Update on Captain Disaster and the Two Worlds of Riskara

This is a bit hard to write but I guess most people will have thought it's probable by now - I won't be shipping the game in 2025. It's so close to completion in a lot of ways but I've had difficulty getting the last few things done ready for a final test phase. There are numerous reasons behind this but suffice to say that creating a game of this scale in your spare time is a difficult proposition at the best of times - and certain circumstances over the past year meant I didn't have the best circumstances to be able to work on the game in the way I needed to. (Not looking for sympathy or about to go into details - it's just life, and like sentient pizzas wearing nose-glasses, it happens.)

Part of the problem has been struggling for motivation, which is again down to a few different factors - my recent small project (AGSnake: The Last Bite) was an attempt to get myself back into it. To some extent it's worked (and it was a project that had been in the back of my mind for some time - I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out)... I just need to find that extra 10% to push myself back into the zone. Well, maybe more like 20%. At most, 30%... but I digress...

On more positive news, I've had some great voicing completed in recent months to really bring the characters to life. The voice cast now includes Sally Beaumont, Katie Aitken, and AGS Forum alumni Durinde, SinSin, Cat, Mandle, Viking, TheBitPriest, ManicMatt - the biggest problem I have with the voicing now is that I often don't like my own voicing in the game! I may need to redo a lot of my own lines, but it will be worth it to improve the overall quality.

Anyway, my currently plan is to release the game early in 2026, but I'm not setting a definite release date yet (although I do have a particular date in mind) - I only want to release the game when I'm really satisifed that it's finished and as good as I'm going to be able to make it. In all likelihood, sales are going to be nothing life-changing, so from that point of view I don't have sales pressure to release it - on the other hand, I don't like feeling that I've let people down because I led people to believe the game would be released this year. But again, life happens - I'm not the first, nor will I be the last, indie dev who has to push back release - in fact two games I've backed on Kickstarter have announced that their games will now be out in 2026 (yes, that did give me a little push to make this announcement publicly).

Speaking of other games that are coming out in 2026, check out Confidential Killings by Brane - with graphics by Lorenzo, the artist for Captain Disaster and the Two Worlds of Riskara. It's an atmospheric murder-mystery - the demo will give you a really good idea of the flavour of the game.

Well that's it from me, for now. If you're looking forward to the game, maybe drop me a comment here letting me know - that could go a long way to helping me focus on the final development stretch!!