#dev log

[qwertyprophecy]

Mortholme Post-Mortem

The Dark Queen of Mortholme has been out for two weeks, and I've just been given an excellent excuse to write some more about its creation by a lenghty anonymous ask.

Under the cut, hindsight on the year spent making Mortholme and answers to questions about game dev, grouped under the following topics:

Time spent on development Programming Obstacles Godot Animation Pixel art Environment assets Writing Completion Release

Regarding time spent on development

Nope, I’ve got no idea anymore how long I spent on Mortholme. It took a year but during that time I worked on like two other games and whatever else. And although I started with the art, I worked on all parts simultaneously to avoid getting bored. This is what I can say:

Art took a ridiculous amount of time, but that was by choice (or compulsion, one might say). I get very excitable and particular about it. At most I was making about one or two Hero animations in a day (for a total of 8 + upgraded versions), but anything involving the Queen took multiple times longer. When I made the excecutive decision that her final form was going to have a bazillion tentacles I gave up on scheduling altogether.

Coding went quickly at the start when I was knocking out a feature after another, until it became the ultimate slow-burn hurdle at the end. Testing, bugfixing, and playing Jenga with increasingly unwieldy code kept oozing from one week to the next. For months, probably? My memory’s shot but I have a mark on my calendar on the 18th of August that says “Mortholme done”. Must’ve been some optimistic deadline before the ooze.

Writing happened in extremely productive week-long bursts followed by nothing but nitpicky editing while I focused on other stuff. Winner in the “changed most often” category, for sure.

Sound was straightforward, after finishing a new set of animations I spent a day or two to record and edit SFX for them. Music I originally scheduled two weeks for, but hubris and desire for more variants bumped it to like a month.

Regarding programming

The Hero AI is certainly the part that I spent most of my coding time on. The basic way the guaranteed dodging works is that all the Queen’s attacks send a signal to the Hero, who calculates a “danger zone” based on the type of attack and the Queen’s location. Then, if the Hero is able to dodge that particular attack (a probability based on how much it's been used & story progression), they run a function to dodge it.

Each attack has its own algorithm that produces the best safe target position to go to based on the Hero’s current position (and other necessary actions like jumping). Those algorithms needed a whole lot of testing to code counters for all the scenarios that might trip the Hero up.

The easiest or at least most fun parts for me to code are the extra bells and whistles that aren’t critical but add flair. Like in the Hero’s case, the little touches that make them seem more human: a reaction speed delay that increases over time, random motions and overcompensation that decrease as they gain focus, late-game Hero taking prioritising aggressive positiniong, a “wait for last second” function that lets the Hero calculate how long it’ll take them to move to safety and use the information to squeeze an extra attack in…

The hardest attack was the magic circle, as it introduced a problem in my code so far. The second flare can overlap with other attacks, meaning the Hero had to keep track of two danger zones at once. For a brief time I wanted to create a whole new system that would constantly update a map of all current danger zones—that would allow for any number of overlapping attacks, which would be really cool! Unfortunately it didn’t gel with my existing code, and I couldn’t figure out its multitudes of problems since, well…

Regarding obstacles

Thing is, I’m hot garbage as a programmer. My game dev’s all self-taught nonsense. So after a week of failing to get this cool system to work, I scrapped it and instead made a spaghetti code monstrosity that made magic circle run on a separate danger zone, and decided I’d make no more overlapping attacks. That’s easy; I just had to buffer the timing of the animation locks so that the Hero would always have time to move away. (I still wanted to keep the magic circle, since it’s fun for the player to try and trick the Hero with it.)

There’s my least pretty yet practical solo dev advice: if you get stuck because you can’t do something, you can certainly try to learn how to do it, but occasionally the only way to finish a project within a decade to work around those parts and let them be a bit crap.

I’m happy to use design trickery, writing and art to cover for my coding skills. Like, despite the anonymous asker’s description, the Hero’s dodging is actually far from perfect. I knew there was no way it was ever going to be, which is why I wrote special dialogue to account for a player finding an exploit that breaks the intended gameplay. (And indeed, when the game was launched, someone immediately found it!)

