It’s been about a year since I posted, but I’ve made a ton of progress on the game during that time.  Here’s the current state of the game as I see it:

• Gameplay 99%
• Level design 90%
• Story 70%
• Music 80%
• Necessities (things like options menus, compatibility testing, save slots) 40%

The last year has been mostly polishing up the gameplay and level design, and getting the backbone of the story in place.

During the invite-only alpha last year I met a guy named Morroque Wrought whose feedback was particularly good.  Morroque has done tons of playthroughs, recording his experience and writing up ideas on how to make the game better and where it has weaknesses.  Since then I’ve been sending him private builds every few months.

I have very limited time so this type of concentrated feedback from someone I trust is ideal.  Other indie devs know that it’s very hard to get quality gameplay testing, particularly on the parts that are far into your game and require multiple playthroughs to have enough context and experience to evaluate.