#game backlog challenge

[cavernelf]

game backlog challenge: Monster Hunter World + Iceborne

time played: 60.8 hours rating: 10/10 achievements: 44/100 quick review: a must play finished: 6/16/24 / 7/17/24

truly do not have enough words of praise for world. I can't believe it took me this long to get into MH though I did play one of the games on the vita a long time ago. Eagerly awaiting Wilds.

[laurarolla]

So I finished my playthrough of Bioshock. Not sure if I want to just upload the straight footage with a description of the restrictions I gave myself and then maybe get around to actually making a proper video later, considering I haven't even started on the Steven Universe Save the Light video yet, but I'll think about it later. Right now, some thoughts I had while replaying this game that is getting dangerously close to 20 years old now oh crap.

World building and story is still solid, although I do vibe with Bioshock 2 a lot more. However, I came to a realization about the endgame areas of Bioshock today. Most basic conversation about the game revolves around the Andrew Ryan scene, but I noticed this time that the aftermath of that scene is really there to support its theme about how much agency we really have in life and especially in games.

Fontaine spends much of the endgame asking you why you are even bothering to continue coming after him, and it seems like this isn't really questioning Jack so much as the player. At the same time, he recaps elements of the narrative that would serve as possible justification for the emotions the player may be feeling in their drive to the final confrontation. He talks about manufacturing memories, lying about a family in danger, constantly references Tenenbaum's history as a Nazi collaborator that the game casts in sharp contrast with her attempt to become a better person and find some kind of redemption. He says you've been betrayed once, why wouldn't it happen again. In essence, he all but tells you to turn the game off and go do something else, anything else, so he can have his victory.

Sometimes the most powerful choice someone can make isn't necessarily the action they take, but the reason behind it. Most players continue to play the game, but why? If the Andrew Ryan reveal is the big high point of everything Bioshock 1 was leading to, why keep going when it's over? For some, it's inertia: They've come this far, why not see it through. For others, it's anger, or a sense of obligation, or curiousity. For some, they've even grown to care about the little sisters and/or Tenenbaum and her desire to be better than the monster she once was. The most important thing to do is to ask yourself why.

Also, to veer away from this more potentially meaningful discussion on how people emotionally connect to art, I also want to point out that the game gets surprisingly stingy with resources in the late game if you aren't using the vending machines. It's neat to have played through the game with so many restrictions on myself because it gave me a chance to see how the systems all interact by removing some of them. That's one of the most fascinating things that the challenge run trend in gaming allows a player to experience and wrap their head around.

[helloquotemyfoot]

Book Backlog Busting Reading Challenge!

I missed an update last week because I've been so busy, and sadly don't have a lot of progress to report for this week either... but you know what, at least I'm reporting on it!

Femina by Janina Ramirez. FINISHED. Really interesting examples and analysis throughout. I feel like this would be especially good for folks less familiar with this period of history for introducing you to figures that are less well known, although I did know quite a few of them due to my own reading. One thing I really liked about this in particular was the strong link to the doing of history in the present and the reflection on the way we use history for our own needs and to understand our own modern society. It was very refreshing to have a popular history book confront this so baldly because it really is an important part of doing history, and part of what makes books like this one so important, but I think less understood by the wider public. Highly recommended.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North. FINISHED. This book is several different genres in a trench coat, to the point where I can't even tell you all the genres because one of them is a plot twist. But if you want a fantasy science-fiction solarpunk dystopic political thriller (etc) then I strongly recommend this book. If you are scratching your head at that incomplete list of genres and wondering how that can possibly be accurate then I also strongly recommend the book as an experience worth having.

Before We Go Live by Stephen Flavall. FINISHED. This is a memoir by Slay the Spire streamer jorbs, who I am a long time fan and watcher of. I have always valued jorbs's sense of humour and perspective and so when I heard he had published a book I was eager to read it. I did not anticipate quite how hard-hitting this book would be. It deals with professional and personal abuse, the toxic world of gaming, misogyny, and the healing power of being loved by cats. In many ways, it's a very brave and sensitive piece of work, especially as jorbs/Flavall shares his personal struggles in it, at the same time as sharing how being watched by thousands of people 8+ hours a day for a living has created some issues around privacy because... like duh, of course it has. I think what keeps this feeling like an ultimately hopeful book is the central narrative around jorbs's incredible friendship with Hannah, and his own personal dedication to spreading kindness and understanding. Also cats. I'm not sure you will get much out of it if you are not familiar with the online gaming sphere, but I very much recommend reading it anyway.

