Hey everyone, feasgar math!

We’ve been quietly chipping away at Secret Path since the jam wrapped up, and we’re excited to share a wee bundle of quality-of-life updates and some visual polish that’ve made their way into the project!

Quality of Life & Visual Polish

The sneaky placeholder Wulver sprites that snuck their way into the spooktober jam build have officially been retired. Their finished versions are now showing up in game and those scenes are now looking so much better.

The GUI got some love! We’ve revamped the preferences and accessibility screens, plus given the history and save/load menus a layout tidy-up.

A bunch of missing UI bits (scrollbars, sliders, frames - you know, all the little extras) have been added to match the main UI from the jam submission.

The character selection screen at the start of a playthrough got a visual refresh to make it cleaner and a bit nicer to navigate.

And finally… we added some main menu music! It’s in! The silence has been banished! (from the menu anyways)

Ongoing Development

Our tiny team of three is still hard at work pushing the game beyond Act 2 (where the jam demo ends). Here’s what’s happening behind the scenes:

• Madra’s sprites are being updated and polished to bring them closer to the quality of the amazing character work from Sandra!

• Sandra is creating new alternative poses for the cast to give them more expressiveness and life.

• Work has begun on the game’s first unlockable CGs, and Cael is tinkering with a gallery feature so you can revisit them anytime.

• Narrative development for each player character’s upcoming routes is steadily moving along.

Help Wanted (Just a Little!)

While we’ve now got music on the main menu, the rest of the game is still rather quiet. Like, eerily quiet. Like “why is the forest judging me” quiet.

So! We’re currently scouting for a sound designer or composer to help us bring the world to life with:

• In-game background tracks for various scenes,

• Some atmospheric stingers / transitions,

• UI sounds that don’t make you jump out of your skin, nor leave you in dead silence when interacting with the project.

If you’re a composer and/or sound designer interested in working on a queer & eerie, small-team VN for your portfolio or just for fun, or if know someone who might be interested, feel free to reach out!

We’d need some examples of past work to review & It’ll be a big bonus if you’ve worked on any Ren’py VN projects before this

Bonus Teaser

We’re also cooking up a little side treat. A tiny one-shot VN with a single, enby love interest for the Once Upon A Time Jam. It’s short, bittersweet, and coming soon, so keep an eye out!

So aye, lots is happening even with our small team. That’s all for now, saor-làithean sona!

— Rosia