The same sunny 3D farm landscape with a "bubble cow" and pink flowers. At the top, the "Developer Diaries" header remains. The central board contains a self-critique from James regarding his work on the titles. The text at the top reads: "There’s a lot that’s offered to players! It’s very clear that you’ve poured a lot of heart into not only the collaboration titles, but the titles under the main Piczle IP as well. Now, with these titles released - if you had to give yourself your own critique, what would you say are the most and least favorite aspects of your titles, both Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross: Rune Factory?" James's response reads: "My nonogram code has been improving since Piczle Cross Adventure. Finally now it is at a stage where it’s pretty foolproof, in my current game Piczle World of Puzzles. It would be nice to go back and implement the current nonogram code in my older titles, with all the improvements and quality of life features, but that comes with a lot of issues. Also, due to my ambitions with Piczle Cross: Rune Factory I overextended myself somewhat. There are an insane amount of puzzles and features and it burned me out a little. I should definitely have scaled back a bit and created a smaller, more polished title."
The same sunny 3D farm landscape with a "bubble cow" and pink flowers. At the top, the "Developer Diaries" header remains. The central board concludes James's self-critique on the development process. As a continuation of the previous tile, the top text remains the same: "There’s a lot that’s offered to players! It’s very clear that you’ve poured a lot of heart into not only the collaboration titles, but the titles under the main Piczle IP as well. Now, with these titles released - if you had to give yourself your own critique, what would you say are the most and least favorite aspects of your titles, both Piczle Cross: Story of Seasons and Piczle Cross: Rune Factory?" James's response continues: "That said, it was so wonderful to work with IPs I genuinely enjoy - as a player - that I’m really happy to have been able to add a little to the worlds of Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, hoping fans of those games will enjoy the many references and homages. I don’t think the games would have worked without all the extras though it certainly would have been easier for me to make “just the puzzles”. Had I the time and resources I probably would have added more fan service features; better art gallery options, like zooming, or a proper 3D model inspector, more easter eggs, etc."
We asked James to reflect on his own progress. In return, we received his honest and humbling answer about knowing your own limitations and celebrating the here and now.
#storyofseasons #piczlecross #runefactory