Since I still have 4 books ongoing, no 'next reads' in this post, just the books I have picked up since I was last here.

Passions Between Women by Emma Donoghue. A study of British lesbian culture and representation from the late seventeenth century to the beginning of the nineteenth, so far it has been a really interesting read and questions a lot of assumptions about the wlw historical experience (because the author takes a broad approach to 'lesbian' identity and includes the experience of all lovers of women). I didn't post a picture of this one as the cover of my edition risks breaking tumblr's NSFW policies.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Restoration Britain by Ian Mortimer. If you've seen my previous posts you'll be familiar with this author's name already. A guide to life in Restoration Britain (mostly England, really, despite the title) as though you were travelling back in time, covering many questions about day to day living and culture which don't come up in traditional histories.

Until next time...

101 books remaining!

[simsreaper]

guys I have an absolute BACKLOG of posts for all my sim games to post. KILL MEEEEE

[autisticwolfesbrainisautistic]

🌻 :)

I've been watching a lot of Souls-like game challenge runs on YouTube lately because I like the concept of the games, and the algorithm recommended me one of a dude taking the piss out of a dogshit Elden Ring build that Elon Musk posted, but I've never been able to get stuck in enough without modding away some of the stuff that annoys me. And too few of these kinds of games have mods that do that.

My biggest gripe with the Souls-like game archetype is not the difficulty as such. It is the ethos of "ambiguity as a feature", the intentional obfuscation of so many systems, combined with little to no internal or official documentation available to refer to in order to un-obfuscate (de-obfuscate?) so that you can actually learn from your failures instead of just flailing wildly until a brick wall falls down by mostly luck, or until you break down and look up information online that can only be obtained by datamining.

By ambiguity I mean stuff like the fact that there's no clear feedback on whether you're doing shit damage against a boss or enemy because you're under leveled or because you're using a damage type that the enemy is resistant to. There's no clear feedback on whether you're over leveled or using a damage type that an enemy is weak to. There's not even a way to figure out outside of battle what a boss might be resistant or weak to, and there's not a lot of, "well, the enemies leading up to this boss are all taking more damage from my hammer than my sword, so they're probably hinting that the boss will too" type signposting. Or at least not a lot that was clear enough to be useful to an average player.

And then, because each main boss is ostensibly unique within a game, you spend all this time learning tells and movesets that are immediately useless once that boss is defeated; you start from zero on the next boss because they don't build on mechanics or use consistent tells.

And for some people this is great fun, and I can appreciate that, but I feckin' loathe that this "ambiguity as a feature" bullshit is becoming the de facto means of increasing challenge and difficulty because of all the Musky conservabros pissing and moaning about games being too easy (and not white-cis-het-male enough, but that's a different rant.

[mysticwiki]

i read 28 books in 2024 so......... Let's See what happens this time! happy new year!!

[mrsonvsyoutube]

Can You Beat DARK SOULS 1 With the Previous Boss' Weapon?

[txttletale]

hey what DO you watch on youtube? seems like you'd have some neat recommendations :3

i really loathe the like super-highly edited sound effect post-mrbeast slop most of youtube is now so i mostly like stuff that's like... calm and sedate. stuff i've been watching lately in no particular order:

northernlion vods and clips. he's an OG. i especially like his react court series, i must have watched all of them like five times.

speaking of OGs i've been watching zero puncutation (now fully ramblomatic) for like ten years and if anything it's only gotten better. best game review content on the internet. been really enjoying his more recent, slightly longer and more thoughtful 'extra punctuation/semi-ramblomatic' series too.

any austin's skyrim unemployment rate videos. instant classics to me, it's just a guy going around in skyrim trying to figure out the unemployment rate in every town. it's a very dry kind of humour, he plays it admirably straight, and it's weirdly calming.

kitten arcader's foot the bill videos. in a kind of similar vein, he watches the saw movies and then produces an itemized bill for everything jigsaw needed to buy to make his traps. it's kind of like... if cinemasins was fundamentally curious instead of fundamentally incurious, it scratches a similar sort of nitpicky detail-oriented quantifying itch but without inimical to the concept of art.

shuffle up and play. it's a magic the gathering play series that has enough editing that the gamestate is actually legible but not enough editing (or at least, not enough obtrusive in-your-face editing) that its annoying. i also like that they reguilarly play non-edh formats like cube and pauper.