Regarding Godot

It’s lovely! I switched from Unity years ago and it’s so much simpler and more considerate of 2D games. The way its node system emphasises modularity has improved my coding a lot.

New users should be aware that a lot of tutorials and advice you find online may be for Godot 3. If something doesn’t work, search for what the Godot 4 equivalent is.

Regarding animation

I’m a professional animator, so my list of tips and techniques is a tad long… I’ll just give a few resource recommendations: read up on the classic 12 principles of animation (or the The Illusion of Life, if you’d like the whole book) and test each out for yourself. Not every animation needs all of these principles, but basically every time you’ll be looking at an animation and wondering how to make it better, the answer will be in paying attention to one or more of them.

Game animation is its own beast, and different genres have their own needs. I’d recommend studying animations that do what you’d like to do, frame by frame. If you’re unsure of how exactly to analyse animation for its techniques, youtube channel New Frame Plus shows an excellent example.

Oh, and film yourself some references! The Queen demanded so much pretend mace swinging that it broke my hoover.

Regarding pixel art

The pixel art style was picked for two reasons: 1. to evoke a retro game feel to emphasise the meta nature of the narrative, and 2. because it’s faster and more forgiving to animate in than any of my other options.

At the very start I was into the idea of doing a painterly style—Hollow Knight was my first soulslike—but quickly realised that I’d either have to spend hundreds of hours animating the characters, or design them in a simplistic way that I deemed too cutesy for this particular game. (Hollow Knight style, one day I’d love to emulate you…)

I don’t use a dedicated program, just Photoshop for everything like a chump. Pixel art doesn’t need anything fancy, although I’m sure specialist programs will keep it nice and simple.

Pixel art’s funny; its limitations make it dependent on symbolism, shortcuts and viewer interpretation. You could search for some tutorials on basic principles (like avoiding “jaggies” or the importance of contrast), but ultimately you’ll simply want to get a start in it to find your own confidence in it. I began dabbling years ago by asking for character requests on Tumblr and doodling them in pixels in whatever way I could think of.

Regarding environment assets

The Queen’s throne room consists of two main sprites—one background and one separate bit of the door for the Hero disappear behind—and then about fifty more for the lighting setup. There’s six different candle animations, there’s lines on the floor that need to go on top of character reflections, all the candle circles and lit objects are separated so that the candles can be extinguished asynchronously; and then there’s purple phase 2 versions of all of the above.

This is all rather dumb. There’s simpler ways in Godot to do 2D lighting with shaders and a built-in system (I use those too), but I wanted control over the exact colours so I just drew everything in Photoshop the way I wanted it. Still, it highlights how mostly you only need a single background asset and separated foreground objects; except if you need animated objects or stuff that needs to change while the game’s running, you’ll get a whole bunch more.

I wholeheartedly applaud having a go at making your own game art, even if you don’t have any art background! The potential for cohesion in all aspects of design—art, game, narrative, sound—is at the heart of why video games are such an exciting medium!

Regarding writing

Finding the voices of the Queen and the Hero was the quick part of the process. They figured that out they are almost as soon as writing started. I’d been mulling this game over in my mind for so long, I had already a specific idea in mind of what the two of them stood for, conceptually and thematically. When they started bantering, I felt like all I really had to do was to guide it along the storyline, and then polish.

What ended up taking so long was that there was too much for them to say for how short the game needed to be to not feel overstretched. Since I’d decided to go with two dialogue options on my linear story, it at least gave me twice the amount of dialogue that I got to write, but it wasn’t enough!

The first large-scale rewrite was me going over the first draft and squeezing in more interesting things for the Queen and the Hero to discuss, more branching paths and booleans. There was this whole thing where the player’s their dialogue choices over multiple conversations would lead them to about four alternate interpretations of why the Queen is the way she is. This was around the time I happened to finally play Disco Elysium, so of course I also decided to also add a ton of microreactivity (ie. small changes in dialogue that acknowledge earlier player choices) to cram in even more alternate dialogue. I spent ages tinkering with the exact nuances till I was real proud of it.

