MoonWard Going Forward (Winter 2026)

Slaveyko Slaveykov
15 hours ago
6 min read

Welcome to the "MoonWard Going Forward" (MGF) blog!

I'm Mr. Slate and I'm here to let you know what's next for MoonWard in the coming few months!

Before I continue, please consider joining our Discord Community!

Buying MoonWard (Android or iOS) or even just hanging out is plenty already but If you'd like to help funding our future projects, please also check our Patreon!

But first - MoonWard is Out NOW for Android & iOS!

Upcoming Patches (January 31st - Onwards)

The Android Demo is once again behind the full version. In fact the full version is now behind the iOS release. I'll be patching both Android versions today - the 31st of January. To be fair there are no major changes which is why I wasn't in a rush. The patch will bring up all releases of MoonWard to v1.0.26!

I'm planning to release another patch on the 1st of March (Sunday). It'll include stuff I haven't been able to get to yet, hopefully the conversation system update I've been meaning to do for a while, some bug fixes, corrected typos, UI updates, a few small writing edits and it'll also allow me to solve some technical debt. Oh and there will probably be some minor balancing changes.

All of that being said - please - PLEASE - report any bugs on any of my community channels - socials, Discord, email, etc. - anywhere! I'm sure there are some bugs left in the game and I would appreciate it so much if you could let me know what you've found!

MoonWard's first FREE expansion: Outlaws is out now!

It's true! It came out two weeks ago! I'm quite proud of what I achieved in a very limited time-frame. There are of course things I could improve on. For example I wish I'd gone a little deeper into the Ustrean lore. Perhaps in a different expansion specifically targeting them. Regardless, I think it's a good amount of content for an addon of this kind. What's next? When? I'm not sure to be fair. PIRATES! IT'LL BE PIRATES!

The Outlaws expansion features:

3 stories in a unified arc with branching decisions.
2 new multi-stage bosses with unique moves and abilities.
Over 10 new items. Including Crossbows and Guns!
1 new enemy type with 3 distinct variants.
And more!

Frequent Weekend Sales

I dropped the ball on this. Mostly because the Play Store has a limit of sales to 7 days per month and I wanted the sales to tie up to releases. I was in a bit of a gridlock before December and I just didn't plan this very well. I do want to have frequent sales so I've already got a better plan. The plan is to do a weekend sale every 5 weeks. That's the plan. I'm a brilliant genius, I know.

To account for the iOS sale which was a week after the Android one and just concluded, I'll start counting weeks from this weekend (31st Jan/1stFeb). Meaning the next sale on iOS and Android will start on the 7th of March and end on the 14th of March!

Apple Release: The Saga

The iOS version is finally out! You might not be aware but It's been a wild ride!

When I started looking into a potential iOS release I hadn't actually spent that long developing for Apple products. I'm personally not a big fan of their products so I didn't even have any of the hardware. I knew I had to buy an iPhone and a Macbook to build and deploy but that was about it.

When I did get the devices I tried a test build and MoonWard just worked! Sure there were a couple of small technical issues, but as a whole it worked great. Much smoother, too. Mind you, this was over 2 years ago! I fixed all the issues and had a stable version within a week. But when I had a look into deployment I found a pretty nasty surprise.

Apple really don't like demos or unfinished versions of apps on their store! This is a major requirement and it meant I can't have a demo for my product. So I quickly came up with a plan to bypass this. See, the Android demo has a lot of content. Procedural loot, procedural encounters, story content that could take over an hour to finish. All I had to do is unlock the level cap and remove references to the other counties and I had a small free game. I worked on that for about 2 weeks and had a release-able prototype.

At this point I was actually ready to launch a limited version of MoonWard on iOS. I just didn't have the developer account. So I applied. And then I applied again. And again. I kept getting rejected. So I ended up having to talk to their support. In the end, it took me about 6 months to get in the iOS developer program. To their credit, Apple have really good customer support but they are slooooow to come back to you.

So at this point it's April 2025 and I've completely forgotten how the limited iOS version works. Also, after the long wait I was kind of done with Apple. Even considered dropping the iOS release altogether. Glad I didn't but it crossed my mind a few times. Anyway, I pulled myself together and crunched my ass off for the October release.

Once the Android release was out I was feeling a bit cocky so I promised to have the iOS version out by Christmas! Unfortunately I had a backlog of other projects, had started looking for perm work and then got some contracting right before I started my current position. Somehow October and November were more stressful than the pre-release crunch!

Thankfully I managed to do some work over the winter holidays and now just over 3 weeks later I've finally done it! My first ever solo iOS release! I have to say, despite all the certificates, the signing, etc, releasing on iOS was much less painful than on Android. Once you know the process it's actually quite streamlined. With a few exceptions.

Firstly, the video resolution they require for previews on the App Store is absurd. I get that it's their device's resolution but come on - it took me forever to figure out how to edit videos in a proper video editing software (I use Shotcut) and export in the right size. The other thing is their release candidate review process takes a couple of days as opposed to Google's 1 hour. But I think that'll get faster as I upload more versions. One thing I liked is that Apple's version of an arbitrary finance account (holds your bank account so you can be paid) is much more intuitive to set up than Google's.

The Winter 26 Roadmap!

I thought about it and. Um, no. I can't feasibly stick to a roadmap. I have a full time job and a 2 year old. Cut me some slack. I promise you I do wish I could have a reliable roadmap but for the moment it's not possible.

How are you going to know when things are happening? Follow my weekly blog on Patreon called The Weekly Slate. Follow me on socials, join our Discord. I announce everything through those channels so you should be in the loop if you check at least one of them every couple of weeks!

Promo Codes

And finally, there are once again 10 promo codes in this post. Except, this time I'm feeling a bit less playful so you can actually see them below! Or am I!?!? I am. There's nothing hidden in this article. I PROMISE!

Play Store (Android)

EJ2XL831EA6GCXYJ24JELMG
CLPHPCZ33A83K5PLNENSRZP
HTSZ9M3KJHXSCKG58T5E0SE
1P29FLG40P55CY5TCGLXABA
NTHTTJLXD2Y8X1ZDGYSB2PU

App Store (iOS)

MP77X3LEWJKX
XNHRK6JY6LKX
WTKPTYYRWYKA
HFY4HEFL4LTE
E9NNREWL4RXF

Features

Considering the game is out there's not much left but here are a few main things I'll be working on in the next few months:

WIP 30%: Penalties for bad skill checks. Right now you can only get rewards from skill checks. I want to add a system that makes fights slightly harder if you can't even pass one skill at a decision point. I'll use this sparsely. I promise.
WIP 70%: new intro cinematic. Annoyingly I didn't have the time to finish it for 1.0.1! It wasn't ready for Outlaws! I genuinely don't know when I can finish this! It's so close to being done! Argh!
Done: iOS Release. Yup. Out now! You're welcome.
Done: Accessibility options. Dialogue text options, an "easy" mode and a menu where you can see a log of story and bounty rewards for the session. It's not much but it's all I've had time for so far.

Before I go, if you'd like to support our future projects, please check our Patreon! Any help is greatly appreciated!

I hope you found this season's MoonWard Going Forward to be informative (and maybe a little entertaining). Thank you all so much for your continued support!

Like always,

stay awesome!