Announcement: Looking Ahead Post Emberfate

Hey everyone!

If you've been following the development of Emberfate, then you'll probably already know that the final episode has been completed yesterday (and released early for $15+ Patrons last night)!

Some of you may be wondering: with Emberfate being wrapped up, what does it mean for the studio and the Patreon rewards in the future? So here's a quick look at what's in store!

TL;DR:

Patreon Rewards

• No more early episodic access to Emberfate as Patreon reward -- I mean, obviously, since the game is over LOL Day 8 build will remain up on Patreon for any new Patrons who pledge $15+ in Dec.
• Emberfate developer's booklet PDF will be available to $15+ Patrons next month if they were already a Nov $15+ Patron.
• Short story / drabble / doodle rewards will continue to be of Emberfate until Jan or Feb. Then they'll switch back to Reanimation Scheme and maybe occasionally some Emberfate content.
• Script snippet previews and sneak peeks will be of Reanimation Scheme and future games.

Emberfate

• Emberfate will be released for free on Steam along with potential small flavor improvements and Steam achievements.
• There are currently two planned paid DLCs for Emberfate: one developer's booklet PDF, and SelfconsciousPotato's romance route DLC coming sometime in 2023.
• Might do small KoFi crowdfunding goal for Potato's route.
• Tentative plans for mobile port for Emberfate sometime in 2023.
• Potential fancontent festivals / contests in the future.

Other Projects: Reanimation Scheme

• Studio focus will be on finishing Reanimation Scheme in 2023. Beta builds of each route will be available on Patreon.

Other Projects: Ascendants

• Ascendants will continue to be revealed slowly on Patreon ($10+ tier reward) until it's ready to be announced to the public in 2023 (after Reanimation Scheme is released).
• Ascendants will be another free episodic release with early access on Patreon (but no longer monthly early episodes -- tentatively thinking about 3-4 months for one episode). Potentially considering smaller monthly alpha builds for Patreon if there's demand / interest for it.
• Ascendants will be refined and sold at $10-$15 at the end after the final episode is released.

Full post ahead for more details

---

Emberfate's Future

While all 8 episodes of the base game have been released early for Patrons, the public free build is still on Day 6. So you can expect to see Day 7 and Day 8 be released to the public in early Dec and early Jan respectively.

With the public release of Day 8 in early Jan, I am hoping to also be able to release (a) Emberfate on Steam (free) and (b) a small DLC in the form of a developer's booklet PDF (public retail price @ about $5-10).

Steam Version

I'm currently working on the Steam page and the trailer, but I'm hoping to get this done within the next couple of weeks. Emberfate will remain free even for the Steam release, by the way.

Tentatively, I'm looking at adding Steam Achievements for the game — mostly the different endings, and then possibly some small achievements along the way of things like pissing off certain players or the different side character outcomes you can influence (e.g. Ruby/Cat and Ali/Walter).

I'd have to test it out in the future when the game is on Steam to see whether I can make the Steam achievements unlock automatically if you load an old save file from previous Itch.io or Patreon builds, but tentatively, I'm hoping it will be possible, so you won't have to replay the game to unlock the achievements.

There's also a couple things I'm considering improving or adding to the final Steam version if I have time, but I'd have to see if my schedule allows. It'd be minor things like more flavor realm chat conversations and spam mail, maybe a bit more reactions in raid / guild chat during the Day 8 final raid, etc.

I have toyed with the idea of adding a feature to let players freely teleport around some available locations during the game (unless it's a story segment that locks you into a particular location like the raids or dungeons), but it might be difficult to do so while maintaining compatibility with old content, so we'll see.

But in general, the Steam version would be more or less the same as the current builds, so you don't have to replay it! But if you can, downloading the game when it's out on Steam and leaving a review on the Steam page would be so so helpful!

DLC #1: Developer's Booklet

In an attempt to recoup more of the expenses spent on the game, I'll be releasing a small paid DLC in the form of a developer's booklet PDF.

It'll mostly be some behind-the-scenes content (game design inspirations and thought process, character bios, original outlines, etc.), post mortem (i.e. post-development reflections and ramblings from me) and bonus drabbles.

It'll be available for free & early to $15+ November Patrons next month if you remain a $15+ tier Patron in December!

