What have you done, Father? News

[h2]Hello, everyone! [/h2]



🎮 To keep this short — yes, I’ve been brainstorming lots of ideas for future projects. Over the past month, I even created three logos for potential titles! But I must confess, the temptation to work on a second installment of "What Have You Done, Father?" is too much to resist!

This time, I plan to scale things up. Not necessarily by adding complex mechanics that might overwhelm me, but by focusing on quality. Many of you are familiar with my previous games, and while you’ve told me they look good, I know the characters are where they fall short — especially in terms of animation.

I want to fix this and take my games to the next level. While I can create beautiful character designs, I also want to breathe life into them with high-quality animations. This would allow me to create cooler cinematics and more dynamic character interactions — like picking up objects, seeing your hands in motion, and much more immersive moments.

To make this a reality, I need your help!

💡 The Plan
I’ve found an incredible motion capture solution—the Smartsuit Pro from Rokoko—that’s perfect for indie developers like me. With this tool, I can finally add realistic, lifelike animations to my characters and make my games more immersive than ever before.

✨ How You Can Support
I’ve set up a Ko-Fi page to fund this motion capture gear. Any donation, big or small, will go directly toward making this dream come true and bringing my characters—and stories—to life!

🖤 Thank You
Your support means the world to me. Together, we can make this happen and create something truly special.

👉 [h2]Support me here:[/h2]
[h2]My crowdfunding campaign! [/h2]

First of all, thank you for supporting me, whether by playing the game or joining my small community!

As some of you may know, I wasn't particularly excited about how the game performed in the first few months. Fortunately, some time ago, I partnered with a company that is now working on porting the game to consoles! This has given me a much-needed boost of confidence, helping me stay true to my vision and dedication.

I've even started gathering ideas for a future project similar to this one.

There's one confession I've been pondering, though: should I continue creating these types of games? They aren’t always the most popular. It’s not that the subject matter is lacking, but rather that the gameplay tends to be more linear and narrative-driven (think walking simulators). Is there a future for this type of game? Should I make another one, knowing how hard it is to reach a target audience?

Well, the answer remains the same as it has for years: God knows! 😄

So, despite things looking grim, I’ve decided to make another game! While I’m not ready to reveal specific details just yet, I can tell you that it will have a similar atmosphere to "What Have You Done, Father?" — meaning you’ll still encounter spirituality, bizarre and intriguing women, darkness, and all the thrills you’ve come to expect from my projects

+ most probably you'll play as a priest.

This time, I’m also planning to improve some technical aspects, such as creating a functional options menu and adding controller support. I know WHYDF had some technical issues that I wasn’t able to fix (due to my lack of experience, as it was my first fully programmed game), but now I’m confident I can do better! (Hopefully!) 🤞

That said, this will still be a small project, much like WHYDF, and I’ll be working on it alone. Hopefully, it will turn out to be another cool experience for you all.

On a side note, I’d love to hear your suggestions on how to make the game more appealing to a broader audience. For now, I’m considering not including a dialogue system like I did in WHYDF. What do you think? Don’t hesitate to reach out with your thoughts!

I can't wait to share more about my future projects with you!

🎮 Hi, everyone! 🎮

A few days have passed since the release of WHYDF! How are you all? Have you played the game? Did you enjoy it? 😊

If you did, please leave a review if you haven't already! Reviews are really important when it comes to Steam promoting and offering me visibility on Steam. Until now, my games have been buried by the Steam algorithm. Let's not allow this to happen with this game too! It would be incredibly sad.

😔

I confess it's been a bit quiet around here, and although all the Steam reviews are positive (for which I am incredibly grateful and happy), I must say that I am a bit worried. Unfortunately, the game did not meet my expectations, although the numbers predicted how it would do. But it is not the end. There are still chances for the game to have a tail, and hopefully, this will encourage me to make more games like this.

With WHYDF, I feel like I have reached my best as a solo developer, despite my financial situation and technical skills. Doing the story, art, and programming was a challenge, but not one I couldn't take on again if the sales go well!

