Zefyr: A Thief's Melody News

Hello everyone!

It’s time for another development update on Zefyr: A Thief’s Melody. Progress has been steady, with lots of improvements across the board. Let’s dive right in!



I’ve been testing the full game once again after all the latest updates, and while things are looking better, I found plenty more to refine. Here’s what I’ve been focusing on lately:

[h2]Content Updates[/h2]

• World Enhancements: Every level has been upgraded with added details like vegetation, stencils, rocks, grass, fog effects, set dressing, and other polish.
  
• Animal Additions: The world now features 35 unique animal species, with over 100 individual animals scattered throughout. Each one has its own avatar too!
  
• Collectible Quests: I’ve compiled a complete list of animals and flowers, so now the “collect” quests are officially finishable.
  
• Chocolate Placement: Three chocolates now grant you one additional heart, and you can finish the game with a total of 10 hearts.
  
• Key & Boss Updates: All key cards and bosses now have updated avatars.
  
• New SFX: A tiny but satisfying touch—slingshot sound effects are in!
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Graphics Issues: I’ve addressed glitches with lock FXs, transparency problems, and visual FX bugs.
  
• Character Faces: Some NPCs and guards got a facelift, literally! Improved skin textures and optimized imports make them more consistent.
  
• Grapple & Climb Bugs: Annoying issues with these mechanics in certain cases have been resolved.
  
• Save Fixes: Fixed saving problems with open-world bosses.
  
• Camera Consistency: Now the camera behaves uniformly when showing switches or doors being activated.
  

[h2]Optimizations[/h2]

• Merged plant objects for better performance.
  
• Cleaned up old, unused game objects.
  
• Refined and updated the world map.
  

With these changes, the main and side quests are now fully functional. There’s still a bit of content to add in certain zones, but overall, the game is graphically nearly as polished as the demo. Characters look more coherent, and here are a few new screenshots:



That said, there’s still plenty to do in terms of narration, cutscenes, music, and sound. Those will be the next big areas of focus!




[h2]Steam Next Fest[/h2]
I participated in the Steam Next Fest recently. The results were a mixed bag; +800 wishlists: Not as many as I had hoped, but the feedback was positive. Players enjoyed the demo, which is great reassurance for me as a solo dev!

[h2]GWB Awards Finalist[/h2]
I was thrilled to be a finalist in the GWB Awards (organized by Tencent). While I didn’t win, making it that far was already a big achievement—it’s the first time Zefyr has been selected for a festival with such high standards.

I also got a small visibility boost from being featured on the dedicated Steam page for a few days, which brought in +100 wishlists.

So I added this nice logo to the Steam page (the 1st of the reward section):


[h2]Social Media[/h2]
I’ve been trying to stay active on social media, with posts on Reddit (where I’m still running a few ads), X, and Bluesky. Speaking of Bluesky—it’s been blowing up lately! I gained over 1,000 followers in just a few weeks, thanks to being featured in a few “Game Dev" starter packs.

If you’d like to join me there (especially as X continues to lose active users), here’s the link: https://bsky.app/profile/oneiricworlds.bsky.social.




The full game is now in the hands of a few trusted friends for testing. And luckily... they’re not holding back 😅. They’ve pointed out a lot of issues, especially with the level flow in some critical areas. I’ll be addressing all their feedback to ensure future testers don’t have to suffer as much!

[h2]Private Beta in December[/h2]
The next step is the official private beta test, which I plan to launch in December. Think of it as a little Christmas present for some of you 🎄.

I’ll share the details on my social platforms, Patreon, and Discord, so stay tuned!

That’s it for now. Thanks so much for your continued support—it means the world to me.

Take care, and I’ll see you in the next update, hopefully a beta announcement!
Peace!

~ Mathias

Hello everyone,

The demo and prologue of Zefyr are now available in a new language: Spanish (from Spain)! I hope it’s also relevant for Latin American players too.
Of course, the full game will also be translated, but since this part is done, I decided to push the update to Steam right away!


