an update on things i'm working on right now
Suddenly it's July...! It's been a whirlwind year for me so far as predicted in my 2024 year in review blog post, but overall I'm feeling pretty good about it all.
I realise that not everyone is on social media, so unless you're checking my Bluesky profile regularly, there's no real way of knowing what I'm up to. And I've got a few things to talk about now so it's a good time for making a blog post about it.
Also, I've recently gone past the arbitrary milestone of 5000 followers on itch.io. That seems like a lot of people to me. Whether you've been following me/my work since the Bitsy days or only just recently played something I made for the first time, thank you!
So, what's the news?
My own projects
Will I ever stop making things for myself... Hopefully not. Anyway here's the latest on that front.
1. DAWN CHORUS
Over the past few months I've been working on DAWN CHORUS! I'll have more to share very, very soon, but it's been nice to finally have some time to get to it. I've been working in inkrunner with isyourguy on this and it's looking so good. I know I'm making a game here, but if you know me you'd understand that in some way or another I am also always making cinema.
I'll make a proper post about this project soon because I have been very quiet about it and I want to talk about it more.
Oh and if you're in Melbourne, I'll be showing a build at ACMI on July 23rd that you can play. Come along if you're curious.
2. portrait on imagined horizon
I've released a new game with DOMINO CLUB earlier this year, portrait on imagined horizon. It's a very loose sequel (?) to ( C Y C L E ).
I made this in about three days, while I was playing through Control (2019), and in a strange way it is an exercise in exploring myth-making for DAWN CHORUS as well. It's the shortest game I've made in a while, and after a period of fairly ambitious projects, I think I really needed that.
It's a fun little mysterious thing, you should play/read it. Here's a secret: it looks really nice on mobile, too.
Other people's projects that I happen to work on as well
I've been doing a bunch of contract work in games over the past... year? or so. It's been good, I've been learning a whole lot, and I'm lucky to be working with people who are extremely driven and talented.
Working towards something you believe in is so cool.
1. Parasensor
I extremely vaguely hinted at this in my last blog post, but I joined Ghoulish as the narrative designer and writer for our upcoming weird horror adventure game Parasensor.
I'm ridiculously excited about this one. If you like paranoid fiction, body horror and mystery games... why don't you wishlist it on Steam now? It's shaping up to be a beautiful and kinda fucked up game. We're really cooking with this one, I swear. Yay!
2. Drăculești
Our beautiful Gay Dracula romantic horror visual novel, Drăculești... I've been the editor on this for a little bit now, and it's been wonderful.
Mads is such a good writer, meticulous in the historical fiction side of things--and I mean, how inspired to set a Dracula adaptation in the 1930s--and vivid/visceral in the horror side of things... and the specificity of how they write the romance side of the story is so cool. Imagine, if you will, a romance game where each character including the player character (my favourite tortured guy Roger M. Renfield) are fully realised. Love when that happens.
Anyway, we've just launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund development for the "full" version of the game, which includes more story routes and partial voice acting.
Definitely check it out if you're a visual novel enjoyer. Or a gothic horror enjoyer. Or a historical fiction enjoyer. Or a thoughtful and complex queer character enjoyer. Truly something for everyone. Back the damn Kickstarter will ya!!
OK that's enough from me
DAWN CHORUS blog post soon. You might see me talk about it at Freeplay Angles if you're in Melbourne on the 2nd of August. Just sayin'.
Bye for now,
Cecile