Progress Report 2024.06.13.: June Progress
Added 2024-06-14 02:05:08 +0000 UTCHi friends,
I hope you are all having a good June! This month has been very busy as I’ve been prepping the next update. I’m not sure when it will be released, but I am hoping for sometime next weekend. I am slowly getting back my inspiration and energy, and for the first time in a really long time I am excited to work on this episode. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it is easy work or that it will happen quickly, but it does mean that things are happening!
In other news, the public build was patched on June 3rd (this update does not affect the alpha build at all). It has been a while since I patched the public build as updates almost always break old save files in some way, but it is good to get it out and some of the lingering bugs and typos fixed. More importantly, the news I released in January has been announced publicly—Wayfarer is being divided into a trilogy, with the first game ending with Episode 7. Titles of the individual games are TBA. If you missed it, you can read the Patreon announcement here or the public one here.
Additionally, I am trying to finish up some admin this month. Tumblr has been my main platform for social media since I started this project (I have a hard time using Twitter and Instagram since I’m not personally fond of those platforms and I struggle to figure out what kind of material to post and share, especially on IG where everything is image-based and I don't necessarily have images to share). I’ve been using my development blog as a landing page since 2020, but I think the time has come to move on from that.
While the desktop version does function like an independent website, it’s not really accessible to players who don’t have accounts, and anyone who solely uses it through the mobile app can’t access its pages. This has made doing updates a little difficult because every time I adjust the FAQ, I have to update it in three places (itch, on tumblr desktop, then again on the separate post for mobile users), which turns it into a much larger task than it should be.
I’m not really in a place where I can figure out a customizable website and how many resources I want to maintaining it. I am thinking of maybe making a Carrd in the interim so Wayfarer has a more accessible landing page and also a permanent spot for a FAQ I can link to so it only has to be updated in one spot. I will still be keeping my tumblr blog active as I like the community there and it’s my preferred space to interact with players and the fandom, but I think I do need something else in addition to it.
For Patrons in the Apprentice tier and up – bonus content is scheduled to come back in July. I am not entirely ready for it since Episode 3 isn’t as far along as I had hoped it would be, but I do want to get back to writing pieces. I am not sure what it shape these will take; I think I will likely lean towards supplemental stories rather than writing advice and IF resources.
If you are in this tier and haven’t checked out the bonus content backlog yet, you can find the short stories here and general bonus content here!
If you have any questions, please comment below.
Thank you all so much for your support! 💖
Comments
Thanks for the feedback, and I'm glad you're enjoying the game! Your comments do highlight some of the challenges that are involved with making an interactive fiction game like this, so I hope I can address your concerns here. Wayfarer's player character is less of a blank slate protagonist and more of a character with a loose pre-determined personality and skills. It's an RPG not in the way where you can make up everything and have complete control (like D&D, for example), but in the way of an RPG where you have been given a role to play (like Dragon Age: Inquisition). The player is able to choose which aspects of that personality or skill come out in a given moment. The challenge here for me as a developer is trying to offer as many choices as possible for the player to explore, while still keeping things condensed enough to keep the word count at a realistic place (there are already over 1 million words in the game's text). Something to keep in mind, too, is that the player character's base personality needs to fit a broad scope of options--this game isn't just for male characters, it is for female and nonbinary ones, too, as well as a wide array of sexualities, including asexuality. Unfortunately, this means that there will be moments where players feel that if they were in this situation they would react a certain way but this option is not available to them. The other thing to keep in mind here is that the world of Wayfarer has a completely different culture from our own. You mentioned the bath scene in Episode 2--there is nothing special for the PC to respond to as communal baths are part of daily life and something all adults are used to. Rhesainians do not view nudity in the same way as you or I might. It's a similar thing with wanting more flirt options. Even though the player may want to flirt with someone or pursue them more directly, there are limitations in how the player character would realistically act in that scenario. As a Wayfarer, the player character is someone most people exercise caution around due to their combat training and ability to suppress magic; flirting with everyone under the sun isn't something that would occur to them. There are two characters who stand out to them at the gala (Melchior and Phaedra) and they can flirt with them. Aeran also has an unlockable romance scene in Episode 2, and the player character can optionally have a tryst with Veyer. Additionally, Wayfarer isn't a romance game. It has romance as a element, but it is not its main focus. It is still early days and there will be plenty more characters to flirt with down the road, especially in Episode 4. If you're curious, the character roster is here, just sort by the romanceable toggles: https://idrellegames.tumblr.com/roster. (Just note that if you're using a phone, the above link does not open in the tumblr mobile app and needs to be opened in a browser.)
idrella
2024-06-27 17:41:14 +0000 UTCHi! Thanks for the game, its very fun so far, very engaging! Actually caught me by surprise because I have even put aside playing Destiny or CK3 to read this game on several occasions. One thing that is bugging me, however, is that the main character doesn't always react like ... well, like I think a guy would. For example, I'm playing a character with high perception and hi persuasion, you know, a Castle/Han Solo/Matrim kind of character ... which means he should probably be a bit more flirty-- or should at least be given the option, when interacting with people he may or may not be attracted to. There was that one comment, just after facing off the lady that runs the soup kitchen in the swamp, and that was it. And his interaction with Aeron often doesn't have the option of being concerned without being too "touchy feely" ... It's either ignore him or start asking prying questions, that frankly remind me of how my wife digs in to try and figure out how I feel ... Another example, at the gala party, well before the party, he strips down in front of 3 women that barge on his bath ... and he doesn't react? Every guy reacts-- either positively or negatively. In my case, I'm an exhibitionist and would react, even if it was some decrepit old lady, because my ego would want to make sure my physical appearance was found appealing. The main character doesn't notice ANY women in the party or comment on it; When he meets the Archon, that he doesn't know is the Archon, he doesn't try to charm the person at all? It's not credible. Even a gay guy at a party who is used to using his arts of persuasion is going to try to charm, if for no other reason but to feed the ego that another one has taken the bite and is hooked.
Josue Matos
2024-06-27 15:01:31 +0000 UTC
