Star Child Dev Log #33

Jay Ingle - lead developer, designer, and artist:

Great news! You will be able to play Star Child, 2 months from now!

Steam Next Fest begins February 23rd, 2026, showcasing many new indie games. Star Child will have a playable demo for this event. We will also have an updated store page, and a new gameplay trailer.

What can you expect from the Star Child demo?

The Star Child demo will be a short, self-contained gameplay episode. A short story. A small journey.

We discussed a few possibilities for this demo. One idea was for the gameplay to be the actual start of the game, just less polished, and you would be able to resume your save, when the full game is released. But not for this demo. This will be a separate, self-contained mini-episode, where you will get to experience a few different pieces of the overall game, arranged into a bit of a side story. There will be no spoilers for the full game, so enjoy.

Now what do I need to do to design and complete this demo?

Plenty! This week I was working on implementing a plugin for control management. I have converted all player controls into using the plugin instead of Godot's built-in input system. Next week I will be setting up auto-switching between keyboard and controller, and control rebinding.

This leads into finishing the options menu, and the main menu. I also need to design the visuals for the automap.

I need another enemy or two, for the demo scenario. And level design. And a bit of story that is thematically similar to the full game. And a bit of polish to as many graphical effects as I can.

I need to work with our audio man Anthrocarbon to get the sound effects and music perfected.

Will there be a boss fight in this demo? I really want there to be! This is a time constraint. If this demo does not have a boss fight, I will work to get a boss fight demo out soon after.

I've got 2 months and I have started mapping out this journey. I can do it! Stay tuned.