Otherwise, it'll be available as a paid DLC in Jan on Itch.io and Steam for about $5-10 (I haven't decided on the pricing yet tbh).

Here's a small sneak peek of the cover & table of contents of the booklet!

DLC #2: SelfconsciousPotato's Route

Due to surprisingly popular demand from players about wanting to romance Potato, I'm likely to do a small DLC to add in a romance route for Potato in the future. It'll likely be $5 or so for retail release. It'll come with the same amount of romance content as the current three LIs, so you can expect about the same number of voice/video calls, a video call CG for Potato (and his daughter), and a selfie CG for his romance ending.

To cover the costs, I'm considering doing a small KoFi crowdfunding goal thing for the DLC route. The goal wouldn't be very high -- roughly around 1-1.5k based on my calculations so far. Maybe I'd do it after the Steam release? Would give it more time to raise funds before I start working on the DLC content itself. But I'm unsure of how well something like this would go so hmm... LOL

I'm uncertain about the schedule, but the DLC release probably wouldn't be until I finish Reanimation Scheme in 2023 -- maybe mid 2023 or so. Keep an eye out for our social media for more info in the future!

Fancontent Festivals / Contests?

Depending on reception and how much interest we get in Emberfate after the Steam release, I'm hoping I could do some fancontent festivals or contests in the future. Fanart, fanfiction, OC profiles, or even fake screenshots of guild chat -- anything goes!

I love this game, universe and these babies, and I want to see more about them, even if I may not have the time to devote to create the content myself. If any of you ever make fancontent of Emberfate, please do share with me if you feel comfortable to! I check #emberfate tag regularly on Tumblr and Twitter, as well as any tags @windchimesgames directly on there. I'm also present in our Discord server as well, and there's a #fancontent channel in there for Emberfate.

Studio's Future

Next Focus: Reanimation Scheme

If you haven't heard of this game, it's actually the studio's debut commercial project that has been funded on Kickstarter in the past! It's a more traditional otome game with a fixed MC and 5 love interests (4 male, 1 female), so it's pretty different from Emberfate, but maybe consider checking it out if you like my writing! :D

You can find more info about the project on https://windchimesgames.com/reanimationscheme

My plan is to focus on finishing this game and releasing it in early to mid 2023. Beta builds for each route will be available on Patreon as they're completed as well.

Ascendants

If you're a $10+ Patron, you've probably seen some of the Future Plans posts revealing early previews of Ascendants already. But here's a quick intro for those who have no idea what Ascendants is:

• Free episodic release, similar to Emberfate
• Will be remastered and sold as paid product at the end after it's done
• Early access to episodes available on Patreon (most likely every 3-4 months instead of every month like Emberfate because I about died doing this monthly episodic release schedule)
• High fantasy genre -- you play as a demigod competing against other demigods for a chance to ascend to full deityhood
• 7 total love interests -- 3 male, 2 female, 2 non-binary
• Customizable MC -- no visible sprite, choose name / pronouns / skincolor / origin background / skill specialty. Personality choices available throughout the story

The plan is to begin writing work on this project in 2023 after Reanimation Scheme is done. Currently, only the art is being commissioned (slowly since 2019), so by the time I begin writing the script in 2023, hopefully all the character / background art will have been completed by then, so the only thing that I'll have to wait on would be CG art!

What Else?

I have another project that I've conceptualized back in 2019, which will be announced in late 2023 or so, so I won't mention many details for now. BUT you can expect to see more Wind Chimes Games romance visual novels / otome games being released for the foreseeable future!

If you've enjoyed my writing in Emberfate, I hope you'll consider keeping an eye out for my future projects to come!

--

Afterword

As an ending note to this insanely long post, I would like to thank all of you for being on this journey with me for Emberfate!

As all the talented team members of Emberfate were paid on freelance commission basis, while the game itself is released for free, I was really struggling budget-wise to make the game. Your generous support on Patreon is what made this game possible. Seeing so many of you pledge and comment has also kept me motivated to keep working on the project even when sometimes I'm really tired and burned out from the monthly episodic schedule.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for coming on this wild ride with me. I'm so happy I could share this game with you all, and I hope our paths will cross again in the future -- whether for Emberfate DLCs or for other projects!