spice8rack. i'm pretty picky about video essays but spice8rack has very obviously actually read books and has interesting things to say about the topics it discusses (mostly magic: the gathering). sometimes it has a kind of grating Theater Kid Energy but the fact that it actually meaningfully structures essays and analysis to earn the silly long runtimes is a rare delight from a video essayist.

jenny nicholson is a long-time favourite and another permanent fixture in my rotation. she's just extremely, remarkably funny which makes her the only 'basically just summarizing a thing' youtuber i think is worth the time of day.

i watch some sketch comedy, mainly wizards with guns and aunty donna, who both consistently put out really funny stuff that's kind of ITYSL-adjacent in its barefaced absurdism and contenmpt for concepts like "stopping a joke at the logical punchline". i also really like alasdair beckett-king and binging the old clickhole backlog for short-form comedy on youtube.

wolfeyvgc is right on the edge of the level of editing i find tolerable but as a long-time fan of multiple esports he Has It, he's absolutelyt fantastic at t elling the narrative of a tournament, explaining plays clearly, and generally making competitive pokemon esports thrilling and interesting ti someone (me) who#s never played it and doesn't care about pkoemon that much

i religously watch every elliespectacular/dathings YTP, the absolute best in the game right now, top tier snetence mixing and really good at actually setting up and paying off jokes in a way it feels like a lot of ytp doesn't. verytallbart is also pretty good.

trapperdapper is a channel i recently binged, it's a really fucking funny parody of minecraft challenge content that veers slowly from obvious angles of parody into pure absurdism with tons of blink-and-you'll miss it subtle visual gags.

too much future is a great youtube series where the two guys from just king things/homestuck made this world play through every fallout game and analyze them in that context. extremely funny and also just top-tier very sharp analysis. really good

another one of the rare good video essayists is jan misali. they're really funny and will go into topics that kind of seem narrow or strange to begin with in such depth and make them so interesting that it's consistently astonishing.

oh and finally sarah z makes pretty good videos. 'the narcissist scare' is an absolutely brilliant deconstruction of one of the most annoying pop-psych phenomena of the last couple years. and remarkably well script supervised i think did anyone else watch it and think 'wow the script supervisor on this must have been, a mind geniuse'

ok i think that's all i've been watching lately. hope you like whcihever of these recs you check out :)

[blacktabbygames]

Cant remember if you answered this already but do you guys have any personal favorite video games in 2024?

We've finished surprisingly few games this year, and I don't love weighing in on games I haven't finished, but here's some favorites we played (not all of them came out this year though!):

The demo for Perfect Tides Station to Station - I was lucky enough to get a sneak peak of the full first season in the sequel. The first Perfect Tides is one of my favorite interactive narratives of all time it really says something that the sequel so far blows the first game out of the water. Aspirationally good. Criminally underrated. League of its own. Thronefall - Great mix of tower defense hack and slash, and resource management.

South Scrimshaw, Part One - Phenomenal and imaginative visual novel styled as a documentary about the life cycle of a whale species on an alien planet.

1000xResist - Wildly complicated narrative that beautifully weaves together an astounding number of themes. What does it mean to yearn for a place that no longer exists? I would recommend going into it blind.

In Stars and Time - We're bad friends and didn't have the chance to finish it until this year. Really thoughtful time loop narrative. Made us cry.

Nine Sols - I'm breaking my "I haven't finished it" rule because I really like what I've played so far. It's also pretty hard so not something I want to pick up when I get tired. Brilliant metroidvania by Red Candle Games, who are one of our favorite developers. Quite a different direction than their previous titles though (Devotion and Detention.)

Thank Goodness You're Here - really funny slapstick adventure :)

Path of Exile 2 - Finally an ARPG with challenging gameplay that's deeper than spamming 4 buttons really fast.

Alan Wake II Welcome to Nightsprings DLC - SO clever and creative. Really loved the text-based adventure in the last one.

On my ever growing backlog: Animal Well, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (I've heard people have needed physical notebooks for this one though so it might not be my speed), finish Indika, which is so stylish, finish Rise of the Golden Idol (loved the first game!) We've done so many things this year — Pristine Cut, move into a new place, get married, etc, so I've been too tired to engage with a lot of more difficult games.

