The Drifter News

A truly excellent point and click adventure game The Drifter is now more easily playable thanks to some official translations, and support for fan additions.

Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2026/01/adventure-game-the-drifter-adds-new-localisations-with-support-for-fan-translations/

[p]Just in time for Steam Detective Fest we have another update to The Drifter, and it's 20% off for the festival! [/p][p][/p][p]Today's update adds official support for Italian, French and Spanish![/p][p]By far the most requested feature for The Drifter has been localization into more languages. There's a lot out there though, and with over 50,000 words we couldn't do them all... officially at least...[/p][p]So The Drifter now supports fan translations too! [/p][p][/p][p]Translators can copy this Google Sheet, add their translations, and share it with others. Instructions are included for installing a custom translation. (Basically just download as translation.csv into the game folder.)[/p][p]'Ere be a talk-like-a-pirate translation to get ye started. :D[/p][p][/p][p]Also in this update: [/p]

• [p]A new "wait for click" option can be toggled for subtitles, for players that want to take their time reading. Particularly useful for non-english speakers and hearing impaired players.[/p]
• [p]Tweaks to the controller inventory bar, extra slot and scrolling animation to make it easier to use. [/p]
• [p]A big backlog of bug-fixes, text correction and optimization.[/p]

[p][/p][p]So what else's been happening?[/p][p]The Drifter's won a bunch of awards! :O[/p][p]In October we went to the Australian Game Developer Awards here in Melbourne and picked up awards for Excellence in Art, Sound Design, Narrative, and Game of the Year! We were awarded the Best Aus/NZ Game award in The Indie Game Awards, Best Art Direction in the Smash Jump Awards, and we're a finalist for Story in the DICE awards in Feb. And we've got Honorable Mentions for Art, Sound, and the Grand Prize at the upcoming the IGF awards to top it off![/p][p]It's been amazing seeing us on a bunch of end of year top 10 lists and such too. I know this is all very self-indulgent to post about but it means a great deal after working on the game such a big chunk of our lives ;)[/p][p][/p][p]Lastly, a big thanks to everyone who's made The Drifter an amazing success for us! Looking back at 2025, (the bits I can remember, it's been a real blur!) we couldn't be happier at the reception for our game. We're blown away that folks are digging it as much as they are, and we can't wait to make more stories for you all to play![/p][p][/p][p]All the best for 2026![/p][p]Dave[/p]

[p]A few minor fixes and a QoL tweak or two this time-

[/p]

• [p] Up to 8 pages of save games now supported (hopefully enough for the save-early-save-often folks!).
  It only shows the first few pages until you fill them up to keep the UI clean.
  [/p]
• [p] Notification option added to Accessibility menu, so you can disable the red number for Topic Notifications, or turn them off completely.
  [/p]
• [p] Typo fix- Effected -> Affected.
  [/p]
• [p] Text tweak to match VO when grinding coffee.
  [/p]
• [p] Fixed rare soft lock in Ch4 when talking to detective about Nazari.
  [/p]
• [p] Fix for partial photograph description updating early in Ch7.
  [/p]
• [p] Some glitchy animation fixed at end of Ch 6 for Roth and Hara .
  [/p]
• [p] Ch7 Interface Lab description now set correctly for Hara.
  [/p]

[p]I'm about to head on a long-awaited trip to Japan with the family for a few weeks, so no more finding bugs until I'm back! ;) [/p][p][/p][p]Laters, [/p][p]Dave[/p]

Got caught up in a bunch of business admin tasks this week- the joys of being a small indie team :P

But found time for a few quick fixes:

• VSync option now saves/restores correctly.
  
• Notification setting saves/restores correctly.
  
• Fixed Ä character font issue in German credits.
  
• Reporter description updates correctly when you see her in the vent shaft.
  

If you have the soundtrack, I've added an optional lossless (FLAC) version of the tracks there too. And it's also on Bandcamp now if you tend to look for soundtracks there, or just want a listen!

Cheers,
Dave

Found some time to hack in a few extra options people have asked for. I'll add these to the options menu properly later, but thought I'd update with just keyboard shortcuts for now, since I had a couple of bug fixes to publish too.

• Added Vsync option in the Limit Framerate slider (drag it to the left). New installs default to vsync on rather than limited to 60fps.
  
• Shift+F now toggles CRT Filter. (Will be added as separate option in menu later)
  
• Shift+T now toggles Topic notification setting between On, Minimal and Off. (Will be added as separate option in menu later). So you can turn of the red number notifications if you want.
  
• Fix for potential soft-lock in chapter 9 where Roth floats off the screen.
  
• Fixed incorrect description in chapter 7 when Roth is in the interface lab.