Dear lord I knew I shouldn't have said January- Oh, hi! You didn't hear anything, right? Of course not, this is text silly.

So yeah, unfortunately I haven't been able to release the Itch.io demo on January. Now you may be wondering, why is that? Well, it's 'cause I'm an idiot and I don't know how long things take! The build is mostly complete, however it's missing some polish on my end and some art that I could've probably commissioned way earlier if I had had the foresight to do so (Shoutout to Kada[www.instagram.com]! Thank you a lot <3), so until it is ready I won't be able to publish that demo, first impressions are important after all.

However, I'm not willing to rush anyone putting their sweat blood and/or tears into this project of mine, so I cannot give a definitive answer as to when will the Movement Demo be happening, so stay tuned to the Steam news and the game's socials to be the first to hear about it.

Take a look at the wonderful work Kada's been doing and let's move onto the part where I tell you the good news!

After some deserved (debatable) winter vacations I've been able to pick up the pace with World 1 surprisingly well! I've managed to make some upgrades to systems that were already there, as well as some huge progress on the first island compared to the previous months, to the point that I may make a build to get player feedback soon-ish! (Not promising any dates again). Not to be persistent, but you really should follow the socials if you want to catch wind of it as soon as it happens, there's some tiny cute buttons at the end of the post that will send you there.

I don't have any screenshots of how the island looked before (I really should start documenting things more), and there are still some placeholders, but this is how it's looking as of now!

And what you're seeing is not all! There is stuff hidden inside and more parts will appear as you explore, I'm quite content with how it's turning out so far and can't wait for you all to try it out. Seeing it from this angle, the shape of that island is quite interesting, hmm...

I want to close out this month's newsletter by thanking all 100+ people that have decided to wishlist Riftaway! I'm amazed at how many people are showing even the slightest interest for this game (Tbh I was expecting like 0), and at how consistently you're doing so, like, ever since the game page got released here on Steam there's been very few days where there wasn't at least one wishlist, what the heck. As a treat, allow me to share some backstory about this project!

This game concept derives from another that I made last year in a game design class. Back then it wasn't even a platformer, but rather a shooter about grabbing elements of the environment and using them as projectiles, where you could find secrets by bringing the correct ammo to the right place.

This is some very rough and rushed concept art I did for the One Page of the game!

Damn Rico is looking weird in here

It was a weird mix of platforming, collectathon and games like Neon White or Ultrakill (I hadn't played Ultrakill at the time, but in retrospect there are very similar ideas there), but in the same way I extracted the platforming and collectathon elements from there to make Riftaway I feel I could return to the other bits I left behind and make a game using those some day, however that's a problem for future me to think about.

That about does it for these news! I'm sorry there isn't still anything you can play yet, but rest assured that I'm doing everything in my power so that when something does come out, it's the best version it can be. See ya away! In... the Rift! Damn that doesn't work either... Cya!

- Vikku (Mahou Boshi)