Hi. We’ve been pretty quiet the last couple years. It has, perhaps for many people and obvious reasons, been a time of reflection. We’re also continuing work on Elemental Flow, something we’re really happy with and looking forward to showing off in the future. But right now, we wanted to take a break to do something a little different.

We didn’t always know that the thing that would become Elemental Flow was going to be our follow-up game after Dialogue. There was a period of time where we experimented by brainstorming ideas, building out prototypes and testing with friends. We were looking at those prototypes recently with no small amount of fondness. They exist in an in-between space – not quite marketable or complete enough to reasonably pull together into a Product, but also not neatly absorbed into other projects.

So we thought, why not share them as is? They’re incomplete, maybe didn’t work as well as we hoped, or required more than we would be able to provide. They’re unpolished, having just enough to function and convey the feeling of the larger package they might have become. They’re probably buggy (sorry, we fixed what we reasonably could!) But we also think they’re interesting, and would love it if other people took something away from them, whether it’s a little piece of fun, a lesson learned, or an inspired idea. 

With that in mind, we have three packages for you – two games, or possibly four games, or maybe three games, depending how you want to count them. We’ll release one at a time, available for free* on itch.io, one per week. At the same time we’ll share some of our thoughts and feelings about them – what each game is, what we hoped to do, what we liked and what didn’t work out.

Life Game (ah, prototype names) was meant to encompass a whole life, where each stage was based on different gameplay – Childhood involves toyboxes and micro-games, learning about the world around you. As a Teenager, you play an action-adventure game, learning new abilities from classes at your magic school and using them to explore the world during your holidays. During Adulthood, your life turns into a scheduling text game, managing your work, hobbies and social life, trying to maximise your happiness (or savings, if that’s your preference). We will be sharing Life Game in two different sections – Childhood and Teenage Years will be released together tomorrow, and Adulthood next Monday.

Finally, we’ll share Spirit RPG, a game about communicating with spirits, convincing them to come along with you to help save the elven world. In many ways it’s a proto-Elemental Flow, but before we found its unique setting and characters – we started from a fantasy setting and focused on creating interesting encounters and giving each spirit unique abilities in and out of encounters. We’ll share this two weeks from now. 

* Though we always appreciate tips, we want to make sure everyone can experience and learn from these prototypes!