Wanderstop News

Hello Wanderers,

The year has truly flown by! We’re overjoyed to be able to share some exciting news to kick off December (and the start of 2024’s gaming showcase bonanza):


[h2]You can pick up Wanderstop on March 11, 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Steam.[/h2]

If you’d like to see more gameplay, check out our release date announcement trailer. It was originally featured on PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted and includes our creative director, Davey Wreden, reflecting on the personal origins of the game’s narrative.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The fun isn’t over with the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted! We have more Wanderstop goodness coming your way before the year is out during the 2024 Day of the Devs broadcast, which airs at 9 am on December 11th. Be sure to follow us here on Steam (or find us on Bluesky!) to stay in the loop.



We look forward to seeing you in the new year with even more Wanderstop news and updates ~

Talk soon,

🍵 The Ivy Road Team


And now, for a moment of pluffin appreciation:

Hi travelers,

We have an announcement to go with your morning tea:



Reading the tea leaves, it has become clear that Wanderstop needs a tiny bit more time to fully bloom.

As a result, we've decided to push the release date to Early 2025. We truly appreciate your understanding, and be assured we'll have more news for you before the end of the year!

Sincerely,

The Ivy Road Team

Hi travelers,

Most everyone has honed in on one of the more unique elements of our announcement trailer: Alta’s internal monologue and struggle at the end.

That last section of the trailer was so significant and important to us as a team, we always knew essentially what was going to happen, but the finer details did take a bit more trial and error to get juuuust right.

Here’s a little behind-the-scenes reflection on that final close-up Alta shot from Liz, our Cinematics Lead & Animator!



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I was responsible for getting Nat F’s great storyboard foundation into 3D pre-vis for the cinematic shots, and animating the long shot of Alta and Boro at the end. Ana and @arainydancer animated the rest and did wonderfully!

The animated scenes were made specifically for the trailer, but we used the same process we do for our in-game cinematics. I’d take Davey’s writing, get the key emotional points into animation, and have some back and forths to get the right feelings locked in before pushing for final animation.





Since it was the same process we used for the game, production for the trailer was incredibly smooth for the team.

The part we had to hone in on the most was the ending, there was a lot of down to the frame editing to get the right “things are okay, things are NOT okay” balance. Originally, Boro didn't comfort Alta at the end of the trailer, and we instead cut to a moody atmospheric shot of the nearby environment. The idea was to leave viewers on that suspense right after her breakdown to elicit a strong emotional response, but we found that it wasn't landing and mostly just left people confused.

We needed a more human connection to leave people on, and we found simply showing Boro’s concern for Alta the strongest option emotionally. It best represented their dynamic as characters while also giving a good representation of the feelings within the game itself.



In this video, you can see the whole shot of Alta without the quick interjections between the shop and her sword:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The interjections were something I wanted to add in to keep an excited, unnerving tempo and to have people ask things like, “why are these otherwise pretty and calming shots of the shop presented so sinister or uncomfortable? What’s the significance of showing the sword there and in such a dark composition? Why show these things during her breakdown?”.



Animating Alta’s face during this shot was a fun challenge! I had to convey her thinking her dialogue without her physically speaking it and had to make sure the transition between her being “okay” and “not okay” happened both naturally and at a good tempo. Acting challenges aside, animation itself was really fun and easy for me thanks to the rigging by @moomanibe!



I’m really happy to see the trailer land and have so many people intrigued and excited to find out what the game has in store! It’s been so awesome seeing how it’s resonated emotionally with people and I’m super excited for people to get to play and see the work I’ve done in it

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We hope you enjoyed that little bit of insight to the process -- if you've got questions about other elements of the game, let us know. As always, we'll do our best to answer what we can...while leaving plenty for you to discover when it comes time to finally visit Wanderstop on your own.

Until next time,

🍵💛 Jenny and the Wanderstop team

A whimsical tea shop nestled in a dream-like clearing is the setting for Wanderstop, our first game at Ivy Road!

Alta, a fallen fighter, doesn’t want to take in the sights or savor a cup of tea… but she’s roped into helping out Boro, the shop’s proprietor and caretaker, with managing the shop. In Wanderstop, you’ll brew tea, tidy up, and garden, yes, but perhaps you’ll also spend time sitting. Listening to your thoughts. Doing nothing. *Perhaps*.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’re so proud to finally be able to share what our team has been working on for the last few months (and in some cases, years). We’d love to know: what are you most excited about? What are you interested in seeing more of?

While we’ll certainly keep certain elements of the game under wraps, we’re also looking forward to share what we can, when we can. Let us know by commenting here or on our socials (we’re on Twitter, TikTok, BlueSky, Cohost, Mastodon, and Instagram. You can also follow our Steam page so when we make any announcements, you’ll get those updates.

Talk soon,

💛 Jenny & the Ivy Road team