Welcome to Crawlyard Devlogs! Steam Next Fest is upon us, and this time we have a bit more to show you than screenshots and gifs and sketches. The story prologue is here, and you can download it for free to check out a fraction of what our full game will be able to offer!
We will keep polishing the demo and implementing some of the non-crucial changes and fixes in real time, so by the end of Fest the game will definitely become even better.
Welcome, Inspector
You arrive at the Mansion slightly ahead of schedule. Nobody greets you, and nobody guides you, yet the Mansion still opens up to you somewhat, both figuratively and literally. Your resources are limited, other residents don't quite know what to make of you, and from the meta-narrative perspective, your future is pretty much determined...
But would you still like to walk this path with us?
The prologue is not essential for you to understand the main story, far from it. But you will be able to look behind the scenes just a few weeks prior to the start of the grand performance, and get to know some of the characters in advance.
Gameplay-wise, the demo shows off less than a quarter of cards, systems and activities you will be able to enjoy in the full game, so it's just an appetizer to the main dish.
Community and Feedback
The demo will be further polished based on the feedback we get – there's no better opportunity to get actual, genuine playtests than now, so we can correct problematic aspects of the game before they take root. We will be closely monitoring our players' impressions, and for this purpose we're launching our official public Discord server!
Just click on the picture to join the server. Hopefully, one day it will become full of life, memes and embarrassing bug reports just like you'd expect.
Our ridiculously charismatic game designer has also been doing lots of marketing and publicity work behind the scenes, and we actually managed to get a Golden Ticket after an intense pitch battle during the Digital Dragons Acceleration Programme! Still up to debate if we should take them up on their publishing offer or not, but that sure was a huge confidence boost.
Afterword
There's a lot to do still, but this was an incredibly important milestone. The demo serves as a tiny glimpse into the full game, and what's even more important, it shows that the backbone of the project works. All that's left is adding more content, polishing the existing mechanics, and introducing some cheeky narrative tricks to make the story truly shine. Stay tuned, we've only just begun!
Exhausted yet happy PR person, signing out.
As always, you can check additional updates on our SNS:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crawlyard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crawlyard
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crawlyard
And Discord now, too: https://discord.gg/4FhbeD2h6B