MoonWard Going Forward (May 2025)
- Slaveyko Slaveykov
- May 27
- 5 min read
Welcome to the "MoonWard Going Forward" (MGF) blog!
I'm Mr. Slate and I'm here to let you know what's been happening with MoonWard as of the end of May 2025!
Please make sure to check out the MoonWard demo on the Google Play Store and our Discord Community! If you'd like to support us, please check our Patreon and Ko-fi!
New Cinematic & Release Trailer
I've been working on a new cinematic for MoonWard, one that will slot neatly in the current intro and give a bit more backstory to the main character. I'm using the exact same art style as last time - 3D environments and drawn 2D art which uses a sort of flipbook animation style. I'll be going into more detail about my process and tooling in the next few weeks as well as showing some shots and stills from the completed work.
I've been calling this new cinematic the release trailer for a while, which I realise is slightly incorrect. While parts of this will absolutely be in the release trailer, it will also have a ton of gameplay and some splash screens. I'm not a professional video producer but I'm a quick learner and I'll be studying the competition for ideas. Honestly, between all the other work I'm not even sure how long I'll have to make the trailer but we'll see. Should be fine.
One last thing about the trailer. Unfortunately, my usual artist is busy with another project at the moment so I'm still looking for someone to take my placeholder/example images and draw the various character poses in a similar art style. If you have ideas or suggestions please drop me a comment of PM me at one of our social accounts!
New Art
There's some new art for MoonWard that I've been posting for the last few weeks... and there's a lot more until the release. So far I've only shown the new locations I worked on a few weeks ago but starting this week I'm showing off some shots from the new cinematic!
Later in June I'll also post some character art that my artist friend did some time ago. In all fairness the characters are already in the game, but I feel like they need a proper showcase!
Lastly, some of the art will be in videos and for those I'll start showing off some of the new music that's been added to the game! The several unique new tracks are the work of a friend of mine whom I commissioned earlier this year!
Demo Patches
Unfortunately I've been unable to do much work on the demo recently... Oh... it's been almost two months... Well, that's not good.
I've been putting together a sprint or two worth of updates and bug fixes for the demo and will be getting to it soon enough. Honestly, I feel bad for not releasing any updates in so long, so I'll make a commitment to release the next patch by end of June! I'll then have another one out around the full game's release!
Live Demos & Events
So it's been kind of a busy year for me. I've already demoed MoonWard at 3 live events, I had another one planned in June (that got postponed) and there are more coming!
The biggest one has to be MegaCon Live in Manchester on the 26th and 27th of July! Not only is it a massive expo with tons of nerds and gamers but it's also spot on the release date for MoonWard!
I don't want to make promises but if at all possible I'll be trying to beat my release date and have the game sell-able for this event. So, just between us, MoonWard might be coming out a few days early!!! Not sure how that'll work logistically but I'll try to figure it out!
The Store Page
Ok, I know it's been a long one this time so I promise I'm done after this announcement:
We're opening a Slate Games online store page next week!
We'll have a few designs to start with but will be expanding as time goes! They'll go on t-shirts, coasters and cups to name a few! And yes, there will be at least a couple MoonWard themed designs! So please check this week's Weekly Slate for more info and links to the store page!
Features
Here's a list of approved and work in progress features as of writing this. Unfortunately, not much progress I can talk about this month:
WIP 70%: new cinematic.
WIP 20%: release trailer.
WIP 80%: bounty locations images. The splash screens appearing behind the story and bounty descriptions in the journal. Only story backgrounds left!
WIP 80%: All player characters are done, I now need to replace and update story and bounty portraits.
WIP 85%: Increased hex variation. Finished county 4. All that's left now are the hexes for County 5 towns and cities.
WIP 20%: Long term Save Game. Currently all of your characters are deleted forever when the game is uninstalled. This is obviously not ideal. Modern games save these in the cloud. I'm not interested in that. I did some research on this and it seems plausible.
WIP 50%: iOS Release. I'm now on the Apple Developer program! Next steps - create and set up a store page!
Pricing and Support
Here is where I elaborate on a couple of things regarding the demo and pricing.
Price. The demo (and App Store intro version if that's even happening anymore) will always be free. The full version (on Android and iOS) will always be a one time purchase. There will never be any in-app purchases. There will never be any adverts. There will never be battle passes. There will never be Web3 technology.
Support/Patching. When the full version is released, the demo will continue to receive patches at the same rate as the full version. This will include new or changed content in county 1 and partially (side stories and bounties) in county 2, as well as any new/upgraded mechanics available in those hubs. The demo will also get bugfixes and balance updates in parallel with the full version.
Before I go, if you'd like to support us, please check our Patreon and Ko-fi! Any donations and patronage towards Slate Games and MoonWard development are greatly appreciated!
I hope you found this month's MoonWard Going Forward to be informative (and maybe a little entertaining). Thank you all so much for your continued support! It's very humbling to be able to do what I love!
Like always,
stay awesome!
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