We Survived 2025
- cordsmith6
- Jan 5
- 7 min read
A whole year has passed, and the majority of it seems more like a blur than usual. I want to--and very much need to--take this moment to reflect on what's occurred; as much to share some context with those who have taken an interest in this studio and project as to plot a point on the map from which our journey through 2026 will begin.
It would be trite to frame every event in 2025 as a challenge or obstacle we overcame. Truth be told, we don't always overcome our hardships. Although we survived to tell our tale, being an indie game development studio these days can be fraught with fear, uncertainty, and disappointment.
Not a day goes by that I don't spend quiet moments pondering what more can be done to improve our chances of successfully launching Always in Mind. Tightening up the narrative, improving gameplay, adjusting cameras, bolstering outreach to our community, enhancing player guidance, and tweaking until we get just the right post effects. Although the list seems never-ending, the work is super rewarding, and so we power through the best we can, day-by-day, month-by-month. Let's take a look at what we actually accomplished in 2025...
Another Premature Push
We moved into 2025 with a full head of steam, diving deep into Leonard's "Train Station" level. Featuring a unique time dilation mechanic called "Calm," the level is themed as a day-in-the-life of Teddy's father, allowing the player to witness the events that set Leonard and Emma's relationship in motion.
Although we were gearing up for yet another trip to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference, our primary focus in building this level at this time was as a submission for the Tribeca Festival. Balancing the work necessary to show the level's full potential through both an early playable as well as a polished video piece was daunting, especially as we worked to polish a separate playable demo along with other materials for GDC.
Ultimately, we found little success in either initiative. Our contacts at Tribeca were kind enough to personally call me to discuss our lack of inclusion, praising us for making such progress with the game year-over-year, but publishers at GDC weren't so upfront, often cancelling meetings outright just hours before they were to occur.
While we were encouraged to give Tribeca another shot in 2026, the drain of preparing so many materials for publishers who had little interest in reviewing, them was initially deflating. Not content to sit around and lick our wounds, we ultimately let that disappointment fuel a renewed determination to focus on development and seek better forms of feedback to help us improve the game.
Testing Ourselves
Given the work put into Leonard and Henry's levels--and the lack of response at GDC--we were anxious to get external feedback on both the level design and core mechanics. For added value, we applied time to finalizing a version of the first sledding area to get a sense of how we might potentially tune the vehicle for maximum player enjoyment.
The good folks at Six Peaks had offered us a QA trial period to get to know their team and assess their capabilities. The plan at the time was to use the testing to help us refine these areas for use in a revised pitch to 1st parties. We were also contemplating signing up with Rocket Ride Games so they could represent us to outside parties.
Given our internal playtests among close contacts, we were hopeful that the team at Six Peaks would have a positive assessment with solid suggestions for improvements. But, as it turns out, we were forced to eat some humble pie.
Arriving without context to three disparate levels, all featuring unique mechanics, turned out to be quite challenging. With no understanding of foundational story elements, key characters, or the actual stakes, player connection and immersion were negatively impacted.
Hopes that our narrative and action elements were blending in a way that created a uniquely compelling experience were dashed, and we were forced to take a raw and honest look at what we had built, where it was failing, and how to not only increase the fun factor, but also strengthen player guidance and the emotional connection to our characters and world.
New focus on the 3 Cs (character, camera, controls) began almost immediately. It wasn't just camera tuning that was needed, but also proper layer assignments for ignoring camera collision. Player speed and jump strength were adjusted to make movement through the world more meaningful and the platforming more challenging. As for character, we doubled-down on our hunt for technical animation help that would refine the blends and transitions that are at the core of smooth & believable character movement.
Moreover, we were lucky to find a talented level designer to join our cause. His experience and fresh energy for the project allowed us to begin refining levels with the highest potential that were previously missing the mark.
Let's Start at the Beginning
By July, we finalized an agreement with Rocket Ride to officially represent Always in Mind, and were able to put together a significant pitch package for Gamescom, but being a late entry into their pitch portfolio, Always in Mind was understandably a lower priority. In October, we followed up with a new pitch playable to try to bolster interest, but although some publishers said they were confident the game would be good, they couldn't risk investing in anything less than a "sure bet".
