#dev log!

[wwwow-official]

Yeahhh..

Uhm...

If any of you were wondering why I haven't been posting and such- Thiiiiis is why-

... I love these characters, I really do, but the upmost stress the current project gives me the upmost stress.

So.. it's being remade!

Nearly entirely!!

Like... probably not the same game/project it was, originally. AT ALL.

It'll still have the same characters [mostly], themes [kinda], and story [sorta]... but other than that? It'll be far, far different...

I hope you guys will stick around...

In the meanwhile, feel free to check out my other project - @the-felttip-files !

Stay tuned!! ^^

-Mod Crypt

[14dayswithyou]

HAPPY VARENTINES DAY, ANGEL ! I've been facing some tech issues recently, but!! To celebrate Ren's birthday and Valentine's Day, I'll be releasing Day 5 (the Early Access version) for all the Beta Testers in a few days!

And for those who aren't part of the 14DWY Discord server, don't worry! The public version will be available for everyone to play once the beta testing period is over ^^

[meo-eiru]

DUDE I JUST PLAYED THROUGH THE GAME, WHY IS IT SO SADDDD😭😭😭

and why is he hot

Starling went through quite a few redesigns through the entire development process so let me talk about it a bit :3

It all started with this notes app drawing I made with my finger

Right from the start we knew his tail would be made out of tongues but figuring out how many and placed how was quite hard, I really had to girlmath my way thru

This was the first actual drawing I made of him. The story wasn't complete yet but I went ahead and designed something anyway. Here he was definitely "scarier" and his scar was also placed differently. He had gills on his neck but as you will see I changed their location to under his arms later on. We were actually considering not giving him a tongue of his own so I wanted to make his mouth terrifyingly big and empty.

Here I tried giving him bigger eyes like a fish. This was when his playful and childlike personality had started shaping as you can see from the expressions. I definitely liked this direction better but it also wasn't perfect just yet so I went ahead and did a few more changes

I slowed down on trying to figure out his design a bit after that and instead focused on how his sprite would look. He is a merman after all, he can't just stand straight like a lot of the other visual novel characters. This stage was PAINFUL.

These were the first ones I sketched, we ended up deciding we liked the 3rd one the best.

I carried that 3rd one over to another canvas and started playing around with how we could place his tail, we started entertaining the idea of having him sit on a big rock

This is when his pose really shaped up. The animated Little Mermaid movie was actually a big inspiration, I sat and rewatched the entire movie and studied how they animated her tail

And after that I finally finalized his design. We decided to change the end of his tail to be more eel like for aesthetic purposes (normal tail shape looked weird with tongues)

And for anyone wondering this is what Maelyn looked like at first. Since the story wasn't complete yet I thought it'd take place in a more modern setting and designed her with that in mind but we decided to have the story take place in 1800s so I changed the design based on that. I did a lot of research on glasses and corsets to make the design as accurate as I could.

Yes glasses! We didn't use the sprites in the main story but Maelyn does wear glasses and looks very pretty in them if you ask me. You will be seeing more of it in the bonus episodes!

[unveiling-unguarding]

Maybe this is me being really uncharitable, but I cannot STAND to listen to bioware writers talk about their writing. Like, even before Veilguard eroded my trust in their ability to tell a story competently.

But what's really set me off is Epler "clarifying" what he meant to imply with the secret ending. "The word choice is VERY DELIBERATE"?? No shit, John. That's how writing works. You choose which words to put and in which order. Just because you can discount the implications of those words doesn't mean the rest of us can.

I really don't like being this ornery, especially since the absolute deluge of criticism that can happen online is not fun to be the subject of. But every time I hear something new from them in the context of the Exposition Palooza that was Veilguard, I can't help but feel like they must think I'm an idiot.

[idrellegames]

Since I've been getting a few more asks about Episode 3—no I'm not hiding it from anyone, no it's not going to be released for the public any time soon, and yes, it is being worked on, and yes it is getting closer to being finished!

The majority of it is available to play as an alpha demo on my Patreon, although what currently playable is locked to specific Episode 2 endings.

My quarterly roadmaps are posted both here and on itch.io, and have all the updates about what's going on with Episode 3 and where I am currently am in development (Q1 report is here, Q2 report here!).

