope for the mod if my mental issues didn't catch up to me, but would they? I don't want to overwork the others, especially when they're doing this as voluntary work and as my friends rather than people I've hired.
Uh.. I dunno. The fuck do I put here? I said it all already. Development's going good, some work done on ACT 6, alot of combat changes and extra playable content etc. etc. If you really care that much, you can go check my own small updates channel in the discord server for the mod where I post small updates every 2-3 days (some not even listed here). OK bye.