[gffa]

JEDI ORDER CITATIONS IN STAR WARS CANON, PART V [A Meta/Reference Guide on AO3] Welcome to my Jedi Culture and Teachings in Canon series, where I collate various quotes from current canon to provide a worldbuilding and reference guide, whether for better fic writing, just general interest in getting to know the Star Wars lore better, or if you want to be able to pull out some quotes when you're fighting the internet on behalf of the fictional space wizards. ;) So, what's here? Basically anything I think would be of interest to people who want to know what the Jedi are like in the canon--any worldbuilding bits (what special abilities do the Jedi have? do the Jedi have art? do they have funeral rites? what do we know about Knighting ceremonies? what are the themes of the Force? are the Jedi telepaths or empaths and what scenes in canon support that? what do we know about Jedi schooling?), any quotes from Lucas himself, all arranged in categories to help you find what you're looking for. Feel free to take this guide or leave it, it's not about telling other people what to do, if you scroll on by, that's fine, I'm not your mom, do what you want. But if you want to know what the Jedi have to say about Force bonds or what kind of clothing they way or everything we know about the main ziggurat of the Jedi Temple, I got you covered, babe. This section is admittedly overly large, where previously I would get to about 25k words of citations and post the next part, feeling that was a manageable chunk for readers. But with The Acolyte coming out, I made a challenge to myself to get caught up on all of The High Republic before it aired and I drop citations in as I'm reading, so suddenly I found myself with nearly 50k of citations and I was feeling in the groove, I had all my references easily accessible, I was getting through my backlog, I had access to some of the roleplaying guides, I was seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and, wham, suddenly it's ~70k and here I am now. But that's 70k of examples of what the Jedi say and do, my best attempt to give context to show the consistent themes and parallels within the Jedi Order all across this continuity. How to use this guide? Well, you do you, for starters! But I hope you'll read the intros, as often some books need to be put in specific contexts, and if you have any suggestions for future categories or better organization, feel free to mention it! I do this for me, but I format it for sharing, so I'm game! Feel free to check out previous sections for more examples, and just scroll through to skim the bolded sections to try to find what you're looking for, since not everything always fits neatly into a single given category! (Or just ask me! I love being a nerd about Star Wars worldbuilding.) The guide is broken down into seven sections as before:

How the Force Works

Jedi Culture & Philosophy & Teachings

Jedi As a People

Psychic Space Wizards Doing Psychic Space Wizard Things

Jedi Temple (Living Quarters, Training Rooms, Meditation Gardens and Dining Halls !)

Jedi Outreach, Politics, and the Bigger Galaxy

Fantasy Flight Games Are Not Canon But Canon-Compliant Is Close Enough

Jedi, Buddhism, and Everything Else

[darqx]

Snakes on a post

Another particularly long answer dump since i, once again, have a backlog of things to potentially answer |D

❗️For commonly asked qs please see my BTD FAQ

Got jumpscared with my own old art for a hot minute there LAUGHS.

(For those wondering, the naga doodle from here was attached to the ask)

That is every other Royal that exists in the Nether and also at least some of the demons that challenged him for his Royal title lol.

Believe me, no one was or is more surprised then me XD;

So, the thing about where Rire's ichor manifests is that it kinda exists and doesn't exist at the same time. Meaning that his upper back is where the manifestation point is anchored, BUT it can still manifest with a bit of space in between it and his back hence why it will manifest over his clothes and not through them.

So if you touch where the manifestation point is sans the ichor, than you are just straight up touching his back. With the ichor, he still gets sensory input from the tentacles to his back but it's a lot more soft and muted esp the further away it gets from him. As you've seen implied though, he would feel a very sharp pain if a great deal of damage was done to the ichor where it clusters at the manifestation point, since he'd DEF be feeling that straight in his back lol.

He is definitely a top and the only way he would bottom for anybody is if they somehow forced him to.

Ah i knew i'd answered this a long time ago [finally found it]! Holy crosses (those that have been blessed) can also burn him but they would need to be in contact with him the entire time. Being a Royal he also has more of a tolerance to these than normal demons.

Well, unless said person actually has the undeniable ability to make good on their words, Rire would just stand there rather genially with that little smile he sometimes has and let them finish.

And then he might use them as reverse suggestions for dealing with said person (why would you give him any ideas!!?)

both

In BTD canon it is quite possible that they actually haven't in person. But we are using creative license here haha.

Rire heals a lot faster than a human. Cain is not my character so I don't know how his stacks up.

I've grouped these asks cos they kind of have similar answers - 360° (jk sorry sorry to the second q that is just a very common spelling mistake and I couldn't resist XD; )

Now, even though we mashed all the characs together in BTD, they all actually come from different storylines and so their canons outside the "BTD canon" may differ. This tends to bleed in. With this in mind:

The rules of Rire's canon (eg the concept of Battle Royales and how to become a Royal) don't apply to Cain. Anyway, they don't live in the same place either.

