After launching the updated, feature-complete demo last month, I promised that by the end of 2024 I would have an updated timeline of expectations for the full release of Amadeus: A Riddle for Thee ~ Episode 1 ~ Waltz. I feel this is especially important given how many times I pushed back the launch date this year.

I think I now understand why that happened.

TL;DR:

Part 1 - On Episode 1's Timeline

• Episode 1's timeline was repeatedly pushed back because I realized making the game good mattered more to me than meeting an arbitrary deadline.
• The full episode will release in 2025.
• A date will not be announced until the game is nearly finished.

Part 2 - Looking Back at 2024

• A list of milestones between the original February demo release and the recent feature-complete update.

Read on if you'd like a lot more words on what this year has been like, and where things are at right now.

On Episode 1's Timeline

Amadeus began development when I was in grad school studying music composition. I was in an environment where deadlines were external and they were tight, and I learned the incredibly difficult skill of "how to scope properly to actually finish things." This skill is invaluable and the very first public demo for Amadeus (the web-based one with no ink or color assets) was a product of those priorities: it was finished on a really ambitious timeline, and certain corners were cut to just get something out there on time.

One of those cut corners was definitely the narrative. I hadn't actually figured out where I was going with the story. Even in the version from February that was released on itch and Steam, I only had a vague idea of what the full story was; it was not until just last month that I had released a game accurately representing the introduction to a fully planned-out, 5-part story.

This past year, I slowly shifted priorities away from the grad school #grindset and back towards making a work of art that I am really happy with. I could have chosen to stick with my fall 2024 release date just to get something out there. If I had, the narrative would be less coherent, it would lack several gameplay features, and it wouldn't look or sound as good. It would exist, but it wouldn't be the game that it will be, now that I chose instead to take extra time and make a better game.

I do have a final release date in mind, and I am going to earnestly work towards meeting it. But I've finally learned my most important lesson from 2024: I won't announce the release date until I'm certain it will be met, until the game is finished save for pure nice-to-haves. I don't want to make any more promises that won't be kept.

I WILL make a promise that I'm certain I can keep: it's coming in 2025. If you play the updated demo I hope that you will feel confident in this too. The baseline of the game is finished and it's feeling really, really good.

So! Where are we now, a month after that demo update?

This month I've had to briefly shift focus to real life and getting a new job. My current job is part-time which has allowed me more time to focus on Amadeus, but I am not very passionate about the work itself which has ultimately caused me to burn out, both on the clock and off. It's resulted in me not being able to take advantage of my spare time because work stress was seeping into it. I am really hopeful that what I'll be moving to instead will be personally fulfilling, and still leave more time for Amadeus than a typical 40-hour 5-day work week.

While the lifestyle shift was my main priority, I still did a lot of project management work to get back into development for the final stretch. It's been a month of pulling my head out of the weeds on the now-finished demo and zooming back out to look at the full episode's remaining needs. I've read back through all of my brainstorming and planning materials, catalogued these materials for ease of future reference (which are in about 8 million different physical notebooks and digital files), and revised my outline to make sure it all makes sense with the narrative that's now finalized.

It's not the kind of month where I have lots of nice flashy things to show, but this work was definitely necessary for me to get in the right headspace to finish the rest of the project. And I did find the time to draw another background! Dartmaure now has a downtown plaza:

 December 2024 has been an important month to get me excited about the full scope of this project again and find a work-life situation that will let me stay motivated in the long term. That's vital, because Amadeus is turning into even more of a long-term commitment than I'd already known it would be.

Speaking of long-term... I want to take the remainder of this devlog to look back on the full year. I have been working on Amadeus for nearly 2 years at this point, but this past year in particular has been kind of insane.

At the start of 2024, I thought that by the end of it I would have released Episode 1, which didn't happen. I had also thought that the final episode would look and play almost exactly like the first demo, just with some additional scenes; this isn't what happened, either.

As it turns out, the game I would end up building has so much more polish and depth to it. It would even get exhibited at MAGWest's Indies showcase! I genuinely think the game I am making exceeds all of my own prior expectations of what a game I would create all on my own could be.

(I mean, let's be clear: it's still a janky no-budget solo indie passion project by most standards. But it's so much more polished and has so much more depth to it, narratively and aesthetically, even mechanically, than I would have possibly imagined a year ago.)

It's really come together over the past year, a little bit at a time.

Looking Back at 2024

• February 2024 - Original Demo Release
  
  • Launched the original version of the Episode 1 ~ Waltz demo on itch.io and Steam.
  • This version isn't playable on itch anymore, nor is it accurate to the narrative. You can opt into the old build on Steam if you are curious, as a matter of pure historical record.
• March 2024 - 100 Wishlists on Steam
  
  • Perspective: this number is small for most developers, but it was a major milestone for me.
• April 2024  - Wrote a Mystery Game
  
  • Took a month away from Amadeus to write a game for the Mystery Game Jam: Robot Detective and the Case of the Automurderated Intern.
    • The jam host described it as having an "Agatha Christie-like twist."
  • This collaboration let me focus purely on the craft of writing, which later helped me really improve Amadeus's story.
• June 2024 - Steam Next Fest & Major Narrative Benchmark
  • Participated in my first Steam Next Fest.
    • Very stressful and a great learning experience.
  • Finalized the game's full narrative and wrote 1st draft of the entire script.
• July 2024 - Major Mechanics Benchmark
  • Coded & implemented a majority of needed key mechanics, including:
    • glossary menu
    • save & load
    • seamless audio looping
    • rich text support
    • visual feedback on mouseover
• August 2024 - Getting There
  
  • Made an opening cinematic that plays in-game.
  • Redesigned menus and interactive screen UI.
  • Finished a new, convention-exclusive build for Amadeus.
• September 2024 - MAGWest
  • My first ever tabling experience!
    • Received so much motivating, inspiring, and positive feedback on the game.
    • Gained confidence that the game is in a good place to be finished based on this foundation.
    • People loved the art and sound direction :)
• November 2024 - Feature-Complete Demo
  
  • Released the current feature-complete demo update for Amadeus.
  • Demo build is based on the MAGWest build with additional features and a new scene.
  • Currently live! On itch and Steam.

For those of you that have been following the game since February, most of this isn't news; but it's still really motivating to look back and see how much was accomplished in a year. Thank you so much for following this project. Please look forward to the full release - I promise it will be so worth it!