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With NextFest done, I want to take a few moments to reflect on the data, my beliefs, and why I've even made this thing in the first place.
The first thing to know? WWHB is all about the story. To enjoy it, one has to have a love of reading, enjoying building up in your own head the story you want to shape and live. It lacks deep mechanics. Filler puzzles. In depth recipes and crafting. These have been done far better than I could manage in many other games.
As you can tell, I'm not writing this to sell you on my game. I'd rather you play the demo and see if you are one of the admittedly small demographic of people that really have enjoyed it. The demo? It takes about twenty minutes. Many bounce. But about 15% of you? Played it for over an hour and a half. A small handful played it more than I ever would have if I wasn't making it!
It is a game that has contradictions within the writing. A game about the recursion of time, of a funky place in a frontier of an unamed Empire where things just don't operate quite like they should. It's a game that never really gives clear answers. It's meant to encourage you to come up with your own truth of what it is and why, and I get that isn't for everyone.
But what still needs to be done over the next month is:
trimming some of the stories, especially the obituary. It's about 33% too long right now.
Making some of the more subtle mechanics noticeable.
Registering achievements with steam. They are all in the game, its just about the wiring.
Finishing the last three story arcs.
Reviewing the existing stories for about the 1000th time and surely changing my mind on some details probably were in draft 232. ;)
As for me, and this journey, it's the writing I enjoy. It's the story telling. And don't get me wrong - I love many types of games! Each type is great in its own way. And in the end, I'd rather make something that a few handfuls of people feel passionately about and most just don't care for it, than have something a large variety of people are lukewarm about.
Now to get back to the writing.
Hello Bureaucrats,
Today, I finally pushed the release button on a demo version of WWHB. For a narrative, your choices matter game, finding words to describe what you can expect has been hard. But then, I've spent twenty years in IT, four years as an artisan salami maker. Those created a whole lot of knowledge about the horror of bureaucracy! But not so much on marketing.
The demo presents 8 stories for you to discover with roughly 47 potential story endings. You'll discover two of those through each play through.
The full game will have 24 of those story arcs, with four presented each run through. It will also have achievements, different outpost types that create a whole different type of story category. Choices you make between runs will be remembered, and during quiet moments or echoes you'll be reminded of them.
The full game will also present more varied choices for how your settlement ends, based on your progression and choices.
What I'm hopeful for is to see how people engage. What they enjoy. What they want to see more of, and use this as directional guidance in further polishing not just the full game but the demo before Next Fest.
As always, the Bureau appreciates your filings, and looks forward to seeing your discoveries.
Office of Governor Briefing & Orientation Form 2-A — Procedural Briefing, Story Arc System
Hello Bureaucrats,
The Bureau has taken the time to formally put down the encounters one might expect when overseeing your frontier settlement. This overview is not complete, yet it is what The Bureau current has deemed as useful to prospective governors.
The Bureau has noted that there are many difficult encounters on the frontier. Governor's can expect during the process of tending to their settlement four major issues to arise. The Bureau notes that there are twenty four issues that have been recorded, meaning each time you are bound to discover something new.
In addition to this, there are quiet moments of reflection. Small things that the governor will note about their settlement. So too will there be echoes of choices: small decisions that will have a smaller but hopefully lasting impact on the shape of your settlement.
When a major decision appears, it has been documented that the governor has a series of decisions to be made. The first of these leads to A Truth. Note: the Bureau has filed this under, 'one of many', as every governor report has always noted it as A Truth, not The Truth.
Governor's then have a decision around how to respond to That Truth. Some governor's have cracked under pressure. Others have put themselves first. More still sacrifice a bit of their own self for the betterment of the settlement. The cost of these choices is still with the Bureau of Metaphysical and Philosophical Research. We have inquired if they have determined the precise cost of these choices. They have not. It has been eight months.
An Answer to A Choice. The Bureau neither approves nor condones of these choices. We only document and file.
The Governor is then met with An Answer. The Answer will create a lasting mark in the form of a district on their settlement. It should be noted that various Major Challenges have resulted in five or six different potential outcomes. It creates a staggering array of documentation to create for the final disposition: The Bureau estimates this is 160k words of filing, at this point.
