Hello everyone!
I took a little break after Steam Next Fest. The event went well, but admittedly it's a part of game dev that takes more energy from me than what I normally do. And I was already a bit tired beforehand I think.
I'm posting this today to announce that I've decided to delay the release of Elfie: A Sand Plan to Q1 of 2026.
I've talked to silent swimmer, Elfie's composer, as well as the localizers that I've collaborated with to have the demo available in different languages. It's been a relief to hear their support for this decision as even though its not a significant change all things considered, turning the 2025 to 2026 on the game's Steam page felt relatively significant to me.
The timeline for the release was affected more significantly than I had anticipated from taken on a contract for something else. I kept working a lot on A Sand Plan in the first few months alongside this full-time work, and knew it would likely need to be pushed back a bit later than initially planned. But I think it was around the end of September that I knew I was pushing myself a bit too much as I felt the need to slow down.
In any case, this will allow me the time to go over the dialogues, puzzles and make sure the release version is at the same level of quality that I am satisfied with. And also do a bit more, as the feedback from Steam Next Fest was a great source of insight on features that would benefit the experience without taking anything away from the core experience. Things such as:
Adding color coding and patterns to indicate correct and incorrect positioning of blocks.
More hotkeys for picking blocks and also rotating blocks using different inputs.
Increased text visibility options.
So the extra time will also help implementing those extra elements. And also give the time for silent swimmer to add some more songs too!
I'm sorry to make you wait a bit longer for it, but I believe it will be worth it!
Thank you for your support,
Solomar