Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical News

Happy April folks! We hope you survived April Fools okay.

We come bearing news!

[h3]Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical[/h3]
First of all, as we mentioned in our 2024 sign off, Stray Gods will always be adored by us, but won't be receiving any further updates at this time. However, this doesn't mean we don't have more potential Stray Gods surprises in the pipeline... but no news just yet!

We'll always be in touch here to let you know about anything new and exciting and Stray Gods related, but for the next little while, our focus is on what's next - and with that...

[h2]Today we're unbelievably thrilled to announce Malys, coming this year and coming soon to Kickstarter! [/h2]


If you've been paying attention on our socials, you might've noticed we've been teasing something for a little while. As Noah, former priest turned exorcist and demon hunter, you ride the streets of a festering city in the dead of night. The city teems with demons, and among them lies your prey: Malys, a demon of extraordinary cunning and power. Use your deck to expose the rot within. Find unique combinations and strategies to withstand the horrors. Help the hopeless and free the possessed, or die in the attempt… over and over again.



[h2]FAQS[/h2]

If you're signed up to our newsletter you might've seen us address some questions from players, but just in case you missed it...

Is Malys set in the Stray Gods universe?
Malys is a brand new adventure in a brand new world. We're leaving Stray Gods on the shelf for now, but not necessarily forever.

Will there be romance in Malys?
There aren't any planned romance mechanics for Malys at this time. There is absolutely yearning.

There will always be yearning.

Is Malys a musical?
Malys is not a musical, but music and sound will always be core to the games we make. We aren't saying we'll never go back to the musical format, but we're excited to explore new genres as a team.

Why a roguelite deckbuilder?
Honestly? If you've played or read anything by our creative director David Gaider, you probably know he loves demons. What you might not know is that he also loves deckbuilders. It’s a game genre that David is a real fan of. Malys is a concept that's been burning away in Dave for a long time - just like Stray Gods existed conceptually way back when he worked at Bioware. We wanted to take our love for characters and genre-twisting stories to tackle a brand new adventure, and that adventure is Malys.



Just like we brought Stray Gods to Fig, we're now bringing Malys to Kickstarter in a few weeks. We know that working with all of you to get feedback and collaborate on the final phase of development is going to give Malys the best chance of success. With your help, we can work with you through the Kickstarter to allow us to get a full 1.0 in your hands within the next six months of this campaign launching.

We need you to make Malys a reality in Summerfall's continued goal of creating amazing character driven, story focused, comprehensive single player experiences free of microtransactions and never-ending roadmaps.

Click above or here to sign up to our pre-launch page and join the hunt. Signing up for notifications means you'll be first to learn more about Malys AND gain access to rewards when Kickstarter launches.

We're part of the Myths and Legends sale, and we thought we'd dig back into our own journey of taking well known characters (like the Greek Gods) and putting a new spin on them. In this article by Screenrant, David Gaider our lead writer and co-founder went into some more detail.

You're taking existing characters that everyone's familiar with, but we're supporting them. We're thinking, "Okay, what if they had continued to live? How would they have changed?" They have all these stories, so it was great for me to pick and choose which ones to use. "Oh, that story was kind of fake, but there's a kernel of truth to this one," and it grows from there. That was a fun process.

Persephone, for example, who's played by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn. Everybody knows her story, and that she was kidnapped by Hades and brought down to the Underworld and made its queen. But she is sort of annoyed that's where everyone thinks her story ended. In this, Persephone grew very angry and bitter at Hades. She ended up killing him and usurping his throne, and the rest said, "That's not cool, you shouldn't kill other idols," and they stripped her of her throne. So, she's carried all this bitterness; this grudge against her brothers and sisters all this time. And they all have this baggage that's come with them.

If you know the story of the Greek gods, they're a messy bunch. So much drama; so much that we had to work with. Really, it was a matter of figuring how this version of them works over the years. They've all died numerous times, so they all look very different. They're different people but, even so, they have those memories that stretch back for thousands of years. They never just let anything go.

