Goodbye 2024
A summary of my game dev work in 2024.
Coming to the end of 2024 I'm continuing to work on Ravel the Frays. A bigger game than normal where I'm tinkering with the prototype to then make a vertical slice to then make a demo. It feels like I've not done a lot when I can't share a ton publicly, and there's still much more to do for a game that won't release any earlier than 2026.
Then Say It In Red, a visual novel podcast I recommend, posted one of their indie collection episodes. They covered a game of mine I had forgotten was made and released this year. So I need to rewind a bit and actually reflect on what I've done the past 12 months...
March - NaNoRenO
NaNoRenO is a month long VN based challenge every year, and I was contemplating doing it back in February. An artist I follow (janm) opened commissions, immediately their style fit with a story I had in mind so I was locked in.
Sink Your Teeth by SuperBiasedGary
A human. A vampire. A pushy woman. A pathetic creature. Just two people bargaining for blood.
Look at them.
Sink Your Teeth is a queer vampire story about a pathetic creature, a pushy woman and navigating their desires. I did a fun gimmick with the choice screens being something you have to physically sift through and lock in a particular choice. It was short because it ran a month, but it is a story I'd like to revisit and expand with more. At it's core I wanted to explore people reckoning with their desires, getting over demonising them and having to actually communicate if they want to share them with another person.
I have many more thoughts to get out on this some day.
May - Exqusite Word Euphonic Boogie
No that's not a typo. Or, well. It is, but an intentional one. This year saw the beginning of an anonymous collective called LITHOBREAKERS. A collective of queer devs where we make stuff under an alias, letting us stretch our creative muscles. EWEB was the first thing released as an actual jam was getting spun up, and it was an exquisite corpse game. Where with very little communication, everyone made disparate pieces that then got stitched together in the final mess of a package.
Exqusite Word Euphonic Boogie by LITHOBREAKERS
An exquisite corpse visual novel; the more cooks, the better the broth.
We made art.
It was a very fun collaboration. I've done a lot of very small teams, where at most I have one or two collaborators to cover art or something else I'm weak in. Wrangling this bigger team was great fun and made a very eclectic thing that should be played to be believed. It really ignited a fire in doing more group work and collaboration.
July - DeFenEsTraTion
July saw the kick off of LITHOBREAKERS for real, as everyone divided up into teams or solo projects, again under an alias that allowed them separation from their normal name or brand. Given that degree of freedom, I thought about what I wanted to make that was outside my norm.
DeFenEsTraTion by LITHOBREAKERS, SuperBiasedGary
Play in your browser
I made smut.
DeFenEsTraTion is a very short text based piece that was fun to write and play with text spacing and rhythm. After banging out a script, a collaborator made a perfect track to pair with it and visually all I needed was a piece of glass that increasingly shattered. People responded well and enjoyed the experiment. I shall have to do more, and LITHOBREAKERS does happen twice a year…
August through End of Year
A nebulous thing as I said is that me and a team have been working on a new sci fi mystery puzzle game called Ravel the Frays. We’re not showing a ton publicly until we have a bit more of a foundation. But we did get some early prototype funding that has supported some incredible collaborator work that I need people to be able to experience. It took a lot of time even though it felt sometimes less satisfying as we had to explore, redo things and try to find out exactly what we wanted to do. But now we have a solid direction that I’m very excited to get in front of people.
And that’s basically my- oh wait shit there’s another game.
November - Bridgewater Deepwood Access Radio
I got to enjoy a bigger team project again, this one I was one of many contributors and the team as a whole put together a great anthology feeling project.
Bridgewater Deepwood Access Radio by Runa Liore
Two women take calls on a late night paranormal call-in show as something stalks through the forest toward them.
They’re co-hosts Harold.
Bridgewater Deepwood Access Radio is a visual novel about two radio hosts of a cryptid call in show. The structure is a fun series of vignettes with each caller written by a different person and an overall arc with the two hosts bantering in a fun dynamic. It was made for yuri jam, so you do the math.
I made a more tame vignette with the worst man you’ve heard call in, Callum Sea Calwood and a pair of fun Irish cryptids. I liked getting to just be a smaller part of a game for once and Runa did a great job managing the whole thing, as did all my other collaborators. Also there’s more to come as the game gets further polished and completed.
That’s basically all
Phew ok. That’s not even counting stuff I started but ended up shelving. I also started doing some in person game dev meet ups, but that’s mostly only relevant if you live in Ireland (if so email me and we can say hi in person). As well as saying goodbye to cohost and re-thinking what I want to do with online.
It has been a Whole Year and now we have to do another one. I’m already cooking up a smaller project in January, as well as getting something more public facing for Ravel. But before any of that in my next one of these I plan to do a brief rundown of some standout stuff from 2024 that will stick with me. I’ll probably end up making lots of posts on bsky just to think through my list and then make a condensed summary to send out when I sit down with it.
Thank you for following me through 2024, and I look forward to sharing whatever leaks out of my brain in 2025. Enjoy!
---
Someone else's work I recommend:
Misericorde Volume Two: White Wool & Snow on Steam
White Wool & Snow is the second visual novel in the Misericorde series.
Misericorde is a historical fiction murder mystery set in a convent with a cast of nuns in the aftermath of one of them being beheaded. It’s a fantastic visual novel with rich writing that teases out the mystery very well, as you notice details the sheltered protagonist Hedwig can’t. This is part 2 of 3 and I’ve been tearing through it since the release the other day, excited to see how this concludes and eagerly anticipate the finale. The art and music are incredible too, and you will not come out of this without a favourite nun.
Play com__et!
If you already did, review it on Steam!
If you already did that, thank you.🥺