Right until the playtesters of this convoluted contraption found the story to be unclear and confusing. For some reason. So for my final rewrite, I picked out my favourite bits and cut everything else. With the extra branching gone, there was more room to improve the pacing so the core of the story could breathe. The microreactivity got to stay, at least!

A sample of old dialogue from the overcomplicated version:

Regarding completion

The question was “what kept me going to actually finish the game, since that is a point many games never even get to meet?” and it’s a great one because I forgot that’s a thing. Difficulties finishing projects, that is—I used to think it was hard, but not for many years. Maybe I’ve completed so many small-scale games already that it hardly seems that unreasonable of an expectation? (Game jams. You should do game jams.)

I honestly never had any doubt I was going to finish Mortholme. When I started in late autumn last year, I was honestly expecting the concept to be too clunky to properly function; but I wished to indulge in silliness and make it exist anyways. That vision would’ve been easy to finish, a month or two of low stakes messing around, no biggie. (Like a game jam!)

Those months ran out quickly as I had too much fun making the art to stop. It must’ve been around the time I made this recording that it occurred to me that even if the game was going to be clunky, it could still genuinely work on the back of good enough storytelling technique—not just writing, but also the animation and the Hero’s evolving behaviour during the gameplay segments which I’d been worried about. The reaction to my early blogging was also heartening. Other people could also imagine how this narrative could be interesting!

A few weeks after that I started planning out the narrative beats I wanted the dialogue to reach, and came to the conclusion that I really, really wanted it to work. Other people had to see this shit, I thought. There’s got to be freaks out there who’d love to experience this tragedy, and I’m eager to deliver.

That’s why I was fine with the project’s timeline stretching out. If attention to detail and artistry was going to make this weird little story actually come to life, then great, because that’s exactly the part of development I love doing most. Projects taking longer than expected can be frustrating, but accepting that as a common part of game dev is what allows confidence in eventual their completion regardless.

Regarding release

Dear anonymous’s questions didn’t involve post-release concerns, but it seems fitting to wrap up the post-mortem by talking about the two things about Mortholme's launch that were firsts for me, and thus I was unprepared for.

1. This was the first action game I've coded. Well, sort of—I consider Mortholme to be a story first and foremost, with gameplay so purposefully obnoxious it benefits from not being thought of as a “normal” game. Still, the action elements are there. For someone who usually sticks to making puzzle games since they’re easier to code, this was my most mechanically fragile game yet. So despite all my attempts at playtesting and failsafes, it had a whole bunch of bugs on release.

Game-breaking bugs, really obvious bugs, weird and confusing bugs. It took me over a week to fix all that was reported (and I’m only hoping they indeed are fully fixed). That feels slow; I should’ve expected it was going to break so I could’ve been faster to respond. Ah well, next time I know what I’ll be booking my post-release week for.

2. This was my first game that I let players give me money for. Sure, it’s pay-what-you-want, but for someone as allergic to business decisions as I am, it was a big step. I guess I was worried of being shown that nobody would consider my art worth financial compensation. Well, uh, that fear has gone out of the window now. I’m blown away by how kind and generous the players of Mortholme have been with their donations.

I can’t imagine it's likely to earn a living wage from pouring hundreds of hours into pay-what-you-want passion projects, but the support has me heartened to seek out a future where I could make these weird stories and a living both.

Those were the unexpected parts. The part I must admit I was expecting—but still infinitely grateful for—was that Mortholme did in fact reach them freaks who’d find it interesting. The responses, comments, analyses, fan works (there’s fic and art!! the dream!!), inspiration, and questions (like the ones prompting me to write this post-mortem) people have shared with me thanks to Mortholme… They’ve all truly been what I was hoping for back when I first gave myself emotions thinking about a mean megalomaniac and stubborn dipshit.

Thank you for reading, thank you for playing, and thank you for being around.

[glitches-and-bugs]

Oh No

PLEASE STOP SCROLLING

I am in Huge Danger. I can't afford ANYTHING. I'm sorry I keep making posts like this I thought I was fine this time and apparently I'm very fucked.

I'm a transmasc disabled autistic person and I am in need of serious help.

