Hello, everyone! We have an exciting announcement: if everything goes according to plan, the full version of Mistwinter Bay will be released in November! We will give an official release date announcement later, probably towards the end of September.
However, keep in mind that we are just two people working on the game with a currently very strict schedule. That means that if anything goes wrong – there are major technical difficulties, one of us gets the flu, etc – the game will be delayed, most likely until February 2025. But we will of course do everything in our power to get the game out in November!
We will discuss our thoughts about the November release under a separate headline. But first, let’s look at a list of things we have done since the last progress update:
- Implemented the remaining main story
- Implemented the rest of Camilla’s, Orreg’s and Se’Vah’s stories
- Implemented Llemyon’s, Gaird’s and Eria’s first personal quest
- Added 24 new short monthly events
- More have been written, but not implemented
- Added 6 new long monthly events
- More have been written, but not implemented
- Added 3 new unlockable outfits
- Added 3 new front hairstyles
- Added 5 new back hairstyles
- Added 3 new glasses
- Added a settings option to not display reputation popups
- Resource related popups will still show up regardless
- Combined with the previously added option to not display exact reputation numbers in menus, but use icons instead, this new setting provides another optional level of difficulty
- Added keyboard shortcuts to open and close some menus
- Tab to pull in and out the resource bar and coin bar
- T to open/close Townsfolk-roster
- F to open/close Foreign leaders-roster
- M to open/close Map
- E to open/close Encyclopedia
- Escape to close or back out of most menus
- It is now possible to go to a new menu without closing an old one
- For example, going from the Townsfolk-roster to Foreign leaders-roster only requires you to click “F” or the button on the button bar
- This only applies to menus with an exit-cross. Other menus, like the Hangout-menu and Gifts-menu, still require you to manually exit the menu before opening a new one
- Added a new button in the pause menu and main menu to display the controls
- This means that the tip about the controls will be removed from both the Tips-menu and the intro of the game
- Changed the throne room backgrounds for Keep and Castle
- Added an alternative “default” music theme when in dialogue
- It is primarily used when the throne room is the backdrop
- The game will decide to use the new theme or the old one randomly for each event - and sometimes even specific sections of events
- Just like the old theme, the new one has different versions depending on if the sovereign’s estate is a Villa, Keep or Castle
November release date
As previously mentioned, we have planned for a release in November. Why November? For three reasons:
- It is within the Fall 2024 range that we have mentioned earlier
- It will be as early as we can get the game out with all of the required and promised content, and more
- It will be before the major seasonal sales, which you want to avoid when releasing a game
If we don’t hit a November release date, the game will have to be postponed until February, due to the seasonal sales and January being a bad month for commerce. There are also some personal reasons why we want the game released in November, so that is why we’re working hard to hit that goal. As previously mentioned, we will make a separate release date announcement when we have made some research into which is the best possible date to release the game on (there’s more that goes into that sort of thing than one might expect).
If the game releases according to plan, it will contain all of the things that have been promised on the game’s page, and some additional nice features we have added over the past few months. Something that will unfortunately be missing is the large number of monthly events we were after. It’s simply impossible for us to add a significant number of “spare” monthly events in the schedule we have now. Luckily, that doesn’t affect the quality of the game or the gameplay experience upon release. Every monthly event can be completed in several different ways, and depending on when it shows up during gameplay, you may be presented with other options due to the characters you have in town, items that have been unlocked, relationships with foreign leaders etc. This means that even though you may encounter the same event two or three times over multiple playthroughs, you’ll most likely have a different experience with it. The only players who might be affected by the number of monthly events are those who play the game 5+ times from start to finish (which is a very big undertaking). We assume that most players will only play the game 1-2 times, so this isn’t really a problem upon release. Still, we want to add more monthly events, which is why we will do a few free content updates after release (there will be no paid or free DLC, only main game content updates).
We have previously mentioned that we weren’t going to add any content to the game post release. We said that for three reasons:
- We wanted to ensure that we release a complete game (which we will do in November)
- We wanted to avoid the expectation from players to release continuous content updates, which are common in the modern gaming industry
- Mistwinter Bay isn’t the type of game to benefit from those types of updates anyway, since you can’t see most of the content as a regular player
- The game engine won’t allow any new objects or assets be added to the game due to a bug
That last point is the most crucial and one that has worried me for a long time. For some context, we have been unable to update the game engine since 2022, due to the first 2023-update breaking the game entirely. Such things are common in game development and it isn’t unusual that some games get stuck on a version of the game engine for the entirety of its development in order to avoid the game breaking.
Unfortunately for us, the version we got stuck with is one that has a bug which means that every time something new is added to the game (a dialogue event, a sprite, a sound effect), all references to all assets change. That means that if I have a savefile that says I’m on Camilla’s first hangout and I add Orreg’s fifth hangout to the game, the savefile might all of a sudden load the Townsfolk-roster instead of Camilla’s first hangout. As you can probably understand, that needs to be avoided at all cost, which is why I have wanted to avoid doing updates that mean adding any sort of asset to the game. (Note: bug fixing, changing the code etc. does not cause these issues, so bug fixing updates would always have been okay)
How come we are fine with adding more content after the game’s release when the game engine bug still exists? We have come up with a workaround that I always had in mind, but that we will now take to a larger scale: by adding plenty of “empty” events, some “placeholder” sprites etc. to the game before it is released, those assets will already be in the game, hence avoiding the game engine’s need to change the references once we are ready to actually add the content into those “empty” assets. In other words, there will be things in the game from the start, and we just adjust them later.