Episode 3 is the finale of Act 1. There are a lot of choices, a lot of decisions that will impact the future of your playthrough and your Wayfarer's journey. Many of your decisions from Episode 2 will come back to haunt you (in a good way or a bad way) in Episode 3. This episode is going to change everything, and the game and your Wayfarer will not be the same afterwards.

Finally, Episode 3 is the length of a full IF game due to its complexity. There is a reason why it is taking so long to develop. I know folks are impatient for more, but Wayfarer's episode structure is more like installments in a long-running series than chapters of a book. It takes time to pull off something like this, and I promise it will be worth the wait!

Green parts are playable and in the alpha build; blue is completed but not coded (and therefore are not in the alpha); yellow is in the drafting process; red is not started. word count is cumulative for all variations/routes/paths; single playthroughs will vary greatly in length depending on choices made.

I am very close to the end now, but it is very difficult to accurately estimate how long it will take me to finish. I know some people are angry about this, I know some people are disappointed and frustrated because the game is in-development and not a finished product. I know some people think I died and fell off the map or abandoned the project because it hasn't had a public update in a very long time (I didn't, I've always been here, working away).

I don't like releasing content before it's ready. I also don't like releasing episodes in bite-sized pieces even if it means more regular updates. I don't think that would make the game very enjoyable, and it also would make it buggier, with more time spent fixing stuff that I would have normally caught in the editing phase if I finished more things before coding.

I am well aware that Wayfarer is extremely ambitious in its scale, and I am going to live up to how ambitious it is. Ambition takes time, and also sometimes life hits hard. When you're a solo developer, no one else can pick up the slack if you get sick or have a family crisis or need to take time off, so you are going to perpetually be behind schedule.

(And no, other episodes are not going to be as long or as complicated as Episode 3!)

So, at this point I can't say when Episode 3 is being released. Only that it will be!

[sanguinesky-if]

[Dev Log] June 2025

Hello, I hope you're doing well!

Summer arrived so quickly that I barely noticed while working on the update, but I hope to catch up with everything once it's released.

As for my progress, here's a quick overview of my activity over the past month and my plans for the current one.

Announcement.

For Patreon members: The release date is scheduled for June 28.

In mid-June, I'll post a progress update to let you know how things are going.

Please note that access to the code for the Patreon demo will be disabled until the public release.

For other readers: I'll share some of the sneak peeks previously posted on Patreon a week before the release date [here on the Tumblr blog].

I'd like to note in advance that I don't have an estimated time for the public release. The update may need additional polishing and changes before it's ready to go public.

Thank you so much for your support and interest!

What was done last month?

▹ Chapter 3 Pt. 2: finished working on I's scene and rewrote R's scene.

It's still a bit hard to admit because it slowed my progress, but while working on R's and I's scenes, I realized that what I had originally written just wasn't working well. I had to rewrite both scenes. While I'm happy with how I's scene turned out, I still have some doubts about R's. In short, this rewrite means that a few answers I gave to previous asks are no longer valid [you won't be able to get your MC drunk, and you won't meet another secondary rival]. Even though it was a stressful process to change what was originally planned, I don't regret my decision [I might even reuse the cut content in future scenes].

▹ Stats Changes.

I also spent time revising and refining some of the stats. Here's what the stats will look like in the update [comparison to the public version]:

I know that the stats still aren't perfect, but I think the change made them represent the choices readers can make much better than they did before. Also, there's a small coding feature I wanted to mention: If the MC has a higher "Genuine" stat than "Guarded", some of the ROs will lose alignment points if you choose to lie to them or hide things. It's a very simple mechanic:

However, there are also several ROs whose alignment points increase if the MC shows distrust or acts more guarded, so it's a situational feature.

What will I be working on in June?

Since I've paused Patreon billing, I'll be focusing on releasing the update by the deadline [T's and S's scene are last for a reason].

As I mentioned on Patreon, I was recently prescribed medication, and I'm a bit concerned about potential side effects which could impact my ability to work [and possibly the deadline as well].

Still, I hope that won't be the case. I know you've already waited a long time, and I'm doing my best to make sure the final result lives up to your support.

