Dear Travelers,

It’s been two years since Roadwarden’s release. I can’t believe that over this time my humble game passed 3000 reviews on Steam - I’m honored to know that my stories keep reaching new ears.



For this anniversary I prepared a final bug-fixing patch. Nothing too large - most of the addressed issues were either typos or misplaced lines of text, like when the game used to display almost identical paragraphs in Creeks, or it put a “0” in the journal instead of a summary of one of the quests.

The other fixes include, but are not excluded to:

• When discussing the job, Photios now mentions correctly that he wants you to approach him right after dawn, instead of dusk,
  
• The healing ritual (available to mages only) now works as intended when you pay for rest in Gale Rocks,
  
• Foggy got slightly more responsive when asking her about one of the tribes,
  
• It’s now more clear that one of the dialogue options makes you abandon the “Missing Hunters” quest.

All of these issues were kindly pointed out to me by the players. Thank you so much.

While it’s possible that, in the future, Roadwarden will receive some sort of a hotfix, right now I believe that this is the final version of the game and Roadwarden will not receive any new content.

I’m aware that every now and then some players encounter a bug related to drivers, operating system, or code processing that makes either launching or running the game impossible. I’m so sorry to read about these cases, and I tried my best to fix these issues, though I don’t have the capabilities to eliminate them properly. I’m sorry.



To make ending this chapter a bit sweeter, I’d love to use the following links as a bit of a parting gift:

Finding the music used in Roadwarden isn’t easy, and the game’s files are edited in a way that turns them into a terrible listening experience in isolation, so I think some of you may enjoy this quick guide where you can actually find the music:

The original soundtrack by Nick Roder
It encompasses the game’s main theme, as well as the majority of the most recognizable tracks.

Three tracks by Dan Caine:

• Enter the Sea, used during the final exploration scene (just a brilliant track)
  
• Dark Colors used in some combat encounters
  
• In The Deep Woods used at White Marshes

Additional music made by fantastic composers:

• Hinterheim’s earthwork used in dream sequences
  
• And also his finnaly lost (sic), used in conversation with Orentius
  
  
• Black Yen’s White Birch, used in a very special village
  
  
• Scott Buckley’s Blood, used after completing the Old Págos’ questline
  
  
• Jonathan Fraser’s Interlude, used at various tense, violent scenes

And there were also additional royalty-free tracks taken from WeLoveIndies website, though these specific pieces of music are not really available in isolation. “During The Night” was used in combat scenes, “Petrified” during the attack on White Marshes, “Searching For Trails” in Peat Fields, and “Vastlands” was introduced in the fishing hamlet.

Some of those tracks were altered significantly to actually loop in the game, often getting abridged in the process. Some were paid for, while others were used either with individual permission or thanks to the Creative Common License. I hope that looking at this broad list portrays well what it means to make a game on a budget. : )

See you soon,
Aureus


Link Collection

The original soundtrack by Nick Roder: https://nickroder.bandcamp.com/album/roadwarden
It encompasses the game’s main theme, as well as the majority of the most recognizable tracks, such as the various settlement themes.

Three tracks by Dan Caine:

“Enter the Sea”, used during the final exploration scene (just a brilliant track) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYleQgddQr8
“Dark Colors” used in some combat encounters - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mVFlN9tLgiI

“In The Deep Woods” used at White Marshes - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk0CYwMnQlE


Hinterheim’s “earthwork”, used in dream sequences https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Hinterheim/face_b/earthwork

And also his “finnaly lost” (sic), used in conversation with Orentius https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Hinterheim/first_demo/01-B-finnalylost/

Black Yen’s “White Birch”, used in a very special village
https://black-yen.bandcamp.com/track/white-birch

Scott Buckley’s “Blood”, used after completing the Old Págos’ questline https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdyheJt7zS8
Jonathan Fraser’s “Interlude”, used in various tense, violent scenes https://jonathanfraser.bandcamp.com/track/interlude

Fellow Roadwardens,

today, the annual Assemble Publisher Sale kicks off. Time to save big time on Roadwarden. If you haven't picked it up yet, now is the time! You can save 50% on Roadwarden!

