I’m back!

I recently took a needed break, but now I’m back working full time on Cairn: Mathair’s Curse, and I’d like to share what’s happening now with development.

I’m working on the last incomplete chapter of the game. To give an idea, there are 14 chapters in the game. If you’ve played the demo, the demo is about half of chapter 1. Not all the chapters are quite as hefty as chapter 1, but it gives an idea of what to expect for the full game!

My testers have been testing the rest of the game bar the chapter I am working on. After I finish developing this chapter, I will be doing the bug fixing and tweaks from the testing and implementing music that has been written for the game.

My partner has been writing new music for the whole game. So far, she has written over 80 tracks for the game and still more to go!

It’s very exciting to see everything coming together after these years of development.

Lastly, I’ll share this very cute hoodie my partner hand-embroidered Alex on as a gift to me recently. If you’re local to the Dundee area in Scotland, I’ll be wearing this at the DCA Drop and Play event on 12th October 2024, which is a family friendly event, where people can try out indie games and meet their developers. If that sounds of interest, come and say hi!

Dundee DCA Drop in and Play Event: https://www.dca.org.uk/events/oXi-drop-in-and-play/

I'd like to share an update on the release of Cairn: Mathair's Curse.

Recently, I've had some health issues meaning I've been unable to work on the game, as I needed a break to recover.

Thankfully, I'm getting better but I've decided to delay the game's release. It's really important to me that the game is complete and as polished as possible when it's released.

Thanks to everyone who is excited and has left encouraging words over the past few months and years, it means a lot! I'll be able to set a new release date once I'm fully recovered and back in full swing.

I am very excited to share we are participating in Yogscast's Tiny Teams 2024 Festival, which showcases games from micro studios and solo developers!

I am very honoured for Cairn: Mathair's Curse to be participating in this event, and especially excited as the latest demo for Cairn: Mathair's Curse will be streamed on the Yogscast Youtube and Twitch channel on Saturday 8th August 2024 between 5pm and 8pm BST!

Check out the links below to the Steam event page live from 8th August - 15th August for all the amazing games made by tiny teams! Big shoutout to Yogscast Games for organising this event and streams all week!

• Tiny Teams 2024 Steam Page
  
• Yogscast Twitch Channel[www.twitch.tv]
  
• Yogscast Youtube Channel

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We'll be streaming the latest demo at 6pm BST! Tune in this evening to check it out!

We were very excited to release a new trailer as a part of Mother Direct 2024! It was a great event, put together by Kody Nokolo on the NOKOGODO youtube channel. At the end there's some exciting news about Cairn! Check out the trailer:

The full Mother Direct 2024 broadcast is here! https://youtu.be/PHlB4wvYOnk

If you watch to the end, you'll see the planned release window to be October 2024! We'll announce the exact date closer to the time. In the meantime I hope you enjoy all the new bits we're showing in the trailer and the demo!

Cairn: Mathair's Curse is also taking part in RPG Direct, which showcases many of the games featured in Mother Direct 2024, plus other RPGs on sale, or upcoming. Check out the Steam event here: https://steamoss.com/steamstore/curator/44051018/sale/RPG

We’re super excited to share that Cairn: Mathair's Curse will be joining the PixElated Festival next week!

This festival is featuring some of the best pixel art games on Steam. From retro-style classics to contemporary indie gems all in one place! There will be discounts, live streams, art contest, demos, developer chats - all centered around your favourite games.

We will be streaming the latest demo build of Cairn during the event!

Check out the official line-up and more information about the event here: http://pixelatedfest.com/

It's been a week since we released the Cairn: Mathair's Curse demo and I'm very happy to hear people are enjoying the demo - it is beyond encouraging, so thank you for giving it a go if you have!

We also received some kind constructive comments so we've made some updates to the demo build.

• Combat re-balancing. The demo-only area allowed higher levels and more XP to grind, and I underestimated how easy the final fight would be in the demo! I've made the demo enemies a fair bit tougher
  
• Bug fix that hopefully fixes a screen freeze on Steam deck
  
• Some extra signposting to lead the way around Awnie Island
  
• Dialogue's with choices now allow multiple choices to be viewed before ending the scene
  
• Robin's now allow you to view controls
  
• Controller binds now offer an extra action button and page changes in menus are switched to trigger buttons
  
• Fixed a defeat screen crash when no saves are present

Anymore more changes I will make for the full game for release, and not in the demo, so they'll still be new things to discover on release!

We've just released the demo for Cairn: Mathair's Curse here on Steam!

We've updated it to include an updated part of the first chapter of the game, with some demo exclusive content thrown in to give a taster for the full game.

Do let us know what you think if you try it!

Cairn: Mathair's Curse has been in development for 4 years, it's been a journey! But we're very excited to say we will be releasing in 2024!

Some exciting festivals this summer, so we are excited to share more in the coming months. Thank you to all who have been following along, newly or from many years ago! :)

To celebrate we've created a new trailer - had some very kind and positive feedback so far!

We've also started posting to Youtube and Tiktok - follow for little snippets and fun videos of the game!

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CairnMathairsCurse

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rossgamedev