Wayfarer 2022 Roadmap

Welcome to Wayfarer’s 2022 Roadmap!

This is an outline of my project goals for the coming year. It should hopefully give you some insights on how development is going to go this year.

Changes from 2021

I do all of Wayfarer’s writing, narrative/gameplay design, and coding myself. I have previously vastly underestimated my workflow, which lead to me pushing myself too hard to meet self-imposed deadlines. This ultimately led to me overworking myself throughout most of 2021 (which was not--surprise, surprise--great for my health). 

Completing and releasing Episode I taught me a lot about how my workflow actually functions and how long it takes me to complete a section of the game. While the 2022 roadmap outlines a vague timeline for each of my goals and I am intentionally overestimating the amount of time I need, there is always the possibility some may take more time than anticipated.

Additional Projects

In addition to the game, I am also working on two related side-projects. These side-projects will not overtake Wayfarer's development (development always comes first), but they are projects I am excited about and I am looking forward to working on them.

✦ A Twine template and annotated guide. 

This is something I’ve been planning to do for a while, but haven’t had time to figure out how I wanted to do it yet.

The Twine template will be geared towards new IF developers who want to make gamebook-style interactive fiction games, or for current developers interested in using Twine as their engine. It will be written in the SugarCube story format and use the default UI. It will include a number of popular quality-of-life elements (light mode/dark mode, imported and custom fonts, formatted for mobile, etc) and gameplay mechanics (character creators, implementing skills and stats, skill checks, inventories, notifications, etc).

The template is primarily intended as a teaching tool. It will be annotated so it explains how each element works and how to create your own. It is will also explain how to import your game to itch.io and how to use relative paths to store your game’s assets.

The template will be available on Patreon first.

✦ An interactive fiction design and Twine compendium.

The compendium will be written to go with the template. It will be broken into two sections: basic interactive fiction narrative and game design (which can be applied to any engine) and Twine/SugarCube specific coding tips.

Like the template, it will be released on Patreon first.

2022 ROADMAP

WINTER • January to March

During Winter, my main goal is to complete the alpha version of Episode 2 and begin development on Episode III. If all goes well, Episode 2 should be complete by the end of February/early March.

As Episode 3 is one of the shortest episodes in the game, I am hoping I can get the bulk of it finished during March and heading into April.

Additional Goals:

✦ Start designing and writing the annotated Twine template and guide
✦ Applications for new playtesters will open when Episode 2 is complete

SPRING • April to June

While I am working on finishing Episode 3, Episode 2 will be playtested and prepped for its public launch. When the alpha version of Episode 3 is complete, Episode 2 will launch publicly. The public launch will hopefully occur sometime in April.

After Episode 3 is complete, I will start work on Episode 4. Episode 4 is unique because it splits into three separate versions of the episode based on a choice the player makes at the end of the previous episode. While each version itself will not be overly long individually, the sum of their parts makes Episode 4 a content-dense episode.

Patrons in voting tiers will be able to vote on which version of Episode 4 I work on first.

Additional Goals:

✦ When Episode 2 launches publicly, I will be changing Wayfarer's game page from a comment-based page to a community discussion board. This will make it easier for me to sticky important development notes (such as the post about common launch errors) and an update post to keep non-Patreon players informed about the alpha build's progress.

SUMMER • July to September

Summer will be primarily devoted to developing Episode 4. I will be releasing the Twine template and annotated guide during this quarter (likely towards the end of it) and I will continue to playtest and prep Episode 3 for public launch.

I am taking the entire month of July off. I’m hoping to prepare some additional bonus content for Patreon which will release while I’m away, but regardless, I will not be working on the game during this month.

FALL • October to December

If all goes well, Fall will see the completion of Episode 4. When Episode 4 is complete, Episode 3 will have its public launch. Provided I am not behind schedule on the game’s development, I will be releasing the interactive fiction design and Twine compendium at the end of December.

Additional Goals:

✦ Applications for new playtesters will open when Episode 4 is complete
✦ I would ideally like to start work on Episode 5, but I am not going to push myself to finish it by the end of the year