And if you haven't seen it, there's a tiny little gem available since last year called Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale. It's part of the Roadwarden universe and was a project of the heart for Aureus, the developer behind it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/

Also, if you enjoy Survivors-like and Roguelite games, we got something special for. Today, the free version of the recently announced Asgard's Fall (Wishlist now!) found its release. Go and check out Asgard's Fall: Origins right away:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2484990/Asgards_Fall_Origins/

See you soon everyone.

Stay safe.

Fellow Roadwardens and those who'd like to become one: now is your chance to get your hands on not just Roadwarden but 9 other fantastic games that shine with story richness.

Click here to get to the event page



We're extremely happy to be part of such a superb selection of games. Hooray to everyone.

Enjoy!

Here's a call for vote for all fellow Roadwardens out there.

Today the Steam Awards 2023 Editions kicks-off, and you can vote for Roadwarden in the Labor of Love category.

It's over a year ago since the release of Roadwarden, and what a fantastic journey it's been - all thanks to you! Your feedback, comments and love for Roadwarden is immensely valuable to me.

Back in September, when Roadwarden celebrated it's 1 year anniversary, I released a comprehensive update that included not only bug fixes or community wishes but some new content on top as well as an extensive dev blog post. It's all because of you, you made that possible.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1155970/view/3665422306563102033
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1155970/view/3665422306563172165

Now, I would be very honoured and flattered if you'd cast your vote for Roadwarden in the Labor of Love category.

Thank you everyone!

Yours,
Aureus


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/

Don't forget to check out my latest project:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/

Fellow Roadwardens,

Windy Meadow🌿 is my collection of slice-of-life stories set in Roadwarden’s fantasy world. In this Visual Novel, you help Vena, Fabel, and Iudicia decide what matters to them the most, and how they see their community. And it’s now available on Steam!

I'd be more than happy if you give it a try. And do not hesitate to share your thoughts and feedback.

Yours
-Aureus


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale?snr=1_2108_9__2107

Fellow travellers,

some mean bugs were hiding in the recent Anniversary Update, but I managed to tackle them rather quickly. Therefore, sorry for any inconveniences caused by this - and thank you for sharing feedback, bug reports and love, of course.

Here's a brief changelog for this rather small patch:

• There has been a major bug that blocked some of the players from selecting the main quest for their character. Specifically, it affected the playthroughs that selected a custom difficulty setting (one that's not among the prepared presets) and didn’t skip the prologue section. Because of this, those players are going to omit a large part of their narrative arc. The bug has now been corrected, but, sadly, the only option to fix it in your playthrough is to start the game from the beginning.
  
• Fixed the bug tied to the scholar's Knowledge in the new quest.
  
• Fixed the bug tied to typing either "{” or "}" into the journal notes. These punctuation marks are no longer available.
  
• Fixed the exploit that allowed the player to use an item they had already sold, or given away.

The players who skipped the prologue will likely have a broken character sheet display. This can be fixed by:

• pressing Shift+O,
  
• typing or pasting the following:
  
• tutorial_sheet = 1
  
• pressing Enter.
  
• *The bug is now fixed for the new runs.*

Hope you'll still enjoy being a Roadwarden.

Yours
-Aureus

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And don't forget to checkout my new Project:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/

Greetings, travelers! It’s been a while.

I’ve been on a few adventures since Roadwarden’s release, but once the dust had settled, I realized there are still a few issues with the game I wanted to address. This Anniversary Update isn’t meant to make my game perfect, or to fix all of its weak points, but I do hope it will work as the proper “thank you” - thank you for all the support you’ve shown for my work, for purchasing my game, for spreading the word, for your fanarts, for your bug reports, for the editing tips...




Because of the new changes, now is the perfect opportunity to check out Roadwarden - no matter if you're a new or returning Roadwarden.


If you have played Roadwarden at least once all the way through, you know how it ends. You return to the city, get to see the results of your actions, and find out what’s your character’s epilogue.

The most common request for the game was not to rewrite or redesign this ending, but rather to add some sort of an alternative. An option to completely abandon the game’s main quest, and to help the people of the North remain independent. And even more so: to allow the PC to stay in the peninsula.




This option is now a part of the game, and I must say: writing it was cathartic.