By the way, it was my dad who localized the game! He's a retired Spanish professor. I hope everything is accurate, but don’t hesitate to let me know if you spot any typos or if certain words could be improved. He speaks Spanish very well, but since he's not a gamer, some terms might be a little off. Any feedback is welcome!

It was super nice working with him—it brought back memories of my old Spanish lessons at school!

On another note, the demo will be featured in Steam Next Fest next week (October, 14th). I really hope the game will reach a much larger audience. Fingers crossed! :)

And a piece of good news to wrap up this quick post: the full game has made it onto Steam's "Most Wishlisted Games" list, which is a huge milestone for a solo, unknown dev like me. Of course, I’m near the bottom of the charts, but it should still give me a bit more visibility for the full release.

Thanks so much for your continued support! Feel free to follow my dev page on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/developer/oneiricworlds

Have a great day, and take care.

Peace!

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well! July and August have flown by, and I’ve been working on Zefyr of course, but not exclusively. Here’s a recap of what’s been happening:




Over the last few weeks, my focus has been on polishing Zefyr and improving its overall functionality, especially for the demo and the upcoming full release:

• Detail Fixes: I’ve addressed various issues related to localization, narration, and dialogues. One major concern from players was the inconsistency with the protagonist—sometimes being completely silent (like Link) and other times unexpectedly chatty. I’ve worked to better balance this. There’s still more to refine, but it should already feel much more natural. I’ve also improved how important information is delivered to the player, while keeping character interactions and dialogue believable in a world where characters have already known each other for some time. In addition, I adjusted camera placement during specific dialogues to improve immersion.
  
• Missing Elements: The demo was missing some avatars, UI help, and sound effects, so I’ve added those in. I also fixed some minor UI input glitches to make the user experience smoother.
  
• Functional Maps: All maps are now fully functional! The goal was to keep them simple enough to be easily readable (the old ones were too cluttered, and players were struggling with them). While I still plan to add more visual details in the future, they are now much more user-friendly.
  

In early August, I took a little time off to work on a fun side project with my kids: a simple platformer game. It was a holiday project, and they had so much fun designing characters and biomes. It took just a week to develop, but it was a refreshing creative break from my main project.

The game is about searching for animals in a forest. Along the way, I coded mechanics like coyote jumps, buffered inputs (basic platformer stuff), and even a grapple mechanic! We used LDtk for level design, and the kids created the graphics for the biomes, designed the game rules, and built the levels. I also added a multiplayer mode—because, let’s face it, a family game needs to be played together! It was a really fun project to work on, and you can try it out here: Animal Chase. It’s a cozy, cooperative game, perfect for kids and families.

Here are a few screens:


And here’s a look at the level in LDtk (just simple pixels with an associated value (wall/tree/bush)) and the original graphics on a sketchbook:


Now my kids want to keep adding more things—new items, biomes, and levels. Let’s see if I can keep up with their enthusiasm!




As you might know, the demo will be featured in the Steam Next Fest in October. So, I’ve been pouring a lot of energy into marketing and promotion to get the word out:

• Reddit & Facebook Ads: I’ve been posting organically on Reddit and running ads on both Reddit and Facebook to build awareness. Every little bit helps when you’re a solo dev!
  
• Outreach to Streamers: I’ve sent out over 400 emails to streamers and content creators to prepare for the Steam Next Fest. The goal is to get as many eyes as possible on the demo during the event. By any chance, if you know some nice and cool streamer, don't hesitate to reach to him/her to tell about the game/demo.
  
• Updated Press Kit: I refreshed the press kit with new screenshots, descriptions, and improved assets, making it easier for the press and content creators to feature the game. Here are a few recent screens:
  

• Festival Applications: I’ve submitted Zefyr to several indie festivals, including Indie X, Adventure X, Save N Sound, and the OTK Winter Games. Fingers crossed I get some good news from these!
  
• Prologue Release: The prologue was launched at the end of July, and I think it brought around 800 additional wishlists to the full game! Right now, the game has a total of 5,800 wishlists, which is a decent number, but still not enough to make it into the “Popular Upcoming” titles on Steam. I’ll need to keep pushing the marketing to reach that level.
  