P*yp*l

Kofi

DM me for other payment options.

If you want commission info, also DM me I'm very desperate and flexible. SFW and otherwise.

Even if you can't donate, reblog!! Anything helps!

[idrellegames]

To celebrate Wayfarer’s third anniversary this September, we are hosting a fan works event and giveaway. The event is open to all, and there are no length or skill requirements for entries.

Up for grabs are 3 year-long access keys to Wayfarer’s alpha build.

✦ DATES

Entries are accepted from September 9, 2024 (12:00AM PDT) to September 30, 2024 (11:59 PM PDT)

Early or late entries are welcome, but will not count towards the giveaway

Winners will be drawn and contacted on October 7, 2024

Winners will be contacted via DM on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram

✦ PRIZES

1 access key to Wayfarer’s alpha build

3 winners

Access keys will expire after 1 year

You must have an itch.io account in order to claim a prize

✦ RULES

The giveaway is open to all types of fan creation (fan art, fanfiction, whatever you want!)

NO AI GENERATED ENTRIES. Using AI will result in an immediate disqualification.

Do not claim someone else’s work as your own.

Using prompts is not mandatory. Entries that are not inspired by a prompt still count!

Entries are accepted on Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram.

You can post on other platforms (i.e. AO3) so long as you link it in a post on Tumblr, Twitter or Instagram.

You must tag @idrellegames to enter.

You may enter as many times as you wish up to 14 times.

Cross-posting to multiple platforms does not count as multiple entries (i.e. posting the same entry to Tumblr and Twitter will only count once)

Works based on Episode 3 or Patreon short stories are allowed! Please use spoiler tags accordingly.

As part of my fan work policies, I will not be reading or commenting on any fan fiction submitted for this event.

Other Socials itch.io | twitter | instagram

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] November 2024

Hello, happy belated Halloween to you!

This dev log includes announcements of upcoming release dates and a brief overview of what was accomplished over the past month, so you might find it interesting to read to the end.

Announcement [Patreon Members]

With the start of this month, changes have been made to the Patreon tiers [Civilian $1 and Inspector $7].

If you haven't familiarized yourself with the updates yet, please be sure to read this post. Thank you for your support! ♥

Announcement [Release Dates]

Here's the release schedule for the upcoming updates:

Demo Expansion: November 9 [Patreon]

L's Side Story: November 30 [Patreon]

Demo Update [Chapter 3 Part 1]: December 7 [Public]

The full list of changes in the expanded demo will be included in the release post, but you can get a preliminary look at them here [in the "About my plans for the current month" section].

Regarding the public demo release: I had planned to release it earlier, at the end of November, but with L's Side Story release, I just won't have time to compile all the files.

Thank you for your patience and for waiting, I hope you'll find it worthwhile!

What was accomplished last month?

Refined the prologue and most scenes in Chapter 1, as well as some in Chapter 2 [especially I's scene].

Besides fixing grammar, I smoothed out parts of the narrative that felt choppy or awkward to improve the overall flow. Some elements in Chapter 1 still need polishing, but for now, my main focus is preparing the Expanded Demo for release. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted error reports. They were incredibly helpful, and I truly appreciate your time and support in improving my story!

Implemented height difference variables.

I've been working on how to best address the height difference between the ROs and the MC since I want the narrative to be responsive to these changes. However, since the two versions of the same RO differ in height depending on their gender, I had to implement 7 new variables to avoid writing multiple *if statements all the time.

A very simple example of usage: @{M_tall 1|2|3|4} = @{M_tall much shorter than you, around|shorter than you, around|around|taller than you, around} Mentions of height differences in the narrative will mostly if you choose flirt options.

Added additional customization for moles.

Thanks to the MC pictures that readers sent me [created with Picrew and drawn], I've decided to add this option for the MC customization. This option won't be mentioned in the narrative, but I thought it would be nice to give readers this choice, hoping that including it in character creation will help some of the players feel more connected to their MC.

About my plans for the current month.

This month will be entirely dedicated to preparing for the demo and side story releases.

In addition to that, the bonus content on Patreon that will be released this month will include:

T's NSFW Alphabet.