It took some time before I figured out how to introduce this epilogue smoothly. Most of the game’s largest quests are all circling around the PC convincing the locals to join the city. Without this quest, various storylines end up in nowhere, and also PC loses any sort of authority they could previously have as the official roadwarden of this realm.




The solution I invented ties this epilogue to the game’s last choice: instead of returning back to Hovlavan with Tulia, you can select to betray the merchants and stay around. To unlock this option, the player needs to be invited by at least one of the peninsula’s factions - an event that is now more common, since, in the past, two of the possible invitations were limited to the characters whose personal quest was to Find a New Life.




This ending is much more lethal than the previous one. Limiting the city’s influence keeps the roads untamed, and the key to reach the more optimistic resolutions for the locals is to help them overcome their grievances throughout the game. So, for example, failing to get rid of the undead or to save Old Págos will limit the epilogue to its lowest “tiers” of completion, while keeping Thais in power is going to stop the player from uniting all of the tribes.

One could argue that having the new ending makes the game’s story weaker, less interested in the merciless colonization orchestrated by those with tools to go unpunished - and if so, it’s because of my weakness as a writer. But I do hope that having this option makes sense in the context of how the PC’s journey may affect them, and I tried to strike a balance by making this route much more difficult to complete.




Reading some of the new paragraphs during my first test playthrough made me tear up. This type of a good bye to the characters I came up with years ago was so rewarding.


At the same time, I tried to make the main, city-involving epilogue a bit more responsive. Aside from the tiny rewrites, I wanted to make some of the more tragic endings take into consideration the PC’s wealth, combat experience, and / or equipment.

Usually, this doesn’t make the previous “good endings” even better, but rather makes the past “bad endings” a bit more bitter-sweet and plausible.





I used to be quite happy with the old difficulty options offered by Roadwarden. By introducing the time constraints, I tried to make a game that encourages the player to embrace their limitations.




But after a year of having it in the open, it’s obvious that the game fails at explaining its intentions, and aside from that, there’s a ton of help out there for those who feel stuck and annoyed with their difficulty mode. I saw people using guides, forums, or simply changing their time limit with the console commands.




The additional difficulty settings are meant to help the players customize their experience without alt tabbing to seek additional help. This feature allowed me to introduce one of the most requested difficulty modes: to have the game using a completely neutral set of rules, while also removing the time limit.

While it’s not a set of rules I’d personally recommend, I believe my artistic experiment reached its end, and it wasn’t entirely successful. This time, I offer the players greater flexibility.




Since many players are already familiar, or even very familiar, with the opening section of the game, there’s now an option to skip through the entire “tutorial” all the way to the point where you get to decide if you’d rather head west, or east. It’s not entirely flexible, especially when it comes to establishing the player’s relationship with Tulia, but as a simplification works just fine enough.


Sadly, some of the game’s characters, places, or items won’t ever be expanded as much as they could or deserve. I lack the additional 6 months I could use to connect all the loose threads.

But there was one section of the game I felt was especially lacking in content, and the new quest, called Thyrsus’ Wand, is going to make some of these gaps more satisfying. It’s not a massive quest, but at this point, adding anything to the game takes a lot of effort, and I hope it will fit the other tasks as if it has always been a part of the core game.





Since I know nothing about programming, it was actually my betrothed who coded this part for me. Thank you, Joanna.




From your Journal you will now have access to creating, editing, and removing your own notes that are going to be stored for you not in your save file, but rather in your game files, allowing you to use them across all of your saves and playthroughs. While it’s going to be less practical for the players who share a specific piece of hardware with others, I expect this to be a welcome feature for those of you who felt like you were in need of pen and paper at all times.


Upon the game’s release, it turned out to have plenty of bugs, typos, and awkwardly phrased bits. Also, every now and then, I’ve been adding small adjustments, such as the new tutorial tips or tiny interactions, and the Anniversary Update is containing all of these updates and more.




These additions are not spectacular, and the largest one adjusts the game’s infamous Dolmen that tends to be at the very top of the search results tied to the game. The puzzle was just not as responsive as it should be, and right now is not only going to react to more actions - and also to actions that are phrased in ways I didn’t come up with before - but also has opportunities to give the player more information in exchange for time.

Other examples would be: adding more characters you can ask about at Pelt of The North; adding more information to the journal; reordering the game’s settings so that they are easier to look through.