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

[the-kingshound]

What I've been doing (kind of a dev log)

Starting to change the code in the first few passages for Arthur (FArthur). It will be a bit of a long process but it will be rewarding

Have changed some scenes with Mordred (first meeting, and Morien's answer on him)

Slightly edited the first meeting with Morien

Edited some bugs of the last demo release

Started to slightly edit Arthur's pov scenes. I want to show them as someone who, while seemingly always understanding and calm, is quite anxious and burdened but puts on a very well made persona when in public.

Wrote the very first scene of Chapter 3

What I need to do in the future:

Keep adding the code for Arthur

Add some variations for transfem Arthur and how you expect her (some people refer to her as a man, other as a woman, so MC is understandably confused)

Edit the ch.2 scenes with Mordred

Keep editing Arthur's scenes.

Make some edits to correct the typos + critiques made to ch2 part 2.

Keep writing chapter 3

[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!

[perfectlovevn]

Perfect Love Devlog #58

Muahahaha. Happy Friday the 13th! I've been kinda working on and off for Perfect Love, but I finally can answer that one ask about having Manipulation Milo and Emil interact. On and Thella is there too, I guess. I'm pretty close to finishing this scene I want to say because I just need a couple more mini cgs (which I always procrastinate on) and then I can move onto the next scene which is Thella and Violence Milo's interaction. I also need to remember to do the randomization for the mini chibis.

Right now though I'm kinda struggling on making the last two stories. I know that I want them about Perfect Milo but I'm not sure like what scenario there is. I've asked a couple of people but I can't really visualize a good story yet that I want to write. If you guys have any ideas for two Perfect Milo stories let me know and I'll see if I can add that kind of thing in.

[khywae]

Requiem's Echo is live on khywae.itch.io ! ✨

Enemies-to-lovers, dark secrets, and tension you could cut with a knife… Will you and Leon put your differences aside, or will they draw you together?

See where the story takes you! 🖤

Synopsis:

In a town abandoned by hope and plagued by nightmarish creatures, you are the last line of defense — a lone hunter with nothing left to lose. But when Leon, a government agent with a dangerous charm, arrives to investigate, everything you’ve built threatens to come crashing down. With every exchange, every heated argument, the space between you shrinks, charged with something you can’t name. As you prepare for one final hunt, desire and survival become tangled, the stakes rising as the creatures draw closer — and so do you. With every sunset, the stakes rise. And when dawn finally comes, it will be either salvation, or the end of everything.

[wwwow-official]

Sorry for the silence, friends!!

I've been.. a little preoccupied, with another personal project!

[Cough cough, @the-felttip-files , COUGH-]

That, on top of a wave of lack of motivation was.. not fun!

BUT!~

I'm back!! And I should have some new stuff for you soon!!~

In the meantime... why not send some asks in, hm?? ^^ /nf

Au revoir, for now!~

-Mod Crypt

[allieebobo]

April Dev Log

Hi everyone! 

A little late, but here’s an update on what I’ve been up to in April! My time has been a little bit divided between CT:OS and Merry Crisis (and my day job/work trip), but progress is steady on both.

TLDR: I hope to have an update for Merry Crisis by End-Mar (and some bug fixes + half-chapter content for CT:OS too, if I can swing it)! 

Read the full dev log on Ko-fi / Patreon

[nightfellfangame]

January Dev Log - UNDEREVENT EDITION

Heya! This is Sam, the project lead for NightFell.

Happy Underevent 2024! We are excited to say we've been featured in this year's UnderEvent.

Thank you to the Underevent team and a personal thanks to Octo, FMS, and Rusty for having us. It was wonderful to work with everyone, it's been a blast!

If you haven't seen the trailer, you can find it on the NightFell YouTube channel!

To all the new followers, welcome! This is NightFell, a different take on Underfell. The game's demo is far along, and we plan to release it early this year. We hope you will enjoy our silly passion project. To help tie you all over during the wait, we've got something special for you...

That's right! Everyone's favorite pumpkin girl named Pumpkin is starring in her own YouTube video series! It'll be a comedic look into the world of NightFell, in all of its violent glory! 🎃

As for NightFell, how'd you all like the trailer? What parts stuck out to you, and what aspects did you like/dislike?

I'm happy to finally show off some video footage of the game. While we can't show too much (spoilers), we did get to have some reveals!