That’s it for now!

As always, thank you so much for your continued support—it truly means the world to me.

Take care, peace! 😊

Hello everyone!

Today I've release the Prologue version of Zefyr.
As a reminder, the prologue is free and contains the first chapter of the game "Zefyr: A Thief's Melody". It's the same as the demo, but it reaches a different audience on Steam, so it's an opportunity to make more people discover the game. The full game is not released yet, but should arrive on Q4 2024 🤞.

As I'm a super small & totally unknown solo dev, I really need all the help I can get! If you want to support me you can:
[h2]👉 Play the prologue and leave a review[/h2]
You can check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2320250/Zefyr_Prologue/
Even a simple review like "yes" will do the trick. The more reviews, the more visible the prologue will be steam, and hopefully more players will be interested in the full game.

[h3]🙏 Thanks A LOT for your help 🙏[/h3]

Happy gaming, take care, peace!

Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well. This month has been packed with updates and improvements to Zefyr, and I’m excited to share them with you. Here’s what I’ve been working on:




Now there are Steam Achievements for the prologue, the demo, and the full game. I’ve built and deployed the prologue version on Steam, and updated the demo with the latest fixes. I’ve also written a Steam post stating the Deck Compatibility.

[h2]AND HERE’S THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:
THE PROLOGUE WILL RELEASE ON JULY 22ND![/h2]

Check it out here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2320250/Zefyr_Prologue/

In case you don’t know, the prologue is a free version of a game. In my case, it’s the exact same thing as the demo but it reaches a different audience on Steam. If you want to help me, the best way is to play the (free) prologue on the release day and leave a review! This helps a lot for the visibility of my game.




I’ve mainly polished the 3rd chapter:

• Villa Level: I’ve added details to the kitchen, bathroom, and more cushions and furniture. There’s also a cute cat roaming around now!
  
• Green Island: added towers, rocks, stone walls, and hidden rewards.
  
• Mines: Designed a specific font for text and used it on screens and panels. I’ve also added buckets, picks, and wires to enrich the environment.
  
• Robot Factory: Enhanced with stencils, screens, wires, and improved ambiance to give it a more industrial feel.
  
• Aeolia Island: more flowers to make the world vibrant and colorful, better stone placement, more vegetation.
  

A few screens:



To balance gameplay, eating 3 chocolates now grants 1 additional heart. This allows to place more rewards in levels without overpowering the player. Plus it gives a good feeling of progression.




I’ve been wanting to redesign the link UI for a while now, (some people have been asking for it). So here it is:

• UI Overhaul: There’s now a new, more intuitive tab-based navigation.
  
• Status: Added a new status page that shows the game main items to unlock.
  
• Help: Improved the help section for better player guidance.
  
• Animals: Added detailed descriptions for all animals in the game.
  
• Maps: I’ve also updated the rendering of maps, with shaders and outlines to ensure visual consistency and readability. It took quite some time to fix all the rendering bugs due to projection maths for the clip planes.
  
• Avatars: The flute avatar has been tweaked to distinguish it from the bo staff, and avatars for certain bosses have been updated.
  

Here’s how it look like:




I’ve developed a new mesh generator tool to speed up the creation of vegetation. This tool allows me to generate detailed and varied plant life much faster, enhancing the level design processing significantly (from 20 mn to 10 s on some levels). Plus it’s lighter on memory so it doesn’t crash anymore on super dense levels. What a breeze!




Lots of bug fixes, among which:

• Resolved issues with instantiating two map cameras
  
• Fixed lots of glitched click and select functions
  
• Optimized the UI for better performance and resolved button overlap issues
  
• Tested the UI from 5:4 screen ratio to 21:9 to ensure compatibility across different screen sizes
  
• Level Design: made numerous small fixes to improve overall level design
  

That’s all for this month! Thank you for your continued support and patience. Stay tuned for more updates, and take care!

Peace!