Progress Report 2023.09.10: Progress is Progress

Hi friends,

I first wanted to apologize for the lack of regular updates. After a summer of trying to get Wayfarer back on track, development is still sitting much in the same place it was before. I have been trying a number of different strategies to kickstart things, but nothing has really clicked yet. It is stressful having development go stagnant—this time last year I definitely thought I would be finishing up Episode 4 and on my way to Episode 5 by this time this year. I am still writing, still struggling to get words onto the page and get the MC moving down their various paths. I had hoped that moving onto the tower sequence would help spark more writing than finishing the incomplete starting routes. And while it has definitely done that, I’m still moving very slowly through new content.

Moving forwards, I am going to go down to posting sneak peeks every 2 weeks instead of every week. I am not writing fast enough to justify showing new previews once a week as much of the content is going to start feeling repetitive because I’ll be working on variations/sub-variations inside the different routes.

I am hoping to set aside a couple of weeks in October where I can work on creating a buffer for bonus content. I have a lot of plans about short stories and side content that I would like to create, but I have not had the time or energy to be able to put them together. Having a buffer is really important for a solo creator—if I create content in advance, then I will be able to stick to a monthly schedule. However, that does mean taking time away from writing the game. Related to that, I still have the questions submitted back in July for the Creator Q&A. I am going to save them for a later time; at the moment I don’t have the time or the energy to do the Q&A the way I would like to, and I think it is maybe best to table it for now.

I would to finish Episode 3 by the end of the year, but at this point I’m not sure if that will be possible. It’s a goal to strive for, but it may not be entirely realistic.

I did want to take some time to showcase what is going on behind-the-scenes here. There are some minor spoilers for what to expect in Part 3, so if you’d like to avoid that, now is the time to back out.

Part 3 can be divided into 2 parts: getting the MC and Aeran to the tower itself, then getting them into the Astrial’s chamber. The journey there is not going to be a walk in the park as Diradan’s environment is severely compromised. Depending on the path they select, there are many things to discover and investigate along the way.

Path A is the most direct route to the tower, but the MC will have to deal with a variety of events that could slow their progress. They can either walk right past them, or risk investigating them if they are curious enough to try to figure out exactly what happened the day of the explosion. This is the path where they will also have to contend with the shroud early. There is risk of injury on this path, both for the MC and for Aeran, but taking those risks may let them walk away with information they would otherwise not get. The player can move from Path A onto Path B if their MC is aware of the path through the battlements.

Path B is the path through the battlements. It is only available as an option if your MC did not get fired from the mission and they were privy to Quinn’s demonstration. I had to make some adjustments to this path as Diradan’s layout changed significantly between the writing of Episode 2 and Episode 3 (meaning I imagined one thing earlier and then another thing later and didn’t cross-reference my own work - the next patch will have an update to Diradan’s description in the Lethalis meeting scene!). This path is relatively safer for the MC than Path A, but has its own host of potential problems.

Path C takes the MC down the cliffs and then up through the cavern complex below the tower. This is the last path I will tackle, so I’m not going to say too much about it here.

Currently, Part 3 is sitting at around 20,000 words and I am wrapping up Event 1 on the Path A route. It is painful progression, but I am getting there bit by bit.

Thank you all so much for your support. I can’t express how much it means to me, even with 2023 being a really rough patch in the game’s development. 💕