a) I haven’t been active here since forever.
b) Most of you follow us for our visual novels and not some roguelike we’ve barely even mentioned.
I guess I should say a bit more about the game then. Especially as it has quite the history.
Six years ago I’ve made a promising RPG prototype on a local game jam. The deadline was 8 hours, and my idea was to extract the tactical fun of jRPG battle systems but drop all the menu navigation and make it a rapid, clickety-click game to be played with a mouse.
It turned out pretty fun, so my partner and I started working on it in our free time. For a while it served as our sanity side-project for when Solstice was going sideways (which means about 60% of its development). We even released it at some point, but quickly realised it still feels too much like a prototype and needs to be reworked if we’re to ask money for it. So we started over.
Somewhere along the line Bonfire became oddly personal for both of us. A lot was happening in our lives at that time and I think it started sipping into the game. I mean, you can put whatever in there if it’s just a hobby, right? It also evolved into a pretty sizeable tactical RPG about journey and failure. With tight battles that all feel like a puzzle, creative builds and strats, and a storyline so depressing that it’s cute how depressing it is!
This year we’ve finally had the opportunity to work on it full-time and bring it close to a Steam release! All in all, it’s been the longest I have ever worked on a project, but also the most fun I’ve had since my first indie release over a decade ago. Seriously. It just doesn’t get much better than making a game with your loved one. Even if doesn’t exactly come from the best place in your lives (or maybe it’s because of it?).