A short story [featuring I].

A detailed content release schedule for Patreon can be found here.

Author's Note.

Due to a heavy workload, I unfortunately cannot be active here and answer asks as often as I used to, and I apologize if you did not receive a reply.

I hope to have more time in December once the public update is released, especially since it will also mark one year since the demo was first released! ☺️

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[gravitycircuit]

🎂🥳IT'S GRAVITY CIRCUIT'S ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! 🥳🎂 Time sure has flown by, can't believe we're already a full year on from the game's release, and the reception still has us floored! To celebrate, we've got a few things in store for you lovely folks -- starting off with this wonderful group piece by @jmanvelez! Stay tuned for more! Have you played the game? What did you think? Let us know! Remember, Gravity Circuit is available now on PC, Nintendo Switch and Sony PS4/PS5!

[calliopefiction]

Misplaced

Misplaced is a fantasy romance IF wherein your choices not only determine your own fate, but that of an entire kingdom. Let me take you on an adventure filled with both whimsy and tragedy alike.

The current public demo goes up to the end of Chapter 8.

The demo on Patreon goes up to the end of Chapter 9.

The Story:

For decades, the human kingdom of Gaiapeia has been in conflict with the fae living in the surrounding lands. There's no end in sight - in fact, an outright war seems more likely with each passing day.

You are the child of Lady and Sir Grahm, a noble family who has been serving the crown for generations. Eager to follow in your father's footsteps, you have been training for years to become a knight worthy of being Prince Az'Lean's Champion - his right hand, his closest confidant, the one who protects his life from the growing danger of the fae.

When the time finally comes and you are chosen for the position, it's a dream come true. You couldn't be happier, but just one day later on your 21st birthday, a terrible truth is revealed to you.

You are a changeling - a fae child that was smuggled into a human family with only one purpose: to gain the prince's trust and use it against him.

A war between humans and fae is slowly but surely brewing, and the outcome depends entirely on your choices. 

Will you choose a side or try to make peace? 

Will you embrace what you are or reject it? 

And who will you let in on your secret?

Features:

Customize the appearance of your MC, play as non-binary, female, or male and romance whoever you like however you like, including the option of asexual or queer-platonic relationships.

Enjoy the story without having to worry about stats - you will be a competent knight no matter what. There is no failure or success, only different choices and their outcomes.

Shape your personality, and your trustworthiness, with your actions. How other characters feel about you will change depending on how they perceive you.

Pick a side early on, play the long con, or refuse to make a choice at all. There are multiple split paths that will feature the same romancable characters - but their relationship to you might vary greatly (including villain romances).

Romance:

Vynn (nb): A fellow knight and your best friend

Unlike you, Vynn isn't a knight by choice and doesn't care much for fighting. They'd much rather be a bard if they could, seeing as they love playing the lute, spinning epic tales, and generally being a source of levity. They are fiercely loyal and good-natured, though there is that bit of resentment that will never quite leave their heart.

Az'Lean (m): The prince and the one you are sworn to protect

At a glance, Az'Lean is the very picture of a fairytale prince: charming, chivalrous, and powerful. He is an excellent fighter, loves animals, and prefers to be treated like an equal. Anyone who cares to look will soon notice the darkness lurking beneath that shining exterior, festering ever since the death of his mother.

Maeve (f): A powerful dryad and your teacher on the ways of the fae

Maeve is usually playful and soft, though she can get eerily intense at times. As much as she cares about decorum and courtly things, she finds joy in the simplest pleasures and easily turns into a giggly mess. For all her humour, you can never quite tell if she is being serious. Sometimes it feels like she's just playing with you.

Thianne (f): A sorceress and one of Az'Lean's most trusted advisors

Thianne is intelligent and hard-working, though sometimes at the expense of her own well-being. Although she comes across as abrasive and rude, she is always willing to help those who need it. Her dry sense of humour and brutal honesty have endeared her to just as many people as they have made her enemies.