Please, come by our Discord server and share your feedback. Let's build an enthusiastic community! Let's get to know each other! Do you have any ideas you'd like to share? Join my Discord server! 🌟

Click the image below and see you there!

🎉

With a release date set for April 25, I am already preparing a delicious cake! 🍰



Finally, the day has come! With the WHYDF final build in Valve's review phase, I can safely say that the game is finally releasing! How long was it? Around 6-7 months? Hehe, it was incredibly fun to work on this game. For me, it is a huge achievement since it is my first game I have fully programmed from scratch. I'm really curious how it will do upon its release.



However, if you have read some of my previous updates, you may have some "outdated" ideas about the game's contents, and I feel like I have to be transparent. In a previous update, I mentioned that there would be a final location - the church. However, after some planning and game design changes, I have decided to replace that location with something different to create a more interesting and exciting ending. Don't panic, although there won't be the chapel for you to explore, you'll get to investigate a different location, smaller but packed with all sorts of interesting stuff to discover! What else can I say? I am beyond excited, and I am grateful for everyone who has joined me and has added the game to their wishlist! With a release date set for April 25, I am already preparing a delicious cake! 🍰



Are you excited for the upcoming release? 🎮

Check out the newest screenshots on the Steam page; they are awesome! 📸

[h2]First of all, thank you to everyone who has added my game to their wishlist and is following its progress since the Steam Next Fest! Baby steps are important steps when it comes to indie game development. Welcome, everyone![/h2]

I'd like to take a moment to share with you all that "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, FATHER?" (WHYDF) is, first and foremost, a humble attempt of mine to create a game from scratch. I myself am an artist with a traditional background in painting and drawing, but I have always been passionate about crafting interesting virtual scenarios for others to explore. Naturally, 3D was the best solution to bring all those envisioned places to life. However, one of my biggest challenges was figuring out how people would interact with these worlds and experience them.

Creating a narrative walking-sim type of game seemed to be the easiest solution, but for an artist with zero programming knowledge, this proved to be a significant challenge for me! Although I haven't submitted the fully finished build of WHYDF to Steam, I am proud to say that this is my first game I have fully programmed by myself, with some advice from my friends, of course. Regardless of how the game performs in the end, for me, it is already a huge success!

Unreal Engine has done an amazing job with its node-based programming system for this. I remember when I was working a few years ago on Gray Dawn, I would immediately close any blueprint I opened by mistake out of fear of breaking something. But those days are long gone!

*not indicative of how many chapters are in the game!

The biggest challenge for me was saving and loading the game. I think I have come to a fair solution in the end: since the chapters are really short and not very complex gameplay-wise, I have decided to save each chapter (level) as you unlock it, allowing you to replay them at any time!

Now, onto some progress updates. I am working on adding some additional content (you may have seen the priest pictures and the fashion magazines). The optional content offers a broader perspective on the game's story and the background of St. Mary's Church, as well as the fashion magazines, which hide some spicy content that will hopefully pique your interest! Hunt them down, as some of them reward you with achievements!



On a different note, I would like to address something important regarding people's expectations and what some of you may think the game will offer. Some players have mentioned that the game looks good, and naturally, many who are not aware that this is the product of a single person with a limited budget may expect a longer and more complex game in terms of mechanics, content, and production value. I hope this won't upset anyone, but the game is just a short narrative experience that can be finished in 1 to 2 hours. Anything longer or more complex is beyond my capacity and means of production.



Some of you may want the game to be fully voice-acted, and I understand! I would love, from the bottom of my heart, to have all the lines voiced by good-quality actors, but this would simply require a larger budget (the characters in my game have rather long dialogues) and thousands of dollars, not to mention that I would have to find a good solution for facial capture.

With this project, even I have to keep my expectations in check.

See you soon!
[h2]The game is coming out in a month or so![/h2]

Have you played the demo? Leave me some feedback in the discussion group or join my Discord for a friendlier chat!

https://discord.com/invite/FWDkNhm