Pocket Quest 2025, Devlog Week 4-8

So I may have been a little busy with everything going. Work picking up and potentially moving on top of Pocket Quest left me with very little time so I opted to cut doing these devlogs consistently in favor of getting the project finished. I think you can hardly blame me on my decision. On the plus side, you get an extra long one this week in the lead up to launch!

Animus - A Game Of Words

We have a name! As much as I enjoy code names its really exciting to have a name I can talk about instead of just "Project Dream". Honestly I was planning on calling it "Wandering Thoughts", but my partner stepped in suggested Animus instead. It was pretty humbling seeing her throw such a great name out with such ease but it is one of the many reasons I love her, and now by mentioning her I'll get to find out if she reads these.

HI HONEY o/

Playtest Results

Most of the last several weeks has been a cycle of playtesting and tweaking which will always surprise me with the amount of things I missed. That is the reason for playtesting after all so I can't complain. Even more surprising was the fact everyone seemed to enjoy it more than Loot Goblins! Not to through shade on my own previous game. Loot Goblins will always have a special reserved place in my heart.

I think part of that is because it's a GM-less system so you can just jump into it. The game operates in a similar manner to The Quiet Year (100% recommend btw), where you draw a playing card, use the translation sheet in the book to read then choose from two prompts, and then draw what happens on the Travel Map. Like I said simple, but it also allows for a great degree of creativity. Especially when you consider you are journey through a mindscape where anything can happen.

Outside of the fun my friends helped me work out a few kinks I was getting ready to just leave in the design. The biggest one was making challenges trivial if you had 4-5 player because their difficulty was, for the most part, static regardless of the number of players. It still is easier with more players but now success isn't a guarantee which was the main concern. Animus isn't suppose to be difficult but there should be a degree of challenge and I'm satisfied I've dialed that in.

Finalized Cards & Art

Working with Dejw Mik is always a treat, even if the language barrier is a challenge sometimes. We managed though and some fantastic pieces have come out of it. One of which is the cover you see above. There is some unfortunate news regarding the deck however, and before you ask it isn't tariffs. I mean the cost is going to be increased because of them but I don't register them as an "issue" because I've accepted them as part of life for now.

Anyway, the issue is that apparently DTRPG doesn't allow PoD decks and cards to be in the same listing OR Bundle. So there is no easy way for me to make them available for purchase. I'd have to link between the two listings and people would have to make two separate orders. It's really annoying because a lot of work got put into these cards without me realizing it would be a pain to purchase them.

I suppose in the grand scheme of things it isn't too difficult, but because of it I might be moving fulfillment of the decks directly to my site here instead. Regardless they won't be ready until June so there is some time to figure out what's going on.

Release Day

So what's next? Well it's to wait for release day of course! I'll be posting teasers of more cards and art on BlueSky and Mastodon in this lead up week to launch, so if you want to see more jump over there. Release is May 5th 2025 and I'll be posting the link to my everything. Until then, hope you all have a wonderful week!