hello! its austin.

what a long time it's been... i've been working religiously on Checkmage! this whole time, but from the shadows ,like a sort of shadow goblin.

the lack of an update over this span of time is due to me changing my priorities... i got really anxious about how much effort was still needed from me to make Checkmage! a good and polished experience. so i buckled down and started working very hard.

the game is now a kind of monster on a chain that i can only barely move around. I remember when it was just a piece of malleable clay in my hands that i could change the shape of whenever i wanted. this is a good thing, though, because it means it is a big enough thing for me to be proud of, and big enough for people to sink their teeth into.

these past two months i've been looking at the total scope of the game and considering where people will spend most of their time while playing.
this perspective has let me hone in on where players will expect the game to react to how they experiment. my favorite game is undertale, a game that puts secrets in the right places. by putting secrets in the right places in Checkmage, i can help the player feel the love i've had for this project and make a true connection.

 i'm already spending a lot more time in my head thinking of the future projects i'd like to work on. earlier in development, i've inserted various game ideas ive had into Checkmage as minigames. now, there is no room for more of them and they would serve only as distractions from the whole experience.

in retrospect, with Checkmage, i'd created a little bit of "design debt" that i've worked off little by little. the battles, characters, and dialog were all scoped out without consideration on whether i'd want to do that work or not. in avoidance of that work, i created the rest of game around it to force it into existence. serving as a keystone, the ensemble cast sprung to life to hold the work together.

these past two months have been spent on filling out that "design debt" as well as polishing a huge amount of art assets.

the to-do list for Checkmage is dwindling. though, ideas don't stop appearing in my head like i thought they would...

i am still planning on releasing the game in october. it'll be a little bit before i get the actual date set in stone, i feel very comforted by the laxness of its ephemeral release date. it feels less like some formal product and more like a little gift i'm still working on.

Checkmage! is still in active development. If you want to support me, please consider sharing with friends. The game will be released on Steam and Itch for sale when I'm done making it.

Checkmage! on Steam  - play the demo now!

Bluesky - more updates, videos and sneak peeks