Here's our protagonist, Jackie!

And their new best friend, Flowey! He's grown up a bit since we've last seen him.

We'll see you next month for our next dev log update. Thank you for reading!

Wait! Before you go, are you an animator or a coder? We'd love to have you on board!

Sign up here!

[limelocked]

It feels like @staff and @humans have really lost the thread on what tumblr actually is, because tumblr is theoretically not a social media site

Back in ye olden days having your own personal blog with like blogspot was all the rage, it was clunky to find other blogs since they were entire other websites AND THATS WHAT TUMBLR IS

Tumblr is a hub that lets you look at all the new content from your blogs in one place, that’s why it’s so different fundamentally from what I’ll call the MySpace model of social media, that’s why I think redditors as forum users fit into the ecosystem so much faster than twitter people, because Reddit is tumblr but for forums instead of blogs

Trying to make tumblr look and or function like twitter, a fundamentally different product, will just end up making people leave en masse like we did in late 2018 to find greener pastures, and especially pastures that don’t roll out updates in vague corporate speak and with no specific prior notice (because staffs recent post was worded towards shareholders and not Us)

[idrellegames]

Hello all! 

It is the start of a new year and I’m excited to announce Wayfarer’s new development plan. Unlike previous years, I will be doing quarterly roadmaps so I can be more transparent about how things are going and make adjustments should I fall behind. 

The goal for Q1 (January to March) is to finish the Episode 3 finale. This finale is important—it is not just the end of an episode, but the end of Act 1 and represents a major story shift. Some things will come to a head, some things will be resolved, and you will be left with many, many more questions. The final includes two versions that are split between a story consequence from Episode 2—whether the Wayfarer remained hired by the Order of Lethalis or were fired from their mission. These two versions are then split in two branches, for a total of four branches that lead into 3 separate endings. 

The Episode 3 finale has been in development since last summer, and I am hoping to pick up the pace with it and get it out of the drafting stage in the coming months. Should drafting go well, I will be able to code the new material starting in March. It is undecided as of now as to whether it will be added to the alpha build immediately after coding or not. Right now I don’t want to release the finale until everyone can play it regardless of their route (right now there are incomplete starting routes—if you are not on an Aeran or Veyer route, then you will not be able to play Episode 3), but this may change. 

Wayfarer’s roadmap is an estimated timeline and is subject to change. 

The State of the Episode 3 Alpha

right click for higher resolution

This is an overview of where the Episode 3 alpha is currently sitting. There is a lot of playable material with multiple intersecting sections dependent on previous choices, faction approval, and character approval.

As of January 2025, the Episode 3 alpha contains approximately 483,800 words of total playable content (the average play session is much shorter than that). 

Other stats include (for Prologue to Episode 3):

Average Word Count Per Playthrough: 193,900 words (approximate)

Average Playtime: 11 hours

Total Cumulative Word Count: 1,414,800 words (approximate) 

The build was last updated in July 2024. It is playable on my Patreon.

FAQs

—When will Episode 3 be finished?

There is no release date! The goal is for this year.

—When is the next public build update?

TBD. Episode 3 will not be released publicly until the Episode 4 alpha is finished. As I am still working on Episode 3, it will be a long wait. I will be doing some maintenance patches on the public build this year, but they will not be content updates.  

—It’s been over 2 years since Episode 2, why is it taking so long?

I’m a solo developer, so when I get sick or need to take off due to personal reasons, that is development time lost. Unfortunately, 2023 and 2024 were both unexpectedly difficult years and despite my best attempts to stay on track, delays happened. Wayfarer’s scope is very ambitious and I know this; I am making cuts where I can, but there is a balance between scaling down and losing the vision entirely. Wayfarer is built on the idea that your choices matter, and to make those choices meaningful and impactful takes time.  

—Is every episode going to take this long?

Nope! Episode 3 is unique in how all its threads come together. I certainly do not intend to take this long with following episodes.

—When will we meet the other companions (the characters on the cover art)?

Alexia, Ren, and Calla will be introduced in Episode 4 and 5. Nelani is introduced in Episode 6 and Felix in Episode 7, which marks the end of Game 1.     

Thank you so much for your continued support! Let's get this done. ❤️

~ Anna  Idrelle Games