Funny thing is that the older gods—Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Ares—they've all disappeared or died over the years. The chorus that you encounter, they are the rulers of the islands. But there are other ones that you read into, who have assumed a new importance now that the elders are gone.

Because the gods, while they've been around for so long, are all lost in their individual ways. Persephone is lost in her anger. Apollo is the God of prophecy, but prophecies trap you once you know them. So every time he tries to use his power to help, he actually ends up causing more harm than not. He feels like he can't do anything or create change. He feels helpless and kind of depressed.

They're all kind of lost, and it's up to Grace to see if she can find them.

What's your favourite myth or legend?

You can check out the sale here.

2024 went so quickly and we’re thrilled to have had you with us along the way. We had wild awards nominations, celebrated one year of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical, and released our DLC Stray Gods: Orpheus!

You can grab the gift of both Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical and Stray Gods: Orpheus as part of the Steam Winter Sale right now.

The keener eyed amongst you may have noticed us go quiet on a few of our social media accounts. As always, our newsletter is the best place to stay up to date on all things Summerfall. Otherwise, you can find us predominantly on TikTok, Bluesky, Threads and Instagram. If you need to contact us please email [email protected], but the team will be taking a break from the 20th Dec until the 7th of January.

And lastly, a rogue hint of things yet to pass. We’ve had a demon of an idea and while you might think that we’re possessed, we PROMISE to exorcise you of any doubts.

Perhaps not quite what you expect, but we’ve stacked the deck with things we think you’ll love. We’re keeping our cards close to our chest for now, but when we can say more, we’ll unleash hell.

(P.S. It’s not a musical!)

See you in 2025 and thank you for all your support!

Love, Summerfall

It's that time of year again - Melbourne International Games Week! Each year Melbourne International Games Week runs during October, when the sun finally decides to join us here in Melbourne (yay!). It's a mix of events for industry, players, and more - including PAX Australia!

What could be better in October than surprises? As a TREAT for you in honor of the not one, not two, but THREE AGDA's we won last year, we're putting Orpheus on sale for the first time at a whopping 30% off.

This year, we're taking things a little more gently than our hectic last year, but we wanted to still share the love with you of course! Last year we had a bumper week. In case you missed it, we:

• held a live free Stray Gods Fashion Show in Federation Square, a huge outdoor space in Melbourne.
  
• David (creative director), Ben (art director) and Liam (managing director) were the focus of a Directors in Conversation evening at ACMI, Australia's national museum of screen culture.
  
• had a panel at PAX Australia where we shared Secrets, Stories, Myths and Mistakes from behind the scenes of Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical
  
• had a bunch of the team speak at Games Connect Asia Pacific, the local games industry conference.
  
• and most exciting of all - won THREE awards at the Australian Game Developers Awards including Game of the Year, as well as Excellence in Music and Excellence in Accessibility.

So grab the game, or grab a cuppa and peep some of the things you might have missed from last year. You can keep up to date with us via our socials - despite a Reddit comment asking if we'd shut down, we are in fact, still kickin', still makin', and full of secrets. Hehehe.

xoxo,

Summerfall Studios

Today marks the official first birthday of our debut game: Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical.

It’s hard to believe that one year ago today we could finally share this project with all of you. What an odyssey! From getting to work with our wildly talented cast, winning a cheeky handful of awards, and seeing all the wonderful reactions and glorious fanworks from all of you - it’s been a WILD ride! We even shared some of the stats that YOU’VE given us so kindly and with so much love and support to celebrate earlier this week.

We’re so proud of our incredible and talented Summerfall team, that Katy, our social content specialist made them a special wreath cake to celebrate (the slightly chaotic making-of you can relive here).



So, Happy Birthday Stray Gods!

Thanks to all of you, backers, friends and fans alike - we quite literally wouldn’t be here without you. We can’t wait to share more wonderful experiences with you.

Thank you for loving Stray Gods. ❤️💚💙

Love, Summerfall