The Benza RPG Version 3.0 is here in our last major update to the main story!

About a week ago, Gui and I found ourselves programming the end movie to The Benza RPG. It felt very surreal. We took a look at the clock on the editing software, and we realized that by the time we finish with the game we will have spent 1000 hours working it. That doesn’t include the countless playtesting sessions and upload sessions to Apple, Android, and Steam.

1000 hours. At times it feels like it was a lot shorter than that. Gui and I laugh a lot while we work. I talk to him about plot points for episodes I’m still writing for The Benza. He tells me about what it’s like being a full-time programmer. We’re quite the odd couple when you think about it!

At times it feels a lot longer than that. There have been times we really wanted RPG MAKER MV to do something that it just can’t do. There have been times we had to sacrifice things because of memory limitations. Being an odd couple leads to misunderstandings and communication break downs that must be overcome.

Having said that, The Benza overall is a rag tag team made up of the ODDEST couples you’ve ever seen. I think that is what makes our team work. Looking back at this game, it’s the mix of what each individual member of the team brings to the table that has sailed us through the rough waters and got us laughing into the harbor.

When we started this, it really was just Gui and I working on what we thought would take us a couple of months to finish. As we round the two year point and our team stands at about twenty people, it feels really good to have made it this far without giving up.

Looking forward, Gui and I foresee making one more large update in the coming months with finished art work and additional assets. It took about a year and a half, but we both feel very comfortable with where our party members and abilities are at. Unless we get some large feedback from players about something feeling unbalanced, we will be moving forward to Nintendo Switch development.

As we near the end of The Benza RPG’s development, I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all of the people who have messaged me directly over The Benza’s official account on Twitter or via email. We were able to nip some bugs in the butt and handle some balancing issues thanks to your time and support. My favorite message up to now has just been one sentence long. I will sign this blog off with that sentence below.

“Help, how do I kill Bob?” Heh.

-Chris