- Devlog 17 - Carving and Polishing - 26 September 2026
Short, boring update for you: we're still working. Progress is coming slower than I'd like (mostly on my end, honestly) but very much moving forward. The demo update is entering the awkward "figure out when its actually done" stage where the vast majority of content is present, and what remains is balance and polish. My focus has been on implementing enemies, reworking the enemy decision-making algorithm, building the battlemaps, and general dev-side playtesting. The only real "system" left to implement is the final save format / progression system, then it's just finishing the last bits of content and polishing the shit out of everything. I don't feel like the current steam page + demo are a very good showing of the game, and I really want this release to "fix that". Essentially, what comes out next should genuinely represent the final game. As a result, I've made the call to abandon m…
- Devlog 16 - PRECIPICE - 18 August 2026
Exciting days are ahead. It's my pleasure to announce that, after three years of development, Fractal Odyssey has an official Development Team! I'm still the sole developer at least for now, but there are three artists committed to working on this project long-term. There's even contracts involved! I'll share some of their work for this project at the end, but first - a development update. As I expected, my own speed has gone down substantially. Between learning to manage a much more active art team, and my own recent employment, I've just barely hit my minimum development goal for this post - all Player Unit Abilities are designed and implemented. This is ~135 abilities altogether (as a reminder, the current demo has about 50 total). The abilities still need testing, balance, and icons, but the bulk of the upfront work is done. As I develop the Sparks that will be included in the demo,…
- Devlog 15 - The Boring One - 19 July 2026
This is going to be a shorter post than normal. Most of what was said in the previous post still holds up: my focus is currently on implementing the ~200 player abilities the game needs. Here's a progress update on that:Caithe has a fully implemented and tested ability treeAesa and Meiku have partially (70-80%) implemented ability trees, with testing and fixes being slightly behind. There is one unimplemented mechanic currently blocking completion - need to make that part first.Rom and Samwell have 90% designed ability trees, with implementation starting very soon.2 Sparks are fully designed and very partially implemented. One (Ripper) is a redesign, the other (Blooming) is brand new.4 Sparks are in mechanical concepting stages, mostly including redesigns of existing Sparks.Each character has 3 Sparks worth of abilities, so I'd consider this process about ~45% complete. I'm hoping to ha…
- Devlog 14 - Customization - 22 June 2026
This month, I want to highlight some of the bigger changes coming to Fractal Odyssey. Specifically, I'll be showing off the rework that progression and teambuilding are receiving. One of the consistent points of positive feedback on the demo was that teambuilding, by the time you reached the boss fights, felt quite satisfying. My aim with these changes is to expand that feeling in a way that will cover the length of the entire game. To start, here's a video previewing some of what's changing: Note that all UI is very WIP As you can see, there are now Skill Trees in Fractal Odyssey. Each of the six playable characters will have 3 dedicated Skill Trees. As you progress through the game, individual units will earn Levels. These can be spent to unlock an ability, or upgrade, in the Skill Tree. Unlocking an ability adds it to the pool of abilities you can choose from. Only a certain number o…
- Devlog 13 - "Fractal Summer" - 19 May 2026
Summer is here! With it, for the immediate future, my schedule has cleared significantly. I'm going to be dedicating a significant amount of this time towards working on Fractal Odyssey - I expect to be putting in 3-4x more hours per week in the next few months. This may not last the entire summer, my situation may change, but I expect it'll go for a few months at least.During this time, I'll be putting out weekly update videos/showcases for the progress I'm making. These aren't going to be the most exciting for a while (I'm mostly working on menus/UI at the moment) but I'll be doing it nonetheless. This will both keep me accountable for completing work I don't particularly enjoy, and give a chance to get some early public feedback on the big UI changes I'm doing. I really want to get this version of the UI right.Additionally, I'm starting to implement reworks for existing content. The…
- Devlog 12 - UI and Update Plans - 18 April 2026
I have some actual progress to share this time!My efforts for the past month have largely been focused on one thing: UI. My initial plan was to slowly build out the UI alongside content for the foreseeable future, but I recently realized that plan heavily clashed with my demo update goals. I don't feel confident that the current demo accurately represents the game anymore (though I won't be taking it down, don't worry), and updating it has become the priority. I'm very glad I shifted towards this direction when I did. The amount of work actually involved in the demo update became shockingly apparent once I began work in earnest.The majority of this work comes from the UI side. There were various system overhauls that needed to happen, but those have mostly been resolved. Unfortunately these system changes can't be thoroughly tested (nor can content be properly reworked for them) until t…
