Devlog 6 - Its been too long

⛳ It’s Been a While…

It’s been a while since the last devlog! I didn’t exactly plan on disappearing for months, but life has been pretty busy behind the scenes. Even so, development on Quest for the Albatross has been moving forward steadily, and today I’ve got a lot of exciting progress to share.

🎬 Cutscenes Are Finally Here

First up: we finally have cutscenes in the game.

I currently have draft versions of around half a dozen scenes implemented already, with more in development right now. I’ve also been writing new scripts and putting together animation requests for the art team, so the world and characters are really starting to come alive in a much bigger way. Seeing the story play out in-engine for the first time has been incredibly exciting.

✨ Expanding the RPG Systems

On the gameplay side, I’ve been focusing heavily on expanding the RPG systems.

The spell system itself has existed for a while, but players previously had no way to collect new spells or customize their loadout. That has completely changed. I’ve now implemented the full spell inventory and deck customization systems, along with a spell shop in the demo so players can experiment with more advanced abilities.

And honestly… some of the new spells are getting pretty wild.

I’ve been testing spells that can dramatically change the way matches play out, and it’s opening the door for some really creative strategies and chaotic moments during play. I can’t wait to show more of those off soon.

📈 Player Progression & Leveling

Another major addition is the player progression system.

Stats and leveling have technically existed under the hood for a long time, but there wasn’t any real way for players to interact with them directly. Now, players can level up, earn stat points, specialize their builds, and track their progression through a full UI menu system. It’s one of those features that suddenly makes everything feel much more like a true RPG experience.

🛠️ Major Code Cleanup

Behind the scenes, I’ve also spent a lot of time doing something less flashy, but incredibly important: cleaning up the codebase.

To be completely honest, things had started getting a little out of control. Systems were becoming messy, bugs were harder to track down, and development was slowing because of it. Over the last few weeks I’ve gone through a major code cleanup and reorganization effort, and I finally wrapped that up recently. The project is in a much healthier place now, which should make future development faster, smoother, and way less painful.

🎮 Come Play at ImmerseCon!

And finally, some big real-world news:

Quest for the Albatross will be playable at ImmerseCon in Richmond, Virginia on July 11th and 12th!

We’ll have a booth set up with live demos, giveaways, and plenty of opportunities to come hang out and talk about the game. If you’re going to be in the area, definitely stop by and say hello.

⚔️ That’s All for Now

That’s all for this update. I’m getting back to work now, because there’s still a ton left to build.

And this time, I’ll try not to wait six months before the next devlog.

If you’d like to support the project, giving Quest for the Albatross a wishlist on Steam really helps us out. Thanks for following along, and I’ll have more to share soon.

• Austin Lane

Elder Tree Game Studios