Cain is canonically the oldest and most OP character in BTD lol so yes he is stronger than Rire - you might've noticed, but Rire is never in the same drawing as Cain voluntarily. I play with this along with the "natural weakness" aspect - which I've also referred to as scissors-paper-rock rules XD Basically; demons beat humans, angels beat demons (purely because demons have weakness against holiness).

It would (be insane) but I hope you are not looking at me to fulfil this :d

Not really

His coronation day is a public holiday in his sector so yes XD

Aww thank you very much for your interest! ≧(´▽｀)≦ It's really cool that some of you guys want to actually fund such a thing - I'd have thought you'd have enough of him killing you in BTD1 XD Unfortunately, I have no plans for a Rire game at the moment as I'm working on a webcomic which looks like it will take up all my free time (that being said, he will be in the webcomic at some point).

Nope! Although i can kinda see why you might think that lol.

Whatever that one is where he doesn't particularly care what someone else identifies as. It really makes no difference to him or how he will act.

There are viruses in the Nether that if contracted could potentially kill you, yes. Part of being a Royal is becoming a lot more robust than normal Demons though. As for if/when Rire dies, I dunno maybe either in a Battle Royale somewhere thousands of years down the line or by old age (which is rare for a Royal but not impossible if you play your cards right).

If you are asking if he has a heat/rut of some sort, he does not |D

[cavernelf]

game backlog challenge: Dishonored

time played: 16.5 hours rating: 8/10 achievements: 19/80 quick review: damn that's crazy finished: 10/2/2024

in retrospect I really enjoyed this game but often found myself in the middle of a mission thinking, man I sure hope this is over soon. the very last 2-3 missions of the game (the flooded district especially) seemed to compound some issues regarding the movement mechanics that for some reason I had trouble with. 2nd to last mission I found myself going in and adjusting sensitivity and fov 10x as much as in the first half of the game.

regardless this game was really good and a fun introduction to stealth rpgs that aren't, yknow, mgs. IDK if I'd play through the 2nd game but I can see myself replaying this one to get more achievements or items I missed. I think everyone should try this one out once and see it through to the end.

[laurarolla]

So I've written the basic script for the Steven Universe Save the Light video, and I have about 17 hours of footage to edit with. I want to upload the whole run for basically evidence that I did in fact do the whole thing as stated, but I also don't want to bombard any subscribers with a whole wall of videos when the actual video I'd prefer they see being the actual edited video. Does that mean its time for me to make a second YouTube channel? I mean, this is a hobby and I have practically no audience, so its an odd concern to have I suppose, but I just feel like I should separate the unedited footage from the final product in a clear way.

Also I do have the next set of games to vote on, but since The Final Shape and Shadow of the Erdtree are coming over the next few weeks, those are the games I'll be playing next.

[necrofuturism]

If you're feeling hopeless right now, please watch Drawfee.

If you're not familiar, Drawfee is a comedy drawing show like Whose Line Is It Anyway but with a digital tablet, a stylus, and four amazing artist hosts. Nathan Yaffe, Julia LePetit, Jacob Andrews, and Karina Farek regularly create some of the most entertaining videos and streams featuring fan prompts+challenges and their resulting chaos.

No matter how varied and messed up the drawings get, Drawfee episodes have always shared one thing - unwavering and vocal support for the trans community. Honestly, it's my #1 source for content-based happiness where I feel repeatedly seen and safely reflected in their humor.

Besides that, Drawfee regularly fundraises for LGBTQ+ causes, and its hosts have independently fundraised for the PCRF.

Finally, Drawfee is so encouraging for art! Being an artist myself, Drawfee has always reminded me that while art may be silly, it isn't useless. It may not be serious, but it is important. In a time where art is repeatedly devalued and disparaged, Drawfee is there to say that Art is a central and vital part of community and we all need it.

They have a HUGE backlog of episodes, so you won't run out of things to watch anytime soon. Also, they stream on Twitch and have an extensive archive of livestream VODs if you need some long-form unedited nonsense.

You can join their Patreon for free to get updates on fundraising, live shows, and learning opportunities! Drawfee regularly has live classes for certain tiers of support, but every drawclass is eventually posted to the extra channel linked above. There's something for everyone at any skill level, and even if you don't do digital art I promise you can apply drawclass lessons to a wide range of media and your own personal work ethic.