- Devlog 11 - Map Editor Showcase - 19 March 2026
Unfortunately, I have a bit less solid progress than normal to share this month. I've gotten the map editor to a point where the new tutorial can be made, but now need to do some system changes and UI redos before it makes sense to actually make it (I'd have to redo a lot of code if I did it right now). As such, I figured I'd share the bulk of the past few months of work - the map editor!I've discussed the map editor before, but here's a timelapse of it in action! The map created here won't actually be used for anything, but should serve as a good demonstration of what the editor can do. There's 4 major bugs that happen in this video. If someone can spot all of them, you get an (imaginary) cookie.For other progress news:Design is 99% finished for enemies and player abilities in the second chapter, as well as the sixth character. I've started implementation, but am mostly holding off for…
- Devlog 10 - Revisiting the Tutorial - 18 February 2026
The Map Editor is coming along nicely. It has now exceeded the functionality of the old one, and I'm starting to work on replacing the 'old' maps with recreations. A few of them will have to wait, though, as they'll be getting major overhauls to use the new features the Map Editor enables. Most significantly...The Tutorial stage is going to be completely overhauled, top down. My playtime statistics give me a very clear picture right now - people are not bothering to pass the first stage. The three issues that I suspect cause this are the general lack of polish, lack of a quick narrative or gameplay hook, and dry mechanical nature of the tutorial. The former is something that will be addressed in the future, but the latter two are tutorial-specific and being actively worked on. Here's what I'll be doing:Full rewrite of the opening section, and new art to accompany it. I don't want to spo…
- Devlog 9 - Map Editor - 18 January 2026
As of today, Fractal Odyssey has officially passed 2,000 wishlists on Steam. I really couldn't be happier about that, and I'm eager to see the next milestone fall. To everyone who wishlisted, and everyone who played the demo, thank you! I've mostly finished fixing the system-level issues exposed by the demo. This was a very complex problem that could barely be seen (though would've been a bigger deal later). It basically boiled down to effects not always executing in the right order, and required me to completely rework how Clashes were handled. The new system seems to work smoothly, and should support the rest of the game. Most actions needed minor rewrites to play nicely with the new system, and I'm finishing those up now.Note that, from the player perspective, nothing really changed as a result of this. Clashes still work the same.The map editor has consumed the rest of my programmin…
- Devlog 8 - What Comes Next - 18 December 2025
I have to say, I don't think I expected to get a tenth of the interest the demo drummed up. It's been a month since release and wishlists have gone from ~125 to 1900, a genuinely massive gain. Not only that, but I've received feedback from over 20 different people across various platforms - I expected to hear from 5 at most. There's a long way to go, but this is a much stronger start than I could've ever hoped for. To everyone who's played the demo, wishlisted the game, or shared it around - thank you! Now, for business. The reception to the demo was more positive than I expected, but there's still a lot of issues. The three areas that have been most consistently criticized are UI/UX, Tutorial, and Pacing. My hope is to ship an updated demo sometime next year which addresses all of these, and adds just a teensy bit of new content. To summarize how I plan to approach each issue:UI/UX are…
- Demo Version 0.1.3.0 - 28 November 2025
Added some SFX to most "click" actions in the UI. Not perfect, but improved.
- Demo Version 0.1.2.0 - 26 November 2025
The game should now work on any resolution. Please let me know if it doesn't! If your monitor is below 1080x1920px, it will launch in a smaller window. All windows are now resizable, meaning you can make it bigger/smaller as you like. Unfortunately, due to how the scaling works, the game looks pretty shit above the intended 1080p resolution. This is an issue with the rushed resolution scaling implementation, and will be fixed in the long-term.In order to facilitate this happening quickly, the scene transition VFX have had to be disabled. I'm going to try and get them working again quickly, but they are causing major issues with the resolution scaling and I believe that the latter is higher priority. I have not been able to test on most monitor configurations, so please let me know if something doesn't work - I'll try and fix it ASAP.