The lasting mark of a choice this governor made.
The Bureau notes that this process is less about the moment to moment. Each moment is additive. Each choice, even small, matters. It is the mark you leave at the end that is your story, that you will remember (Auditor Note: Hopefully. Some Governor's report frequent memory loss.). With so much to discover, one images it would take many, many attempts at settling the frontier to see it all.
The Bureau notes that this is, in its way, the point.
— Bureau of Frontier Settlement Assessment & Proposal Division Form 2-A, Governor Briefing, Second Issuance All copies retained. All copies have always been retained.
It's a pleasure to meet all of you potential new bureaucrats, and welcome to We Were Here Before. It's a game that has rattled around in my head for sometime, though as a solo developer it felt like it took forever to finally crystallize into what you see today.
At it's heart, WWHB is a narrative settlement building game in rouglite, where over the course of 25-35 minutes you'll make hard choices that have a real effect on your settlement. This is all told through a whole lot of writing where you'll see the weight of your choices, how it affects the people... and how the frontier affects you back.
Ah, yes, the frontier. See, this isn't any settlement. It's on the edge of the known boundary of the Empire, where weird things happen. But... I'll let the Bureau explain some of that to you.
One last thing, for those who enjoy hard numbers. The game will have 110+ unique potential final settlement disposition endings. In a run, you'll generate 4 of these. It'd take over 25 runs to see them all. The rough word count of lore/narrative is 150k+ words. With that out of the way....
Office of Personnel Intake & Orientation Form 1-A — New Bureaucrat Onboarding Packet, First Issuance
WELCOME TO YOUR POSTING
Congratulations on your appointment to the Bureau of Frontier Settlement Assessment & Proposal Division.
You have been assigned to the Office of Personnel Intake & Orientation as Interested Party (Provisional). This role carries no authority, no obligations, and no remuneration. It does carry a designation. You are now designated. Please proceed.
This packet contains everything you need to understand your posting. If you have questions after reading this packet, please refer to this packet. If your questions persist, please note them in the margin and submit them to the Office of Unanswered Questions. The Office of Unanswered Questions does not respond to submissions. The frontier generates more questions than the Bureau is currently staffed to address. We appreciate your understanding.
The BFSAP oversees the assessment, dispatch, and documentation of frontier settlements — their establishment, operation, and inevitable conclusion. When a settlement concludes, the BFSAP files a Form 7-C: Settlement Obituary. The Form 7-C captures what the settlement built, what its governor decided, and what remained at the end.
A sample filing is included below for your review.
You will note that this settlement existed for approximately thirty minutes. You will note the districts listed. You will note what the Bureau was and was not able to classify. You will note that the final line reads as it does.
This is standard. This is the frontier. Please take a moment and then continue.
As Interested Party (Provisional), your responsibilities are as follows.
You are asked to observe. Future filings will document the settlement system in greater detail — the arc structure, the branching of choices, the memory fragment system by which previous governors surface in the margins of new runs like something the frontier is trying to remember.
You are asked to note. The Horizon effect is unyielding. BM&PR has not yet defined why. Proper paperwork and procedures will help us understand. But over time, memories will fade, people will leave, things will feel 'off' as reported by previous governors. The BFSAP notes this without judgment.
You are asked to remain. The settlement will end. What gets filed is the point.
The frontier is not fully classified. The Bureau of Metaphysical & Philosophical Research is working on this.
The BM&PR has been working on this for some time.
Personnel wishing to be notified of future filings may register their interest using the button below. Doing so constitutes acknowledgment that you have read and understood this onboarding packet. The BFSAP acknowledges that you may not have fully understood this onboarding packet. This is also acceptable. Most postings begin in uncertainty.
You will settle in.
— Bureau of Frontier Settlement Assessment & Proposal Division Form 1-A, Personnel Onboarding, First Issuance All copies retained. All copies have always been retained.
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This page aggregates Steam news feeds, patch notes, and developer announcements for We Were Here Before, sourced from official Steam community posts.
Major updates, balance changes, and seasonal events often correlate with player-count spikes — cross-reference announcements here with the live charts on the main We Were Here Before statistics page.
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