-----------------------------------------------------

Thank you for taking a look at this devlog! There are going to be some humble patches once I hear about new bugs to fix, but this is likely the last content-heavy expansion for Roadwarden.

-----------------------------------------------------

In the meantime, another journey of mine is reaching its end. If you liked Roadwarden, please go and check out my Visual Novel, Windy Meadow. Which is going to be released soon on Steam. Set in Roadwarden’s fantasy setting, it’s a remake/reimagination of my very flawed first draft of the game that was released all the way back in 2018. But this time, I’m making it right.

So if you’re interested in a melancholic, gruesome, yet cozy story about choosing your path and being a part of a small community, how about adding the game to your wishlist?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/

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You can also find me on my socials.

Safe travels!
-Aureus

And last but not least, I want to close this first devlog with a picture from a great artist called White Mouse who sent me a picture of a Roadwarden based on his imagination; big credits and thank you for your passion!

Greetings, and welcome to Roadwarden’s Anniversary Update!

While i was working on my next project, a fantasy visual novel called Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale, I also had quite some ideas for Roadwarden as well. Thus, I've prepared a rather chunky update for all you Roadwardens out there - for simple but heartfelt reasons:

I wanted to thank you all for spreading the word, and for making my game what it is now. Thank you for all the feedback, advices, and the bug reports you sent my way. I don't know what my life would look like right now without your help, dedication, and love.

Long story short, here's some info about the Anniversary Update:

• A new ending, as well as some updates to the old ending.
  
• The in-game notepad is now shared across all saves.
  
• Additional difficulty settings, including the option to skip the opening section of the game.
  
• A new side quest tied to Thyrsus.
  
• A few slight adjustments and tweaks to both the UI and some areas.
  
• This update contains all the additions and bug fixes introduced to the game over the year, so it will feel a bit different to what it used to be upon the release.

if you've just started a new playthrough, that save won't be compatible with the changes and new stuff implemented with the Anniversary Update. So, if you want to continue your existing savegame, please make sure to activate a dedicated beta branch on Steam which we've just created for this purpose.

To do so, just right-click Roadwarden in your Steam Library and select Properties. Click the Betas tab and choose the public-pv branch from the dropdown menu.



If you want some deep-dive information about the Anniversary Update, make sure to check out my first Post Release Devlog here - hopefully it's a good read - just click the image below:



I hope you'll enjoy the update, no matter if you're a new or an old Roadwarden.

Thank you again,
Aureus

Do you love narrative video games? LudoNarraCon is a global, digital convention celebrating narrative video games, the talented people who make them, and the fans who love them, hosted on Steam.

You can also watch us play Roadwarden in the Broadcast!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1155970/Roadwarden/

The event ends on May 8th, 2023.

Windy Meadow – A Roadwarden Tale is an interactive slice-of-life visual novel about choosing your own path. Help three protagonists make the most important choices of their lives. Featuring a multitude of hand-crafted characters and a richly detailed village set in the Roadwarden story world.

The currently available free demo will introduce you to one of three protagonists of the game, Vena.
During the first chapter, your decisions matter. Will huntress Vena depart the harmonious but harmless village and leave her family behind in pursuit of riches with a merchant guild? Not to mention, there are big footsteps for her to follow, as her father is the iconic and skilled hunter of her village, the sort tales will be told about!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/?utm_source=steam_announcemnent

• A Story Unfolds: Unlike most visual novels, Window Meadow replaces the majority of narration with animated character sprites. More than 99% of the in-game text represents dialogues.
  
• Three Protagonists: Follow three very different protagonists and uncover their problems, fears, and the challenges they face. Their varying personalities make for interesting and complicated relationships with the multitude of moody side characters.
  
• Choices Matter: From the seemingly small to the life-changing, choices players make can affect dialogue options, NPC feelings, and game endings.
  
• Harmonious Living: Enjoy a serene storyworld rich in gorgeous views, gentle rivers, fertile lands, and welcoming forests. In Windy Meadow, even the beasts and dragons tend to keep their distance.

Add Windy Meadow - A Roadwarden Tale to your wishlist, to get notified about the latest news and updates!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2366430/Windy_Meadow__A_Roadwarden_Tale/?utm_source=steam_announcemnent