Postmortem: Windy Meadow

gamedeveloper.com:

Game Developer Deep Dives are an ongoing series with the goal of shedding light on specific design, art, or technical features within a video game in order to show how seemingly simple, fundamental design decisions aren’t really that simple at all.

Earlier installments cover topics such as how indie developer Mike Sennott cultivated random elements in the branching narrative of Astronaut: The Best, how the developers of Meet Your Maker avoided crunch by adopting smart production practices, and how the team behind Dead Cells turned the game into a franchise by embracing people-first values.

In this edition, the developer of Roadwarden looks back on the making of the original Windy Meadow and what they learned going into the game's recent remake. 

I’m Aureus, and this is my second time writing for Game Developer. Previously, I had the pleasure of introducing the narrative-oriented design of my 2022 video game, Roadwarden. Now, a new game of mine is reaching its release: Windy Meadow, a visual novel set in the same fantasy realm. An interactive story that’s cozy in some parts and gruesome in others, it explores the themes of choosing your path and being a part of a community.

While the game is just a one-time, 3.5-hour experience, it’s still quite a feat for a one-year project. With plenty of illustrations, 2D pixel art animations, an intertwining narrative, gentle story branching, sound effects, and music, it surely took thousands of hours to finish.

Here’s the kicker: this project was originally released in 2018. It was a massive flop and a tiresome, crucially flawed project with an inexperienced designer behind it—me.

The re-release isn’t exactly a remake, update, or a re-imagining. But here’s the mantra that’s been