As a bonus, Jacob and Julia host a regular game stream on Wednesdays and Sundays called SecretSleepoverSociety, which is equally supportive and and cozy especially during stressful times. They also have a huge archive channel on YT in case art isn't exactly your thing or you just want a break from the normal Drawfee shenanigans.

Nathan also streams on Nathan'sOtherShow and Karina can sometimes be spotted in the wild in vtuber form with Onsta! (fellow artist and friend of the show)

Pictured here: Porfo, the official unofficial Drawfee mascot riding a majestic winged Jacob Horse

While the usual Drawfee end catchphrase is "We're Sorry!" I'm not sorry at all for sharing this source of joy with y'all. I hope it helps bring you some laughs, love, smiles, and support now and in the future.

✏❤🖊

[collegetennisoriginstory]

Would you ever write in a boost all stats mode where we can be cracked from the beginning? A bit different from beast mode, where you could win all the challenges and have an almost ‘no care’ play. I will say though, even if I play with beast mode your writing still gives me excitement and anxiety as if I don’t already know I’m going to win. So freaking good! 😍

Yeah, maybe. In my backlog along with major checkpoint saves.

One day, when I feel like the game truly needs it :)

[idrellegames]

Wayfarer 2024 Roadmap

It’s the start of a new year and I’m excited to announce my plans for Wayfarer’s development.

The primary focus for 2024 is finishing Episode 3 and starting Episode 4. My goal has always been to get the alpha build to the point where it is one episode ahead of the public build, and forcing my way through this period has been very difficult. Episode 3 has turned into a more challenging endeavour than I anticipated due to its sheer size and complexity. I did not intend to take over a year to finish it, but if I’ve learned anything from the creative process it’s that it is unpredictable and things never go according to plan.

The 2024 roadmap is for an idealized scenario. I am hoping I have given myself enough wiggle room should things go off-course. With that in mind, the plan for the last 6 months of the years is an estimate and will likely change. Regardless, the goal remains the same: finish Episode 3, finish Episode 4, and release Episode 3 publicly.

Winter • January to March

This quarter will be focused on finishing the next stages of Episode 3. Episode 3 is divided into 4 parts:

Part 1: the beginning of the episode, following the routes that occur if the player ends Episode 2 with Aeran or Veyer. This part is finished and was added to the alpha build in May 2023. It includes over 300,000 words of playable content.

Part 2: the beginning of the episode, following the routes that occur if the player ends Episode 2 with Melchior, alone, or drunk. This part was skipped over and will be returned to at a later date.

Part 3: the middle of the episode, split into three different routes that eventually bottleneck at a specific point. This part is currently in-progress, with Route 1 nearing completion.

Part 4: the episode finale

January and February will be devoted to writing Episode 3 Part 3, which includes finishing Route 1 and completing Routes 2 and 3. In March, I will code that material and playtest it. Once it has been thoroughly playtested, it will be added to the alpha build (playable on my Patreon).

March will also see an update to the public build. Patch 2.7. will not add any new content, but it will patch reported bugs in Episodes 1 and 2 and update some quality of life issues.

Spring • April to June

This quarter will be focused on writing Episode 3 Part 2, the Episode 3 finale, and coding and playtesting all of the remaining material. Should all go according to plan, the Episode 3 alpha will be finished at the end of June. All routes will be playable for members of my Patreon.

The next round of playtester applications will open in May. Playtesters are volunteers who play the alpha build in search of bugs, continuity errors, and typos. They get first access to new content, and updates and patches before anyone else does. Because Wayfarer’s gameplay includes hundreds of choices and many, many variations that build on each other, playing multiple times and checking different options is essential for testing to ensure each area of the game functions as intended.

In June bonus content (short stories, writing tutorials, worldbuilding and lore posts, etc) will return to my Patreon. It is currently on a break, but the backlog of extras and specials are available to members of the Apprentice tier.

Summer • July to September

If the Episode 3 alpha is finished on time, this quarter will start the development of Episode 4. Episode 4 is divided into three separate routes that have no-crossover and each feature a main companion. Alexia’s (Route A) will be worked on in August and Ren’s (Route B) will be worked on in September.

This is an estimated timeline and is subject to change.

Fall • October to December

The last quarter will see the end of Episode 4’s development. This includes Calla’s route (Route C) and additional coding and playtesting. A second round of playtester applications will open in October. If all goes well, December will see the release of the Episode 4 alpha on Patreon and Episode 3 will launch on the public build.

This is an estimated timeline and is subject to change.