December Update: End of Year Summary

Hi everyone! Hope your holidays have been going well. Since it has been roughly 1 year of continuous development (the project was funded November 2024), I thought I would give a quick summary of what happened this year for Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall.

I am very happy to announce that as of December 2025, all major gameplay systems are functionally working and awaiting player feedback. Most minor systems too.

That means these systems are ready for an Early Access release and will be adjusted and fixed according to feedback over the Early Access period. In very basic terms, the framework for the game is finished. There’s a list of the systems further below if you’re interested in reading through them. Development was greatly accelerated by several powerful template assets, but even those required a lot of customization and integration work. I ended up building a lot more from scratch than I initially expected, but this helped me become more familiar with the engine and “think” more like a programmer.

What remains is content and optimization. Much of the content has already been added, but there is still lots to do. Character models needed to be ported, quests scripted, animations set, etc, etc. I am still planning on Early Access for the end of March 2026. Frankly, I’m not too worried about content as that is the part of development I’m very experienced in. Still, my pace is very fast and ambitious, so these plans are not set in stone.

As I look back on the past year, I am filled with the confidence that if development goes at the same rate, something quite special will be made. I often repeat the fact that I started this project as a RPGmaker dev with no UE5 experience and an education as a novelist. This is in the hope that it will communicate how much commitment and personal investment I have in this project. It is, unequivocally, my pursuit of a lifelong goal.

Thanks, as always, for being with me on this journey. I wish you and yours a happy new year.

Steam post image Sneek peek for weapon tooltips in your inventory. You've probably seen it before but I adjusted the size. Also there will be various weapon categories for both ranged and melee weapons, which I'll explain in a later post.

Steam post image Sneek peek for skill trees. Each character will have several, including trees that impact personal stats, like attributes as well as for weapon handling, and class-specific trees as well. Look forward to a post soon that talks about this.

Big things done for VS in 2025:

• RPG systems

  • Homemade leveling, stats, class and skill tree system

    • I am pretty proud of this as it is a synthesis of what I personally like from RPG progression systems

  • Systems that support a party size of up to six characters (including the player)

  • Party inventory and individual equipment

  • Attribute check system with dice

  • Character creation

  • Visual character customization

    • I expected this to be one of the most difficult parts to implement, and it kinda was.

• Combat Systems

  • A turn-based, initiative-based tactical combat system with homemade rules

  • Numerous different skills depending on character progression, equipment, etc

  • 30+ combat stats per individual unit, most can be upgraded

  • Randomized combat map population

  • Damage types, status effects, a lot of the usual staples

  • I basically just made my dream combat system

• Technical highlights

  • Toggle between first-person, third-person, and an experimental isometric camera

  • Day/Night cycle for overworld

  • Custom worldstate, faction and NPC system

    • This is actually the most difficult system, and it can be expanded further

  • Repeatable, randomized contract system

  • Flexible, powerful dialogue system with an appearance toggle

• NSFW stuff

  • A completely custom system for 3D, fully animated, multi-camera position, sex scenes

    • I’m also proud of this and will be putting this on my resume regardless of the eyebrows raised