Spencer is a man with a Past. A Past so rich and devious it deserves a capital letter. Orphanages; seminaries; Hush House; the Suppression Bureau; Gladwyn Lake; Worms. And that's before you get into the deep lore. "These were the years I drifted fleshless through the Bounds, thin as rain and more than naked..."
But he's also a man with a future - a future you will very soon be able to explore. That's right: Travelling At Night's closed beta is officially starting next month! AK and I are taking a week's holiday at the end of June to prevent folie à dev, and as soon as we return at the start of July we'll email keys and introductions to a random selection of testers. Those of you kind enough to have signed up to test the game are all in with a shot of getting a key. We'll be adding a new tranche of testers each week, so if you're not initially selected, you might well be later on. Take heart and know that you, too, may have your chance to see the Cat of Gratitude when you submit a bug.
The beta will run for about a month and include all of the newly-populated Antibes and its Sanitarium Aujourd'hui to the east. Here's a behind-the-scenes summary from Unity, to give you a sense of all the buttons you'll be able to go in and push even before you get into the writing...
AK has now finished all the story content for this demo and the Steam beta coming later this summer. This is a major milestone - I think Travelling is already at 80,000 words, and that's before you even get on a train. See why we're cautious about localisation and voice acting?! You can now ruin a perfectly nice game of cards; get arrested by a quasi-fascist teenager; admit you are responsible for the terrible pulp novel Blood in the Belfry and try to remove as many copies from circulation as possible. You can smuggle for the French Resistance, infuse a church window with the spirit of the Twins, and craft occult tools from wounds in the earth, thresholds, and the everyday altars where the skin of the world is thin. Most importantly, you can decide to pay for Vincent's train ticket when you leave Antibes, or buy a first-class ticket for yourself and leave him to lump it in third. Choices matter.
I'll post a whole deep-dive into what's explorable in our public demo nearer the time - we'll announce the release date soon! Suffice to say, there's a lot going on in this seemingly provincial town.
AK and I are, obviously, terrified of Travelling's first proper outing into the world. I think the best thing you can do as an indie dev is try hard, be earnest, and lay a sliver of your soul in the layers of your work like the sixpence in a Christmas pudding. I hope, when you come to play, you find the sixpence.