Lester (m): A half-fae and servant in the castle

As with most half-fae, Lester's presence isn't entirely welcome, and his reasons for being here seem deeper than he lets on. Lester is known for his mischief and his crude humour, often pulling pranks that border on malicious. Despite the way he presents himself as laid-back and uncaring, it's clear that there's a lot he isn't opening up about.

Warnings:

This story contains potentially triggering content. There will be graphic depictions of violence, death, discrimination, body-image issues, mental illness (including panic attacks, suicidal thoughts and paranoia), discussions of genocide, war, and terminal illness. 

Discretion is advised. More warnings might be added at a later date.

Support:

Thank you so much for showing any interest in this project at all! If you would like to receive biweekly update posts, participate in polls, and get access to bonus short stories, consider supporting me on Patreon.

[titanelite22]

The Coffin Of Andy And Leyley Progress report 9

TW// Mentions Of Abuse

• Interesting to see that we'll get to play as Julia in the future episodes. Julia is the one thing that helps Andrew feel and look "normal," so any cracks under the surface will be really obvious when they're presented while playing as Julia.

• ANDREW IS NOT INNOCENT ‼️ Yes, Ashley has fucked him up, but she's only half the reason. This guy did not give a FUCK about Julia telling him that she was receiving explicit and graphic threatening voicemails. Like, dude, that's your GIRLFRIEND... He didn't even offer to call the police or anything...

• We need to see more of how Julia and Andy act around each other, but the whole snapping because she's asking valid questions? It feels so controlling in the sense that now that he's snapped at her like this, she's probably gonna be afraid to bring this conversation up again in the future. She'll probably be afraid to say something he won't like or disagree with him as well.

And if she DOES bring it up again, he's gonna snap again, and she'll immediately bend and apologise to him. It's a cycle. The last text reads, 'You forgot what you wanted to talk to him about'. That's the goal. He's gonna react like that everything she brings it up. Also, the casual language ("Nah", all the sighing, his facial expressions), saying things like "is that it?". It's so demeaning.

• Ah, yes, the high school rumours were incest rumours as we expected. I wonder how they (mainly Ashley lol) acted around everyone else for these rumours to even start.

• A lot of people picked up on this, and I'm glad I wasn't the only one - What Andrew said at the end? Those are literally the things he would say to Ashley. "Nothing will ever fustrate me like you do," "I'll forgive you for everything and for anything." He's literally talking to Julia like she's Ashley... Even the way he hugs Julia is similar to how he hugs Ashley.

TLDR;

• Nemlei got tired of people victimising Andrew lol

[notoh-dev]

The Doctrine of Perseverance (Re)Announcement

The Doctrine of Perseverance is an indie horror and mystery game currently in development. It is being developed in RPG Maker MV and includes visual novel elements. A freeware demo was released in 2016. At the time of initial demo release, I was a senior in high school. Since then, I have spent many years developing my art and have returned to my first project. The game is still early in development, so everything is still subject to change, but I still hope you find interest in my project! I'd like to showcase some updated portraits from the 2016 version.

Melrose, the main character. The story begins on her thirteenth birthday (this portrait not yet shown), where a traumatic house fire takes place. Three years later, on Melrose's sixteenth birthday, the events of the past manifest themselves once again, showing that what happened on that day is far from over.

Suzetta, a childhood friend of Melrose. A stark contrast to Melrose, she is upbeat, mischievous, and more often than not, the most mature in their friend group. Her father is a close friend of Melrose's mom, Florence.

Silas is a friend of both Melrose and Suzetta and also Suzetta's neighbor. His family harbors distrust toward Melrose's family and the renowned 'founding families' in the city of Noxton.

For those interested in the previous rendition of the game, @flareblitzedyt has a great playthrough and playlist featuring it on Youtube. Although, I must advice that many story elements have changed since then.

The previous demo was taken down a couple of years ago, but the game page for it is still up. I intend to update it in the future. Thank you for reading, stayed tuned for additional information and screenshots!

[entryn17]

I MADE A SITE FOR MY GAME !!!

VISIT IT HERE!

for now there is only a home page, an about with a summary and links to 6 different characters and their short descriptions. FAQ not available at this time. please note that this site doesn't look quite right on anything other than desktop. i'm still working on mobile compatibility!

