A word from our Founder and Director…Sally Sheppard

April 11, 2022

It’s been a while since I wrote for the blog, and it’s been a whirlwind few months behind the scenes getting ready for the London Games Festival and W.A.S.D live in London.

I wanted to jump on and write to you now that the games festival is over as it was such an amazing experience. I had some of the best conversations I’ve ever had over the three days at our booth on the W.A.S.D floor. Some of you shared some very personal stories as to why spellbound: the magic within and its representation matters so much to you, and I’ll admit I cried more than once when talking with some of you. I wanted to first and foremost say thank you for sharing. When I started Wyrdren and began work on Spellbound I knew I wanted to make the games as accessible as possible, I knew some people would see this inclusion and shy away from the game play itself, seeing the diversity as some sort of gimmick. I worried about how the game would be perceived and if the inclusive features i added would somehow overshadow the game and if I got any of it wrong. All I have ever wanted is for people to feel seen and included in gaming. It’s something that has brought myself so much joy and i know from my own experience that it can be heart-breaking to feel like you are an afterthought, or like a game is excluding you.

My worries it turns out where completely unfounded, the response from you all at W.A.S.D was overwhelmingly positive. You used the character creator to it’s full potential by making beautiful pastel characters whose aesthetic could rival a sailor scout, all the way through to a mish-mash bit of everything designs. I loved seeing you laugh at some of the more out-there fashion choices (the monocle was a big hit), and I loved seeing some of you nodding your head in appreciation when you saw that we included binders and hearing aids. It was such a lovely experience to see so many of you enjoying the process of making yourselves (or not yourselves).

It can be hard to decide what parts of the game to show at conventions, especially for narrative games that involve you solving a larger mystery. I wanted to showcase the gameplay, but I didn’t want to ruin the story or ending for anyone. Taking the first chapter was a little bit of a risk, it’s not as flashy or fast paced as some of the other games on the floor or around us, but it is an introduction to the world and the characters. The later chapters as you’ll find when playing do involve a lot more investigation and choices making especially when nearing the end as the story branches depending on the way you have chosen to play. I’m so happy that so many of you decided to play the full 30 minutes and told me how excited you were for the next chapters. It was great so see the story so well received even if it was only the introduction.

I’ll be taking your feedback from the show on board, there will be a 3.0 update to the character creator coming, text-to-speech as promised, and we will be looking into adding potentially some voice acting here or there. As most of you know this project has been a labour of love, and the idea that eventually it will be out there in the world was a little scary to me at first, but the pure excitement you have shown for spellbound and its story, features and everything else in the game has really solidified how worth it all the hard work has been.

So really where I want to end this blog post is just with a thank you. Thank you to everyone who has been supportive online, thank you to everyone who stopped and played the demo and thank you to everyone who shared their experiences with me and let me know how important it is to be seen in games.

Release day is coming up so fast! I can’t wait for you to experience the full game.

Thanks for reading and stay WYRD! - SALLY X