Vortex00 
Controller support, mouse sensitivity slider, button remapping, fov slider, option to invert y axis, clunky character movement, falling through the floor, loading screens between areas, are some examples of things that 2D visual novel style games typically don’t need to worry about. Which are the typical types of games I make.
However ARIA Genesis is the furthest I’ve developed a 3D game to date. And various reviews and critiques on Steam for ARIA Genesis have included these things among other stuff. And I can’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed (and bored out of my mind) when it comes of adding these technical aspects that many people have to come to expect as standard practice for all 3D games.
coming from Flash to simple game makers like Construct 3 and Tyranobuilder to now Ren’py, I really appreciate how all the technical mumbo jumbo is done for you. And you can simply just make a game, focusing on the game elements itself rather than trying to include a lot of technical nuances.
with ARIA Genesis being not only a third person shooter, but also having various flying shooter segments, two different kinds of racing, sex yoga and pole dance viewing, and card minigame. It’s no trivial task to make button remapping and unify everything to work on a controller.
The game is fundamentally “designed” to work with keyboard and mouse, not as console game. Several aspects of the game would need to be redesigned with that in mind, such as the UI and inputs for the various minigames and viewing modes.
It’s not impossible, but, I’m not sure how much it’ll be worth it either vs actually just making more games that a know how to make better. I’ve always wanted to have several games published, so if some don’t do super great, other games can make up for it.
However ARIA Genesis is one of the games that is definitely pulling it’s weight, and more, so I’ve have cooking up a pretty decent update for it. But I’m not sure If I’m going to get to making a proper controller rework or not. I will at the very least take a look into working out some toggle option that changes what the inputs are so everything can hopefully work with a joy2key setup. It’s one of the last things I need to look at before releasing what the update.
I think in the future. I’ll make much less complicated 3D games. essentially 3D visual novels or games that don’t combine a lot of different gameplay modes.
Having said all that, below is a current list of updates coming in Update 7 for ARIA Genesis on Steam.
- updated the alien starting area of the game, made traversing the landscape easier, and added a story component at the end.
- added an additional segment after the starting alien area that expands on the lore of the game.
- added a post story sequence of missions after you get to the bridge where the team catches up with the main antagonist again.
- added an additional segment after Mission 3 (where you go back to the GemCo facility with Bri) that briefly expands on the lore of the game.
- getting Bri to open up now allows her to visit and have interactions the restroom area.
- Fixed Phia’s Missile Launcher to not immediately explode when fired.
- Changed most areas from a skybox to a volumetric sky and clouds.
- Added an additional butt jiggle setting
- There is now an erect nipple toggle in the esc->settings->options menu (works for Arielle, Maiko and Phia) (does not work on alien missions where Arielle’s appearance is pre-set.)
- Certain places you can fall through the floor/wall have been fixed
- The screen now has a red vignette when your health starts getting too low.
- The parked spaceships in the city now despawn when the player is far enough away from them to help with fps
- enabled GPU instancing for various materials in the game to help with fps
- converted some models from A pose to T pose to work better with some of the animations.
- Arielle’s title screen idle animation updated
- Fixed enemy alien animations
- added AZERTY compatibility for the racing minigame
Below are a couple of screenshots:
About Author
I really wish that people understood just how difficult it is for a single person to make a game like ARIA: Genesis. But you are doing it anyway and are doing a great job! I believe in you! Keep up all the great work!