Heyo!
Happy January and all the things! :-) Let’s start the new year with a bit of a get-up-to-speed Spirit Fire check-in!
None. Just keep hanging out while we do our thing! The PM will be open for at least another month.
Dang, this game is a heck of a thing! It’s easily the most ambitious project we have ever worked on. Come behind the scenes with us and let's look at what's going on!
The time since the previous update has been filled with a continued focus on intense refinement & playtesting, refinement & playtesting, repeat, repeat, repeat.
What we found was that everything in the game was working beautifully, but something in us hadn’t turned the corner to where a sense of peace settled in. We’ve done enough projects together as a team (both in gaming and in our other ventures) to know what it feels like when “we’re there.” Over the years together, we’ve learned that when we haven’t had that moment yet, we should keep going. So we're doing exactly that.
The instinct within the design team has, for a while, been that things need to be simplified. Over the last few months, as we leaned more heavily into playtesting, the testing data has born that instinct out. Players love the game but feel overwhelmed by it. So, we’re being ruthless in our willingness to adjust the game to make it sing and flow just right. We’re simplifying mechanics, moving progression systems around to make them feel more natural, and experimenting with just flat-out removing whole aspects of the game to see what still works and what doesn’t, experiments that help us find pathways to streamlining. It’s not about removing depth, or even complexity—we’re committed to protecting the depth of the experience, so don’t worry—it's about making sure that you’re using your energy only on things that are fun or interesting, and the right amount of energy at any given moment.
In a lot of cases, this process has been a matter of finding ways to move *when* you engage with certain aspects of the game, so you’re never having to consider too much at once because everything is organized in a way that keeps your mental workload at a challenging and fun level, but not an overwhelming one. These are the types of design decisions that are invisible to players for the most part, but that have a massive impact on the experience. That’s not to say we’re not also straight-up simplifying the heck out of some of the systems. That’s happening too. And the game is much better for it and no less engaging.
If you want to picture what the last few months of Spirit Fire have looked like (when we’re not playtesting), it is three designers sitting at a big table with countless iterations of Spirit Fire components spread out everywhere, shocking each other with what seem like insane suggestions for bold cuts, and then extrapolating out all the butterfly effects of that change and testing to see how it works and feels. Then . . . doing all that again. And again.
We’re happy to report that this process has yielded fantastic results. Everything feels stronger, and we can tell we’re much closer to that “sense of peace” moment we’re searching for. We’re not there yet, but boy-oh-boy are we on the right path. We can feel it. Fear not, this isn’t a process that will continue forever. Major progress is happening.
Our commitment to you is that we’re going to keep this up until we reach that point. You’ve placed your trust in us, and in the vision we laid out in the campaign. We'll keep working until we know we’ve honored that trust by delivering a game that meets that vision.
Spirit Fire is a distinctive, unique, different kind of experience. It’s taking longer than we thought it would. But we’re professionals, and we’re working hard, with great focus, and we trust that, when this thing ships, your experience is going to be so much better for the time we’ve spent continuing to develop over the past few months.
Thank you for your passion and enthusiasm for the concept of Spirit Fire. We promise that an embarrassingly few number of things in life mean more to us than honoring that passion by delivering something truly wonderful with this game.
All that said, our commitment to working a game until it’s what it should be isn’t the only commitment we have to you….
Over the past <checks watch> sheesh, seven or so years and eight crowdfunding campaigns, dang near all of our updates have been written by <switches from “we” voice to “I” voice> me, a guy named Tom. I have a wonderful time writing the updates and it’s been an honor to do them. But, as our team has grown, as the audience has grown, the demands of my role on the team and my role as a designer have started to get in the way of my ability to get these updates out at the cadence you expect. For most of our history as a publisher, we’ve been known for incredible communication and constant connection with the community. A quick glance through the comments on our last two campaigns though, and that’s not so much the prevailing word on us lately. I own that. So we’re going to make some changes, because this aspect of things—communication, connection, community—is truly at the heart of who we are and why we’re doing this.
So, moving forward, we’ll be approaching updates as more of a team affair. Much of what you read will be written by the incredible Amber, whom you probably know from comments, from our discord, or if you’ve written to our groundcontrol@orangenebula.com email. It’s impossible to overstate her competency, which, if you’ve interacted with her before, you know already. So, rather than me having to force myself away from the design table out into the broader world and into a totally different headspace to write updates and newsletters explaining what we’re up to, I’m just going to keep my head down with the rest of the design team pushing projects forward. Amber, meanwhile, will be observing and chronicling our progress and collaborating with the rest of the team to put together an update, graphics, and all the things.
The goal for this new approach to updates is to get back to what we’ve historically been known so well for: fantastic communication you can rely on, written with heart, that never leaves you wondering where things are at or how the work is going. Sometimes these communications will be short and sweet. Other times they’ll be more elaborate. I’ll almost certainly sneak in some words here or there still, because I can’t help myself, but with this new approach, we’re going to get things back to a communication pattern that matches our heart and intentions.
Also, as always, if you ever have any concerns or needs, please reach out at groundcontrol@orangenebula.com. You will hear back very quickly. We’re also active on our discord, alongside a very strong O-Neb community who are often as much (or more) helpful than we are. :-) We’re never dark. We HAVE been slow on updates though, so we’re gonna change that.
It wouldn’t be a proper update without a thing to look at, so here we have two burden cards with fresh artwork just in from Brittany Bowman, an incredible talent and human who has quickly become one of our absolute favorite parts of our extended team.
Check these out.
As far as game content goes, we’re very much still collecting concepts for burdens. We would LOVE to hear your ideas. It’s cool to get a little niche with these, but they really come to life when they’re a concept that we all could experience, regardless of our walks of life.
Share any ideas you have for burdens down in the comments below!
Once again, thank you—truly, from the depthiest depths of our hearts—for being here.
If you need anything, please email us (groundcontrol@orangenebula.com).
If you wanna hang out with us more regularly than when updates drop, join our discord server!
We’re also slinging reels on Instagram and so forth. We’re always around.
Well, except the design team. We’re in the conference room with the door closed, leaving everyone to wonder what all the raised voices are about, and confusing everyone even further when what sounds like hours of arguing gives way to a lot of excitement and joy. 😄 Thus is this world of game design! But that’s beside the point. Folks here are available to you all the time. Reach out!
Much respect and mucher love.
We’ll talk to you soon.
O-Neb
!