DRIFT Progress Update – Late May 2025

Hey folks! Time for a quick progress update on DRIFT:

The entire story outline is now complete. Every major scene and twist has been mapped out from start to finish. With that foundation locked in, I’ve been focusing on writing full dialogue and scene scripting for Act 1.

The goal is to release Act 1 as its own playable build, then expand the game through later updates as each act is completed. That way, players can experience the game sooner, and I can gather feedback along the way without needing the whole story done upfront.

Act 1 will include flesh out everything from the exposition in the current demo (aka that section where Noah quickly summarized the story so far), all the scenes from the current demo, and it will also extend the story a little past where that demo ended. It’ll be the first proper look at how the full game will flow, even if it’s still early days.

That said, the branching choices are still in development. Most of what’s written so far is linear or only lightly reactive. So here’s a question for anyone keeping an eye on the project:

Would you prefer to wait for a polished, fully interactive version of Act 1? Or would you rather get access to a more kinetic-style version sooner (basically, a build with mostly linear content with little to no choices) just to get a sense of the tone and pacing? Let me know what you’d prefer; hearing from people helps me figure out how to prioritize upcoming builds.

Also, I’m still looking for artists. I had a few leads, but unfortunately, nothing’s panned out yet, so the Act 1 release will most likely still use placeholder assets. The goal is to replace them once I find a long-term artist who’s the right fit. (If that’s you, hit me up—paid work, of course.)

Looking further ahead, I also plan to implement a debug tool or chapter select in future builds; something that lets players jump to later scenes with certain flags or choices pre-selected. That way, you won’t need to replay earlier sections just to test different paths or skip to new content.

Thanks again to everyone who’s checked out the demo or sent in feedback, it’s helped more than you know. I’ll keep you posted on progress as things develop.

More soon.

— Korvu