Fresh Catch of the Day: One Long-Awaited SOULWINDER Update!
And just like that, we’re well into 2026! What's been going on in the FORGE during this extended silent period? Thank you for your patience, and for tuning into today's blog post where we'll get to the bottom of this.
Let’s recap: In our previous blog post, I mentioned two “Test Projects” that we were, at the time, working on. Test Project #1 was a new IP with no connection to SOULWINDER, and Test Project #2 was a new SOULWINDER title that would tell a fairly inconsequential side-story. To further recap, we would be making these projects in a "new medium" that wouldn't be comics. The intent of both projects were to allow us to get more familiar with and confident in our “new medium” before using it to convey the story of a larger, mainline SOULWINDER project.
I also said they would be released in 2025, but fate had other plans. I can’t get into all of the many reasons why, but a significant one involves the US trade situation impacting the plans we had to fund project development. We also understood that these projects would likely not be fully satisfying to experience, considering the long wait thus far. For the amount of time it’ll take us to release something, we want you to feel like it was well worth it.
Challenged with these and other unpredictable difficulties, we returned to the drawing board: Test Projects #1 & #2 were both shelved, and our remaining merch plans put on hold. By this point, we’d already learned much about what making a new project in this medium would take, so we determined that shifting all our focus, time, and resources toward making the next mainline SOULWINDER project as soon as possible would be the best option available to us. So for a long while now, we’ve been doing just that.
We’re currently creating the definitive next phase of SOULWINDER’s story, that continues to develop the mysteries first introduced in the comic.
This next SOULWINDER project will now be a larger story full of real consequence, thrill, and even more tension than the comic had (in every meaning of the word). I think most fans, both new and returning, should find it enjoyably satiating when the day comes.
Notably, much of the creative DNA from each test project has converged into the mainline SOULWINDER one.
We’ll be making a dedicated blog post and title reveal for this project later this year, with plans to continually update the community on interesting or important milestone progression as it’s achieved. Please stay tuned.
And what is the “new medium,” anyway? Many terms come to mind which I could use to describe it, but none of them (like “game” or related terms) feel like they accurately encompass what we want the experience of this SOULWINDER project to wholly be. If we do our job well, it shouldn’t feel too dissimilar from how you likely experienced the original comic. Rather, it should be even more immersive. Which yes, is partially because,
You’ll be able to experience it on Steam.
And you’ll still be able to get into the story for free. More information to come later!
What were the "Test Projects?"
About Test Project #1: T.G.I.A.
While this one may be shelved for now, it's very likely we’ll revisit it sometime in the future. This story uses visual motifs associated with CRT televisions and also a seemingly bottomless pit to tell a story about imposter-syndrome and overcoming regrets. If you were here for our short-lived T.G.I.A. ARG, you may recall two characters: The crass, terminally-online Administrator and the dishonest, people-pleasing Teller. The player would primarily interact with these two and another third character in order to determine the nature of the dangerous and bizarre situation they’ve woken up to.
About Test Project #2: SOULWINDER: Part-Timer
To reiterate, these “Test Projects” were meant to be low-stakes tests to help us prep for our more ambitious Steam release later down the road. And unlike Test Project #1, this SOULWINDER side-story is cancelled for good.
This story would’ve taken place during the events of the original comic, and followed Penne, the struggling hustler we see selling fried fish in the beginning of Episode 6, and then again working in the Fermented Fish tavern in Episode 33. You might know her as the “Fish girl”, as the community has affectionately dubbed her. Try as she might, she’s unable to hold down an occupation for very long (for no fault of her own), and is always desperately trying her hand at new oddball (and often food-related) jobs to get by. To her dismay, she’d usually have to turn to her brother’s assistance for survival, who’s more put-together by nature and also steadily holding down a job as a Pawn for Enforcement. We’d watch Penne go from her fried fish stall, to a fish processing plant, to the Fermented Fish tavern, and even the Enforcement Capitol’s cafeteria. Where she’d serve fish-based food products to hungry Masks on their lunch breaks, of course. Coincidentally, her place of occupation would always give her a front-row seat to watch the major events of the comic unfold from the perspective of an ordinary citizen of Zale. Eventually, her curiosity would get the better of her, and she’d investigate The Hollow after the events of Episode 61. This would then lead her to stumble into a yet-unrevealed conspiracy that connects to the next mainline SOULWINDER story. Regarding Penne herself, her fate would be left ambiguous.
Future merch plans
Our initial merch launch at the end of 2024 was a great success; To everyone who supported us through it, thank you for helping us make it as far as we have. Development of the current SOULWINDER project will continue to be supported by merch sales and my own personal income.
To this end, later this season we’ll be releasing some new & updated merch. Afterwards, all existing products will be permanently retired once the year ends (Due to cost-saving needs). We'll explore how we can bring back some of these retired graphics & artwork in future merch, but for now we can't guarantee anything.
Once we're in the new year, we'll revamp our catalog with totally new things we've wanted to offer for a long time, such as character charms, pins, stickers, and more!
If you'd like to support us in other ways besides merch, we've updated our Ko-Fi benefits and mirrored them onto a new Patreon page as well if that's your preferred platform.
That’s all for now. Please look forward to receiving more blog post updates throughout the remainder of the year!
Signing off,
Lynk
7 comments
Best of luck going forward, I’d love to see Soulwinder flourish and interest me like it did years ago, hope to see this one release in the near future.
I honestly didnt expect a mainline story this soon! This will definitely be something exciting to wait for.