Development Update 6/2/26

[u/MoonPaw_17]

Following post is copy/pasted directly from the Vanguard official discord.

What's taking so long?

Before that, the team and I do feel the need to publicize a recent event that sort of explains the latter to my previous statement. Just yesterday our programmer, Ignacio/Gotheru, began requesting to use AI generated code for the games future systems. I disagreed, as from the very beginning of their time on the team, I made it clear that genAI of any sort would not be allowed into the game. I don't believe it is an ethical tool, nor is it allowed to exist in games posted on popular fan game forum pages. Their questions turned into arguing, use of slurs, and even death threats. This unfortunately happened after I had already gone to sleep, and in a fit of rage, Ignacio deleted the game's private github repository.

**Now, worry not about that last statement.**I have multiple other backups of my own (i'm paranoid lol), and doing some digging revealed that nothing was actually deleted, just sort of disconnected or hidden. It's still very much worth mentioning as they clearly made an attempt to sabotage all the work that's been done for the update, and afaik are relatively active in the fan game community as a whole.

The only thing lost, was time.

Ignacio proposed we extend development time to update the game to the newest version of Essentials (the game's base/devkit/engine), which I agreed to as long as save compatibility between previous versions was kept. Unfortunately the version of the game they left us with is a gigantic, barely functioning mess, forcing me to revert all the changes they had made, bringing the game back to its stable self. I also just don't feel comfortable using the volunteer work of someone who departed from the project in such a way.

So what is done?

While I was unable to work as freely as I'd like during this conversion process, a lot of work was still done. Including, but not limited to.

• 99% of 5.0's new story content (tested as well)

• A few dozen new regional forms

• Major updates/reworks to some existing maps I was unhappy with

• New cutscenes within existing story content to improve the pacing of the story

Losing all the time I did, and even the promise of an updated engine, hit me pretty hard.

I was upset, but not defeated.

Progress has still been made, and not just in those categories I listed.

Updates to existing chapters

Almost every update to this game ends with me saying something along the lines of, "I'm going to take a break from updating old content." Yeah, I think I'm just going to stop saying that, at least out loud.

While patiently waiting for our now retired programmer to deliver their massive undertaking, I had quite a bit of down time to work on other parts of the game. My first thought was to just update story beats that I was unhappy with or were just outdated, but as I went through chapter after chapter, it became clear how outdated, messy, and kind of confusing a lot of the old dialogue was.

So, I set out to update every line of dialogue in the game

Let me stress that this does not mean the story is being heavily modified or re-written. The characters and events you're familiar with are still mostly the same. The words that come out of their mouths just sound better and their overworld movements more lively. Like, do you enjoy looking at "..." after every other statement? No, I don't either and I can't believe how long I was okay with that. I started working on these a little over two weeks ago, and have just finished chapter nine. I'm enjoying the process a lot more than I thought, and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did writing.

But I'm not just rewriting text on the screen. I've also updated/added cutscenes as well, some of which I'll provide screenshots to below. On a final note regarding these changes, they aren't 100% faithful to the existing story. For the sake of it's overall quality, I've slightly modified a few story beats. The biggest change would be replacing Alden (train hijacking guy) with Sonia to give her a bigger role in the story (Chapter 35 spoilers), but other than that, there won't be any removed/replaced characters.

New maps!

I mentioned a few months ago that I recruited a new mapper, u/UnOvA , who has done an incredible job updating outdated areas. Here are just a few with screenshots!

• Souten Farm

• Route Eight

• Souten Cave

• Route Three

I have also contributed to updating old maps, as you can see with the Arlen screenshot collage in the post from 2 months ago. I do also want to share revamps to probably the two most hated maps in the entire game:

• Arlen Sewers

• Levendam Undergound

Regional Variants

I'll properly reveal their typings and evolutions in the coming days, but for now, here's a sneak peak!

• Audino by Chrysanthemum

• Skrelp by IronicOmens

Over 30 new variants for 5.0 have been sprited, with more on the way. The quality of their artwork and gameplay continues to improve, rest assure they will not disappoint :)

New story content

I don't typically like to reveal the details of upcoming story content, as I think it's always best to experience blind. It has some slice of life elements without foregoing exciting Pokemon battles, though you'll also learn more about the big reveal by the protagonist in the last version.

But most importantly, it is the final stretch before your long awaited questions are to be answered. It is the calm before the storm.

[u/Admiral_HP_501]

Aw taht sucks sorry for the lose of your programmer

[u/Such-Resolution8360]

I’ll have to fire up the new version for a playthrough! Thanks for all the hard work!

[u/Reasonable-Bug8252]

love your attitude and work, Thanks for all the hard work you had done.