Game Cancelled

It's with a heavy heart that I say When the Stones Spoke is cancelled, meaning that development on the project has stopped indefinitely. As a result, refunds will be issued to anyone who preordered the game.

I wasn't prepared to take on a game of this size and scope. Granted, I've finished big games in the past, but what made When the Stones Spoke different was the subject matter I was trying to write about and that writing is one of my weakest skills. I wanted to make a game about being trans and the challenges we face, so I really didn't want to fuck it up. I thought that if I could let the ideas sit for a while and inspiration might help me figure it out. "Waiting and seeing" led me to start compensating with bigger and bigger features like adding more characters, making the lighting cooler, and making more 3d models for the environment. But at the end of the day, I was ignoring the larger problem of the writing. It became clear I was trying to make something I wasn't ready (or even able) to accomplish.

I "paused" development at the beginning of January and started working on a different, smaller scoped game. When I did the pause, I fully intended to come back to When the Stones Spoke after I finished my side-project. Working on something else, however, made it even more clear how unready I was to work on Stones; the side project had its own type of writing component, albeit much smaller than Stones. The writing was still very difficult, even with a reduced concept and a funnier, less serious plot.

At the end of the side project, called Crime Reaper, I really understood Stones was going to be a project I would need more writing chops to ever accomplish. I don't think this "future" version of the game would be very similar, and to be frank, I literally have no idea if it would happen in 5 years or even 10 years if I was really motivated to work on it.

It really sucks to admit defeat like this, especially since I opened When the Stones Spoke to preorders and people trusted me to deliver. It's a type of betrayal I've never inflicted with a game project before, and it's been extremely humbling.

Thank you so much for your understanding. I really hope this explanation is worthy.