I've officially returned from my summer hiatus, and I first want to say thank you and greetings to all the new subscribers I've accrued over the last week. For those new to the community, this is likely your first time hearing about Cold and Afraid, so with regards to the game being back in development, you're probably thinking, wait, when was it not? I'd just seen it on Twitter!
This post will establish some context. And as for those of you who've been following me since the early days, and are aware of my journey so far, this post will serve as an update.
Before the summer, I was working on a gamejam demo called Twilight Bastion. Over the course of time, it evolved into being its own game. I had stopped developing Cold and Afraid at the time because I was searching for a publisher to help fund the game's development, and so I pivoted to working on Twilight Bastion with the expectation for it being a smaller, cheaper project that I could get out in the meantime.
I released a limited public demo to Twilight Bastion in May, then I took a much needed break from game development.
Over the summer, I had sporadic visions of Cold and Afraid, fleeting images of the game that came to my mind. Then one day, I just sat down and played it again... And I thought to myself:
"Am I really going to let this game die? After all the work I put into it?"
So, what I decided to do was post to my twitter account and see if any of the hype for the game was still there after almost a year of absence, and that would tell me what to do...
Well, after almost 300k views and 10K likes on the post I made, it became clear to me that this was a divine obligation; publisher or not, Cold and Afraid had to be finished...All these people who felt inspired, felt nostalgic when seeing footage of my game—this has suddenly become a sense of duty.
Continued development of Cold and Afraid is in full swing. Ericka is back, and a killer is still loose.
If you aren't already part of the discord—where you can receive these sorts of updates in real-time—you can join using this link: https://discord.com/invite/b9PtscVHJf
I love how much this community is growing, and I'm incredibly inspired by all of your support. I really am.
With regards to Twilight Bastion,
After the public demo period, I'd gotten a lot of valuable feedback from playtesters regarding the game. And the only thing I kept thinking about was how I should've remained true to the original version of the game—being a more honest descendant of Vagrant Story and not Demon's Souls. Various development hurdles and decisions were behind the shift in game mechanics, but as it turned out, I believe my original vision was better.
So to that end, I will be rebuilding Twilight Bastion from the ground up. All the assets I created prior will be preserved; however, the game will be reimagined as a turn-based RPG, the way Vagrant Story was. Real-time combat turned out to be a technical challenge too great to overcome for what I was attempting to. As a turn-based RPG, I will have greater control over the flow of combat, ease of playability, and the core game will be less about navigating environmental challenges, and more about engrossing yourself in a deep, lore-rich story.
As for when I will return to Twilight Bastion in a full-time capacity - that will be contingent on when I finish Cold and Afraid. I will update the community as the time draws nearer, or if anything changes.
As always, thank you all for joining me on this harrowing gamedev journey. I know its been somewhat of a whirlwind with these two games, but HEY! Now there's two PS1-style, nostalgic, blasts-from-the-pasts games to look forward to, instead of one! Some of you may prefer Cold and Afraid, and some of you Twilight Bastion. There's something for everybody. I said I wanted to be the indie version of Squaresoft in '99, so I guess this tracks.
Future updates henceforth will focus on Cold and Afraid's development, and its forthcoming demo release.
'Til next time!
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