Around this same time, we were contacted directly by a publisher who had taken interest in the game based on the Steam demo. It felt encouraging that the game had generated enough interest on its own to warrant such outreach, and fielding excellent dev-centric questions from an interested party was a real joy. Although it remains a longshot opportunity, these discussion remain open, with the next major playable playing a critical role in defining next steps.
That playable is a product of the lessons learned earlier in the year. Lacking context, players and publishers alike were left with too many questions to lose themselves in Teddy's mind. So we began a dedicated effort to build out the very beginning of the game. Mind you, much of its structure hasn't changed since the original pitch. Teddy begins his journey in the hospital, plummets through a sky of mental clutter to his subconscious core, and ultimately sets off on an adventure through his mind.
Sounds super simple other than the seven bespoke areas needed to establish the characters, world, and stakes while onboarding players to all core mechanics. Evolving our approach was a challenge, and building out the most critical portion of the game remains our most pressing and urgent goal in 2026.
Cuts (are still) a Beautiful Thing
Efforts to streamline the game are a constant, especially as we continually re-define our desired level of polish. Finalizing less content is critical if we hope to ship a game of consistently high quality, but we've disclosed time and again that many of our original level block-outs were almost universally too large.
Playing this to our favor required time to reflect and properly analyze the overall story structure. Without a traditional villain, we knew we had to be very clever about how to ratchet up the tension and provide setbacks that were meaningful to both Teddy and the player. The software update is essentially our "big bad," a piece of code hellbent on analyzing and re-writing Proxy's entire codebase. As the saying goes, "it knows not what it does."
And the repercussions aren't immediately known. In fact, Teddy has fun exploiting the initial glitches until they add friction to his progression, cause disruptions to Proxy's speech, and ultimately begin to fully corrupt entire areas of Teddy's mind. As if losing the virtual stories of his family wasn't bad enough, Teddy's body in the real world is placed in jeopardy as his mind bears the chaos of Proxy's resistance to the update's relentless assault.
Realizing the need to better represent our "villain", it became clear that we could utilize "cuts" as real-time destruction events in the game itself. And so while the player enjoys the spectacle of massive structures becoming glitched and crumbling to the ground--we, as a team, enjoy the catharsis of having less total content to polish as we prepare the game for submission, and the relief of a tighter story flow, better pacing, and a chance to flaunt our penchant for destruction.
What’s Next in 2026
Alpha and Intense Evaluation of the Overall Experience
It's critical that we evaluate the game from beginning to end.
Assess narrative progression and evaluate how it maps in real-time to the hero's journey and our intended story beats.
Identify pacing issues, problematic content/areas, and opportunities to tell more with less.
Share the best content we can with publishers who have shown interest.
Create a Proper Plan for Launch
Our launch strategy demands excellent PR/Marketing/Creative Partnerships to accomplish the following:
Re-announce the title through a proper showcase with our best trailer yet.
Work with 1st parties to amplify our PR efforts and reach our desired audiences.
Create and share the right assets with the right audiences through consistent community efforts, better engagement, and more transparency.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
We're getting better at playing to our strengths, but need to spend more effort on planning, production tracking, and setting clear--and achievable--milestones in 2026.
Move into an Edit Mindset, utilizing the content and mechanics we have to craft better experiences through better level design, player guidance, and improved narrative integration.
Start the Year Strong, End the Year Stronger
2025 was definitely a transformative year for our studio, but 2026 offers great opportunities for us to truly show what we're capable of delivering with Always in Mind. As we dig deeper and deeper into the game's story and themes, we continually discover facets of our characters and our world that surprise and delight us.
If you're excited about what's next, please feel free to jump into the discord and make comments and ask questions. Sign up for the newsletter. Tell your friends. And be sure to wishlist the game. We hope we get the chance to know you and we look forward to delivering a game you'll treasure as something timeless, earnest, and well worth the wait!