The Great Sassanelli – An Interactive Novel · published
Esteemed townsfolk,
As September draws to a close, you may have noticed that we've quietly pushed the release of The Great Sassanelli into the final quarter of the year. We apologize for the unexpected delay. Let's begin by talking about its main culprit!
During a discussion following a recent playtest, we were looking into better ways to tie certain game mechanics together. At the time, the protagonist's circus wagon would serve as a sort of catch-all for many actions that become available based on the current state of the story, daytime, and other factors.
This was neither very clear nor presented in the most spectacular way, simply offering up different texts to click in what we call the "Story Book".
Introducing The Ringmaster's Wagon! This whole new scene actually originated as a misunderstanding, but once we had it in our heads, we couldn't let go of the idea. It was such an upgrade to the game that even a few weeks of extra work and a delayed release would easily be worth it:
From this screen, you will be able to access the map, search the bookshelf for clues, train your juggling chops, and go to bed at night. Like all scenes in the game, it dynamically adapts to the current daytime.
While The Great Sassanelli is a creation by Forking Paths Gardening, its publisher DigiTales ended up playing a huge role in the game's final (and if we're being honest not-so-final) stages of development. Over more than a year, our two studios regularly met up for long weekends of co-development, which we like to call "Sassanelli jams".
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤMaybe we don't work the whole extended weekend
With the Ringmaster's Wagon wrapped up, this past weekend marks the last jam prior to release. In order to give The Great Sassanelli a final pass, however, we are going to run a closed playtest of the full game throughout the month of October. If you'd like to participate, please sign up here. Afterwards, please join the DigiTales Discord server; further instructions will follow there in October!
If you'd rather wait for the finished game to come out, here's the new and final plan: The Great Sassanelli is coming out around November 11, the day World War I ended 108 years ago. Besides its significance, we picked the date to give ourselves a little time to act on the findings of our final playtest.
In the lead-up to launch, we will post some exclusive spotlights of the game's characters, features, and creators on our socials, so follow allong!
See you in the Big Top very soon. 🎪
The folks at Forking Paths & DigiTales