- Demo Update v0.1.1.0 - 22 November 2025
BalanceCapped the maximum damage of Jolt at 10 (It can still stack over 20, but won't give any more damage)Reduced the Jolt application of "Stormblade" from 6 (3+3) to 4 (3+1)Indirectly buffed the second phase of "That Which..." as a result of a bugfixBugfixesFix a tag string error that occurred on Aarulf's "Deathmark" statusGrid-relative UI (such as health/AP) now properly disappears while the grid is rotatingFixed a major bug with logic execution order. Previously, the status of conditionals (i.e. "if this unit has 5+ Frost") were all assessed prior to running any child logic. This caused a bunch of minor issues - for example, transferring more Burn than you had. This has been fixed, and I believe any issues caused by the fix have been resolved. Updated engine version. This should have no effect on gameplay or visuals, but carries a slight risk of instability. I've tested pretty thoro…
- DEMO RELEASED - 17 November 2025
Welp. Two years ago, I started making Fractal Odyssey. At the time it had a different name and no real expectation of becoming a "real project". It was something to pass the time, and fill the Void Stranger-induced hole left in my heart. I never would have expected to have a steam page, or have a public demo, but here we are. And, imperfect as it still is, I am damn proud of what I (and the other people involved) have accomplished here. The demo contains the entirety of Chapter 1, as well as an additional challenge boss from later in the game. The early buildcrafting mechanics are implemented, as well as the full combat system. While I wouldn't call this a vertical slice quite yet, it's an accurate representation of what the game will "feel" like once all is said and done. I plan to spend a lot of next week fixing and improving the demo, and hopefully get it to a state that I'm happy wi…
- Devlog 6 - Demo Releasing November 17! - 17 October 2025
Big new today - I've locked in a demo release date - November 17! This won't be visible quite yet - the Demo info is still being reviewed by Steam, but the "coming soon" for it should pop up within a few days. The demo will contain:The first five playable charactersSix Sparks (classes) from all across the final gameThe entire first chapter, with a full script and narrator voice actingA total of six "normal" combat stages, and...A "challenge boss" taken from a much later section of the game. When I say "challenge", I really do mean it.Additionally, the steam page has been updated - there's a trailer now! It isn't a great trailer (video editing is my passion, clearly), but I think it gets the point across. I plan to make a longer and better one for the proper demo release, but I don't know if I'll have the time.In terms of progress, I am very confident in the November 17 release date. By…
- Devlog 5 - "The Last 10%" - 24 September 2025
Things have taken a bit longer than expected. More specifically, there's a lot more stuff to do than I expected. It's very easy, as a developer, to just "ignore" the areas of the game that need polish. As I started playtesting more thoroughly, those problem spots became a lot more clear. There aren't that many major issues, but there's a lot of minor ones. In combination with those issues, I underestimated the amount of UI and animation work that needed to be done. The game still barely has any sound effects! As such, I don't have much choice but to push the demo back.I'm not sure how long that delay will be, but I wouldn't expect it to release in October. I'd be surprised to see it reach into December, but it's possible - I once thought it was going to release in August (how silly that seems now). To summarize what remains:Battle Content - Almost entirely complete. Minor balancing, and…
- Devlog #4: Closing in on Demo - 9 September 2025
Howdy! It's been a minute since I last posted one of these. I've been waiting until I hit a major milestone, and am glad to say that I have! The demo is now content complete. Every enemy, ability, and mechanic has been implemented! Some of it will most likely change as I start playtesting, but they're all here now. Unfortunately, this does not mean the Demo is right around the corner - though it is getting close.Now that all the content is implemented, theres four major goals remaining:Implement final animationsFix the ugly UI (and get all final art assets)Playtest, Playtest, PlaytestPolish, Polish, PolishIn order to launch a Demo, I 'need' to make a trailer. In order to make a good trailer, I need much better looking visuals. Thankfully, I have most of what I need to make that happen. It's just going to take a good chunk of time.Once a trailer is out, I'm planning to reach out to small…
- Devlog 3 - Raid Mechanics in a TRPG - 28 July 2025
Howdy! Last log I promised info on the Sparks (classes) system, but I'm hoping to finish up some UI related to that first. Instead, I'm going to give a bit more of a "design breakdown" here - how I'm implementing FFXIV-esque raid mechanics into a TRPG. First, heres a quick update on everything done since the last post:The new boss has been ~60% implemented, and almost all "new" code for it has been written. Pending a major bugfix, the first phase is functionally done.The map has been heavily updated, and is nearly in a final state codewise. Just need to implement a few extra details into node transitions, and link scenes together (so that a Dialogue scene can go directly into a Battle scene, for example).Some major performance optimizations, implemented after I realized there were some critical problems with it. This is why I'm behind on a few other things, and I'm not confident its 100…
- Devlog 2 - Tutorials, Animations, Progression - 10 July 2025
Howdy! Here's an update on how things have been going:Tutorials The core systems for the Tutorial have been implemented, as well as the very initial tutorials themselves. At this point, all that needs to be added here is the "content" - all of the text, the special tutorial rules, the tutorial stages themselves, etc.This is in a "chip away at it over time" state, since actually solely working on tutorials is painfully mind-numbing. There's rough plans for a "see tutorials you've already viewed" system, though that might not make the cut for the demo.AnimationsAfter a lot of experimenting, I've finally found a reasonable and cost-efficient way to get animations made quickly and in large quantities.Basically, I'm taking the pixelart animations made by Frostwindz and (with permission from the original creator) tracing them into a hand-drawn style to match the games aesthetic. This obviousl…
- Devlog 1 - What we're working on! - 30 June 2025
Howdy! First off, I'd like to thank everyone who's been following the project so far, and everyone who's wishlisted - it means a lot! I'm "Mega" - lead developer. I do basically everything aside from the visual art, and originally started this project completely solo. Honestly, I never expected it to get this far - having a steam page feels unreal even a week later. I'll be doing these devlogs every 1-2 weeks to share progress as we approach the end of the summer and, hopefully, our demo release. This log will be more of an overview of what we have left to do.I have four main goals in mind, things that must be done before I'd consider the demo "good enough":A full-featured tutorial. This is my current target, and probably the most important thing here. The main point of feedback in previous playtests was the the mechanics were unclear, and the game felt overly knowledge-demanding. This…