With this workaround, we will be able to add several more monthly events to the game post launch. We won’t make any promises on how many, though, but it will be enough for us to feel like we have added enough content to the game to satiate all of the 5+ playthrough-players.
Let me be very clear with this: the game will release in a complete state and will have hundreds of hours of playtime with all branching options that are available at release. Anything we add after release should only be considered bonuses, not missing features. The game won’t suffer if we don’t add it, but it will be better for multiple playthroughs and be more in line with our original creative vision if we do. And that’s why we will try to add more monthly events post release instead of postponing the entire release until February.
Foreign leaders and alliances
As the list at the start indicated, we have gotten pretty far with the foreign leaders’ stories. At the time of writing, Camilla, Orreg and Se’Vah are completely finished! Llemyon, Gaird and Eria are slated to be completed as well in the upcoming month, but they already have their first personal quest implemented.
In case you’re not aware, townsfolk have 1 personal quest, but foreign leaders have 2 each. The foreign leaders’ first personal quest is about an alliance with their country and Mistwinter Bay. More often than not, you have to do a pretty difficult favor for the foreign leader before they will agree to the alliance. But sometimes, you get the alliance with few or no demands, but will be faced with political issues related to the alliance directly after it has been signed. Because of this, there are warning messages before each foreign leader’s first personal quest. Due to the complexity of the tasks you are usually handed during these personal quests, it is also likely that time passes to some extent. So it might do you good to plan when to start a foreign leader’s personal quest, so that you don’t miss out on specific months or the beginning or end of a season.
With the addition of the foreign leaders’ first personal quest, the mechanic of alliances has also been properly introduced to the game. Being in an alliance means that you are guaranteed support from your ally during events when Mistwinter Bay is attacked (and the ally has time to make it there before the battle is over, which isn’t always the case). Passing certain event checks based on your relationship with the allied foreign leader generally becomes easier. Signing the alliance also provides you with monthly resources thanks to exclusive trade deals. You can see which resources you gain from the alliance in the alliance document collection item.
Since trade is a big deal in the alliance, it’s important that you have a building that can be used for trade, or you won’t be allowed to experience a foreign leader’s first personal quest. All potential allies accept the Marketplace or Black Market as a trade building. Meblia, Ethal and Yscor accept the Stables as well. Achait, Fleidal and Utrua accept the Ship Docks too.
So far, we have mostly looked at the benefits of alliances, but there are some serious downsides to them as well. The biggest one is the fact that some alliances may lock you out of another one, due to the political differences between those countries and their leaders. As a result, you can only have a total of four alliances at once, even though there are six possible allies. It is not possible to be allied with Ophelia, since she already acts as an ally, to an extent.
Another downside is that you may be asked to help your ally when they are in trouble (the alliance isn’t supposed to be one-sided with you being the only one benefiting from it, after all). As with the majority of events, they would have a percentage chance of happening, which means that you might not see them at all. We hope to add 1 such event per ally before release, but other events are prioritized, so this feature might only be added post release (but fairly quickly, in that case). Our goal is to have 2 such events per ally when everything is sorted.
The foreign leaders’ second personal quests is a lot more “personal” than the first. Instead of focusing on alliances and major politics, it is more about the foreign leader as an individual, relating to their personal past or their goals. Of course, given their position in the game world, it’s practically impossible to avoid politics completely, even in their second personal quest, but the focus is much less on that than on them.
Give us your input on the character customization options!
Since the release is drawing closer, the window to add more options to the character creator is shrinking. We will not have time to add more outfits since they are very time consuming to draw, but there are already 18 unlockable outfits with two of them having two alternative looks (bringing the total number of unlockable outfits up to 20), so we think there are enough of those already. What we aren’t sure about are other options, specifically hairstyles. That’s why we are asking for your opinions, so that we can add things that you might feel are “missing” from the current options while there is still time to do so.
We have a message on Discord - with image examples of the currently available options - that you can leave your opinions on. We want to funnel you over there since it’s easier for us to keep track of the feedback there, instead of going to 7 different websites and apps, but you can of course add comments below this post as well, if there’s something that comes to mind (although, it’s probably helpful to look at the pictures first, so you know what’s actually in the game now).
If you want to leave feedback, please keep in mind that comments like “I would like something in the style of abc from xyz” is a lot more helpful than “I want more options”. We reserve the right to pick and choose suggestions to implement. There won’t be time to add anything suggested after the end of September.
Continued development
With the release getting closer and closer, we are busier than ever. I can’t promise that there will be another progress update before release, but we do post small, weekly updates both on Discord and Patreon. We will of course post the release date announcement here once the date is set.
When the release date announcement is out, we will also remove the demo from Steam. The demo has been severely outdated for a long time now, and since we can’t really “warn” players about that on Steam, we feel that it’s best to simply remove the demo entirely. So if you for some reason haven’t played the demo yet or want to play it again, make sure to do that before the end of September (although, at this rate, I can’t recommend the demo at all. I suggest that you wait for the full game instead).
You can also follow us here and on social media. Wishlist the game so that you don’t miss upcoming development news and the release date! You can find us here:
Discord
YouTube
Twitter/X: @swordlake_ent
Instagram: @swordlake_entertainment
TikTok: @swordlakeentertainment
Thank you for your support! I can’t wait for you to get your hands on the full game in a few months!
//LevUNknown, lead developer