What happened?
What happened is simple. We'd been working on the game non-stop for two months straight, we got burnt out beyond belief, and we all had to take a break from The Fade to get our sh*t together. However, Our sh*t has been gathered, and we are now resuming production. Thank. God.
What went wrong?
We realized the art was generic, and boring, because we were just defaulting to the software's tiles and decorations. We want this game to be as aesthetically beautiful as we know The Fade's story can be. We're using RPGMaker MV, which, yes, comes with its own tiles and furniture and cutesie or scary things that we can throw in the game, but we're learning how to make our own so the game can really be ours. Because of this, we literally had to throw the whole thing out, and start all over again. Which, is really disappointing considering we basically had almost the whole demo done. But we didn't want to release a demo with completely different aesthetics and vibes from the final product.
Who does what?
Colby is our artist. They work on the aesthetics of the game, and any art pieces you may see throughout the game's cutscenes. They also work on advertisement art for the game, and even individual tiles and furniture and decorations in the game. Without Colby, this game would look like ass.
Pyxie (Vyxie.Pyxie) is our programmer. They are the main person who is working on the coding and programming of the game. They work so thoroughly on making sure the game actually works. Without Pyxie, there would literally be no game.
Liah (Strawbxrriii) is our music producer and social media manager. She works on all of the music, and most of the sound effects in the game. If we decide to add voice acting, she will be the VA for our main character, Winnie. Without Liah, the game would have very generic sounds and ambiances.
What was happening beforehand, was that we all felt the need to be together while working on the game. Everyone gathered at Pyxie&Colby's house for weeks on end to work on The Fade, rather than working individually on our own time when we could, and when we wanted to. It was more of a "We have to, even if we don't want to." which is not what we wanted this project to be. At all.
What we're doing now:
Creating tilesets for each individual room rather than things like, indoor, outdoor, etc.
Making new art for every cutscene
Continuing to think about more ways the story makes sense, going in a timeline route rather than "this happens, oh but at the end they should____!"
Meeting on a weekly basis to discuss progress from each individual, discuss what each individual will be doing the following week, and make an announcement on Steam, Discord, and X, our progress without spoilers.
Developer's Note:
Please note: Liah and Colby are full time college students, and Pyxie finally has their Master's degree as of December 2025, and is moving up in their place of work from being an intern, to being full time.
Please be patient with us. This is our fun little passion project we're working on to get away from the stresses of every day life. This could literally take us years to complete because we are n o t professional game developers.
Thank you for following along with us and supporting us on this journey.