[allieebobo]

Hiya everyone! ❤️

I'm starting a new thing where I do a monthly dev log to keep everyone a little peek behind the curtain on what's been cookin'. 

I love the community that has been built around these Interactive Fiction games so, so much, and although I'm not as good on social media as I should be, one thing I'd like to  prioritize is giving y'all a glimpse of the development work!

Read it here!

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Dev update for CT:OS and Merry Crisis

Hi guys! Sorry it's been a while!

Life update

I've been so busy at work that I've barely had time to rest and hang with friends and family, let alone write as much as I need. I've still been spending some of my weekends writing, but rapidly discovering how little I can get done with just 5 or 6 hours of writing per week. (Crazy how much time IF-writing takes haha)

It's just peak busy period for my job right now before holiday season and things will calm down in December.

CT:OS

As y'all may know, I had been hoping to release the update in early Nov for early release folks and mid Nov for public folk.

I am still aiming to squeeze out the CT:OS update by end of Nov or early Dec and I wanted to let you all know where I'm at!

The scenes are about 95% written (all the way up to the end of the matches currently, I'm just finishing up the win/lose reactions and editing)!!

As of right now, the new update stands at a mammoth 90k+ words with code, but I think something like 35-40k in a playthrough, and there are new RO kisses for all ROs :)

The good news despite these delays is that this update (far from being a short pt. 2), is actually meaty enough to really stand as its own update.

Merry Crisis

I'll update again when I have a bit of a sense when CT:OS is done and how busy my December looks.

Ko-fi

Finally, because I don't want ko-fi folk to be paying out of pocket for this month as its taking a bit longer than expected, I will be refunding ko-fi monthly payments from beginning of Nov until the next update, which I hope will be before Dec.

Once again thanks everyone for continuing to read/play the IFs, supporting me, and sending me love/messages :)

❤️ hope to have some great update news for you guys soon!

[dreamtydraw]

GAME ANNOUNCEMENT,

APPLE BAG EXTENDED DEMO IS GETTING DELAYED.

Hi ! I need to do a little check regarding the development of the game. I originally planned to release the extend demo October 31 for yuri game jam, halloween but also the 1 year anniversary of the demo.

Why did it got delayed then ?

Simple : health reason.

No need to worry too much but apple bag is indeed getting delayed because of my health. I'm a person who's constantly anxious and this has physical repercussion on my body which is not ideal since i write, program and draw for this game. To not cause further stress in my daily life ( since my school does it enough for me ) I'm delaying the date release to not suffer from production stress but also be sure nothing gets rushed for the update. I really wish I could have done it for the anniversary but I have to accept that stuff happen.

Worry not the game is still in active production, it just pass on the second plan in regard of my other obligations. As of right now here are all the current updates of production

-Made 3 new illustrations

-Gave all the characters new sprites + additional characters

-Casted secondary character va

-Rewrote the current demo + wrote the first draft of Aissata's day 2 and 3 events.

-Fixed the french gui problem of the current demo.

-The game's gui is being changed by someone who know better about game design than I do...

I haven't forgot the dtiys ! I need some time but i'll be making a post to announce the winner soon. That all the news I can offer as of now. Thank you for supporting the game or simply supporting me. I appreciate all the nice art and words I have received regarding the characters, it means a lot.

Wishing everyone a good day, and if you don't even know what apple bag is, here is a link for you to go play it !

[glitches-and-bugs]

I'm told there are... Ships. Tell me about those, dear viewers.

[idrellegames]

Hello all!

I hope you are having a fantastic July. It has been a bit quiet on the Wayfarer front recently, but there are many things happening behind-the-scenes.

Episode 3 is reaching its conclusion. While the episode is far from finished, it is finally approaching an end. I can’t say when the alpha will be complete or when it will be available to play publicly, but I am very glad that it is progressing. This is likely going to be the most complex episode to date and there are many variations within it to explore and replay.  

