This round of play testing has been the single most helpful round of place testing to date. Being able to watch people play, and see their facial expressions was pivotal in understanding when the experience was actually working for someone, if someone was frustrated, if someone was laughing at a joke, or if someone was (in general) empathetically connecting with the characters on screen. After doing all of these tests, I now have a good idea of what's working and what needs to be brought into balance for the release (of the first part) of Act 1!

As a game developer it's important to not have to explain your game, and what's happening in it (unless it's intentional); it simply needs to be able to stand on its own. Sometimes that's what's going on within the story itself, the gameplay mechanics, and how they work in various situations. Someone should be able to pick up the game, and start to experience it without too many hang-ups, frustrations, or interruptions.

I view my game as a piece of art, and as a piece of art that means that much of it is subjective to what I find entertaining, and meaningful but there's a balance that I want to strike as well. What I create still needs to be digestible for folks. A playable game not entirely subjected to my creative whims, but in the format of a playable experience as is the medium I’ve chosen.
For instance, I could tell when watching the playthroughs that some individuals love this type of game already. They knew what to do, how to do it, and they loved that it was a chill and narrative based experience. It's as much an interactive novel as much as it is a “game” (if not more). Did I make a solid list of refinements? Yes indeed, as there were key areas that need refinement. That being said, all the criticism was valid when taking into account someone else's personal perspective / expectations.

I’m going to touch on an outlier example, because I found it enlightening. I had one playthrough where the person became angry, and frustrated by the amount of text they had to read! They wanted a button to skip all of the text. They wanted platforming! Jumping on boxes and floating walkways! Action! Boom pow type of experience! And you know what? Their perspectives / feelings are entirely valid, but also not what Ira is about!

Obviously this person isn't my target demographic, but there were still things to be learned from this interaction. An option to bypass text, or have characters opt out of conversations might have a place in Ira. Periodically giving people the option to opt out of longer scenes if they are not as interested isn’t bad advice when blanched with the heart of the game. The player can decide what they are interested in exploring further in certain instances, and there is merit to that!

Ira will never be a platformer, but they picked up on the character controlled sections needing more depth / refinement. As a person who loves getting behind the wheel of a character, they found some of the interactions / controls lacking. Specifically tool use was a little wonky, and at times a bit underwhelming. Watching them play gave me some solid points of refinements to make in this area.

All that being said, getting a diverse set of play testers both inside and outside of your demographic is pivotal in understanding what you’ve created, and should always be leaned into. A person who is attune to character controlled action games might bring a different sensitivity to round out your refinements!

One of my favorite additions has been the darkness that envelopes a character when their flashlight isn't on. You get swallowed by it, and when you flip on the flashlight it cuts through the darkness and unveils things to interact with! It’s a simple, yet fun and mysterious interaction. I know it seems little but sometimes that’s all it takes to push something over the edge.

Anyway, I can’t express enough gratitude for everyone that reached out and took the time to play the demo. What I learned has been invaluable for the next steps in refinement, and the updates are well underway. Once again, I’m grateful and appreciative of all of you!

Please reach out if you are interested in round 2 of playtesting at info@iragame.com! This should be the last test before the first part is released.

It’s been about 74ish days since requesting more funding to finish Ira the way it was meant to be, and hire a 2nd person! I should hear back within the next 2 weeks either way. That being said, it's rare to get 1 MegaGrant, let alone 2 of them! Fingers crossed folks!
Currently I’m planning on / working towards releasing the smaller episode as talked about in a previous update. It’s basically going to be a refined version of the demo with extra content switched on totaling 1.5 hours or the first 1/3rd (roughly) of the game.

Anyway, that’s how things are currently going and I hope all of you are doing well! How are you folks doing? I want to hear about it! I've really enjoyed getting to know many of you over the years! It was a treat meeting many of you as play testers. <3

Until next time folks!

A substantial amount of work has been done since the last update. Currently, I have a demo lasting about 1 - 1.5 hours (that’s if you skip many of the interactions). I call it a demo but it's a large chunk of the game (about ⅓ of Act 1), and it needs more play testing / stress testing. It skips the prologue which I hope to bring back for the final release and jumps right into the game's intro. It’s also lacking a couple interactive bits pivotal to the story. They are not included as that will ruin the bigger picture for you folks.

Anyway, I’d love to get it into the hands of some of the original backers / fans for some play testing! Email info@iragame and I’ll add you to the list and you will get a steam key in the near future! I have some old emails from back in the day, but who knows what’s still good or not in that list. Please shoot me an email if it’s been awhile! Also, I’d love to get people playing while they are recording themselves using OBS. Being able to see reactions to actual gameplay in real time is extremely beneficial! I’ll provide links in the demo email of how to set things up.


So much work has been done in the first ⅓ to 1/2 of the game. It’s been well developed! In fact I’m looking into the possibility of doing scene releases for Act 1. That way I can get it out in the near future, and then work on a new release about every 4-6 months. Act 1 is already segmented into 3 self contained scenes / parts, so it would be possible to handle Act 1 in that fashion. Ideally, I’d want to do all of Act one at once. I feel like that would be the best way for someone to experience the game. It all depends on what happens with round 2 of MegaGrant funding.

I’ve created a round 2 Epic MegaGrant to submit to the MegaGrant’s program, and it’s ready for submission! Epic is open to doing another round of funding for past recipients. In my proposal I’ve had to showcase the progress that the original grant has helped me make. I’ve put together an in depth document with videos, images, etc showcasing just how fair things have come with assistance from the MegaGrant program, and where a second grant would help me take things. I will make the submission at the end of the month when the application system opens back up (the program is on a summer break).

This second round of funding would allow me to bring on another person leading up to the launch of Ira Act 1: Pilgrimage. They would work alongside me using the Ira action component system to script interactions and make sure the full vision of the game is realized. It would also free up my time to refine and work on a number of other game related tasks that need to be completed / addressed. From press kits, to support for various platforms. Creating a game at the quality level that I’m aiming for is not easy for a team, and it’s exceptionally challenging for a single developer like myself. I’m hoping that the MegaGrant team will be impressed with the progress made and will happily provide an infusion to finish things in the best way possible, and get Ira across the finish line. Wish me luck! I should know in 90 days or less from the date of submission.

Currently figuring out what I should include in the new press kit, and how I want to do the final trailer! That being said, I’m excited to put the newest trailer together because there’s a lot of great content to work with. I’m currently laying the groundwork for the final iteration. It’s going to be interesting folks!

MegaGrant based sponsors continue to be extremely helpful. Intel has provided me with an Arch A770 GPU which will replace one of my oldest cards. I’m very appreciative of the support and it’s been put to good use. Thank you Intel! I also randomly won another AMD processor so I can do a CPU upgrade. I'm having really good luck in this department!

I broke my spine falling off a zipline which was a scary experience. The line I was on, pulled out of one of its anchor points and I fell directly onto my upper back. Thus jamming one vertebrae into the other causing a dent / smushed area in the bone. Compression fractures are pretty painful if I’m being honest, but I’m exceedingly fortunate. The damage was minor albeit painful, and has been able to heal on its own with little intervention. It was just one of those things that takes time to heal. Right now I have minimal to no discomfort as it’s been healing for a number of months, and I’ve been fully mobile for a while now. Sitting, running, working out, and doing general spider monkey like activities are going well once again. I never want to relive that initial first 2 weeks of pain ever again…Not fun.

Once again, please reach out if you are interested in playtesting the latest demo!

Until next time folks!