Hello! Hope you all had a great time during my favorite time of the year, the spooky season 🎃
Since our last update, everyone on the team is still deep in our dev cave. So, what is that like? Internally, we usually break down the game into “chapters”, so it goes like this:
Plan the next chapter → Implement mechanics, cutscenes, maps → Test with people → Go back and adjust feedback to previous chapters
This process can take one to two months. Testing is definitely the most important part here. We’re interested in learning what the person is feeling, what they want to do and whether that aligns with what the game wants them to do. Turns out this is very tricky, especially since people can have completely different priorities!! The important part is whether the game can adapt well enough to accommodate what they’re feeling at the time.
We obviously have a lot of mechanics in Neverway, such as combat, farming, making friends... While they’re all necessary to progress the story, we try not to focus too much in one mechanic more than another. Instead, we want to make sure that players can choose to focus on their favorite aspect of the game.
Let’s say you prefer more the combat than the farming. While you still need to farm a little, you can focus more on the combat, which will make the farming easier thanks to all the loot you get. If you enjoy more farming instead, that's also totally okay, as farming will make the combat easier with all the crops and recipes you craft.
Not only that, but we try to reflect this in Fiona. For example, she’ll be grumpier if she’s reminded that she needs to farm when you haven’t really been putting the time into that. Or, as you meet people throughout the game, and you start becoming more avoidant toward your friends, we want that to be reflected in Fiona as well… I’d say that this is probably the most central theme of the game, but I really don’t want to spoil more!
Now, whether you romance them or not is optional. This depends on how you talk to them, how often you see them, and how you choose to progress through the story. Yes, that's even for characters who are very obviously evil.
We don’t have any further announcements for now, but we really appreciate everyone’s support and patience! We’ll keep focusing on making the best game we can, and we promise to let you know more when the time is right.
Until next time!
🩸 Isa and Coldblood Inc. team