Episode 3 was last updated on July 5, 2024. Currently, it includes:

Two starting routes (this is dependent on your Episode 2 ending—you need to have gotten either Aeran's romance or friendship reconciliation ending, Aeran's low romance ending, or Veyer's ending in order to continue)

A large exploration sequence with multiple options of how to proceed

New lore and new mysteries

A new flashback sequence with your mentor

"Quality" time with Aeran (whether this is a good thing or not depends on your approval levels, but I can promise that low approval routes are a treat)

The episode is sitting at approximately 480,000 words for all total content (individual playthroughs will vary drastically depending on your choices).

If you’re interested in checking out the alpha build, now is a great time to join my Patreon. Annual subscriptions come with a 15% discount.

Please note that the alpha build is only available to the Recruit, Apprentice, Wayfarer, Master, and Grandmaster tiers.

Additionally, subscription billing is now available for monthly memberships. This means that the old Patreon format of charging on the first of the month is no more—subscription memberships now renew on the same date you signed up for that membership (i.e. if you signed up on July 10 then your next charge date would be on August 10).

More information is available here.

Creating Wayfarer is a full-time commitment and its development is solely funded through Patreon. It covers my bills, living expenses, and other costs to improve the game’s quality. I am extremely grateful to everyone who has supported my work over the years.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out! 💖

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] December 2024

Hello, I apologize for the delay in releasing the dev log.

I'm currently away from home because a couple I'm friends with urgently asked me to pet-sit their animals while they took an unplanned business trip, so I didn't have time to prepare a post in advance.

This dev log includes:

A reminder of the release date for the public update.

An answer to the question of when to expect the next update.

Information about content that will be released this month [in honor of the New Year and the anniversary of the demo release].

A small addition to the "Secondary Rivals" section in the Romance System Overview.

Let's start from the beginning.

[Reminder] Public update release date

The public release of Chapter 3 Pt. 1 is scheduled for December 7.

Thank you for your patience and support!

A small note for my patrons: I really appreciate your help and support, but please note that saves from the Patreon demo will not work on the public release [since the files will be merged, as mentioned in the Patreon demo release post]. However, I will keep a working Patreon demo link for you where your saves will still work until the next update is released. I hope this will be helpful!

When will work begin on the next update [Chapter 3 Pt. 2]?

The work on the outline for the current draft I have for Chapter 3 Pt. 2 will begin after the New Year [a month after the public release, which is scheduled for December 7].

What was accomplished last month?

L's Side Story release.

There were some grammatical errors and a few coding inconsistencies because I used one of the variables incorrectly in the penetration moment ["the MC takes the initiative" scene]. Both issues have been fixed, and I apologize for the inconvenience. To my patrons, thank you so much for your support, patience and for helping with the errors. I'm glad if you enjoyed the story!

Bug fixes in the extended version of the demo.

There weren't many, but I still found a fixed some [mostly grammatical, as usual].

About my plans for the current month.

December 17 will mark the anniversary of the demo's release, and with the New Year approaching, I want to create something special to celebrate both occasions.

Throughout December, I'll be working on a collection of winter/New Year's themed short interactive stories, one for each of the ROs [featuring choices for the MC's name, gender, and one bold/shy flirt option].

Planned release: [Patreon]: end of December / first week of January. [Public]: a week after the release on Patreon.

I've also decided to release one of the stories in December before the full collection comes out.

It means the most-voted story and the most-voted alphabet will be released this month as bonus content on Patreon [I'm still waiting for the poll results since I released the post a little later than planned].

Secondary Rivals [a minor addition].

A small addition has been made to the Romance System Overview in the "Secondary Rivals" section:

Options marked [♡] establish relationship with the secondary rivals and unlock special scenes and narrative changes later on the story.

Thank you for reading to the end and for your support! Have a wonderful week and days after that! ♥

[gravitycircuit]

To commemorate Gravity Circuit's One Year Anniversary, our composer Dominic Ninmark has whipped up a banging Eurobeat remix -- free for all to enjoy! 🎶

Thumbnail artwork provided by @jmanvelez ! 🎨

Give it a listen on YouTube!🎧 Remember, you can also listen to the whole game's OST on YouTube here! If you want to support Dominic's work, you can buy the OST from his bandcamp page here!