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Hey everyone,

I hope you’re doing well!

 I’ve recently decided to start a little Devlog series here on itch.io to share my development progress, explain my design decisions, and document what I’ve learned, including the ups and downs along the way. For those who don’t know me, I’m Sascha Alexander but I go by the online pseudonym Forlorn Alex, and I’m a solo developer who loves to create classic-inspired video games in my spare time.

I’m currently actively developing Forlorn Memories, my little attempt at a fantasy-steampunk, turn-based RPG with an old-school–inspired 3D chibi/non-chibi anime art style. It features optional dating-sim/Life-sim and monster-catching elements, multiple endings, and story paths that change based on the player’s choices, some of which let you settle into a peaceful life with marriage and raising a family; become the lord of a town; or even become what you once swore to defeat. To put it simply, my goal is to create my own little RPG love letter where your decisions impact the game world and come with real consequences. 

A bit of history:

Forlorn Memories began, honestly, more or less as a small, fun little distraction for me. After I had to step back from my previous project, Liquidation, a love letter to the RTS genre which I worked on for several years, due to serious health issues that demanded my immediate attention back then, I handed it over to my development partner (who still works on it to this day) while I struggled to cope with the new situation back then. At the time, this little side project helped take my mind off daily worries. What was originally meant to be a simple pastime soon grew into something far larger than I ever intended. Initially, it was only supposed to be a very short proof of concept game, something I’d share for free and perhaps update occasionally if time and energy allowed.

The community’s unexpectedly enthusiastic response, even to my very rough, in my opinion amateurish work, and the suggestion that I set up a Patreon page (which I eventually did) opened entirely new possibilities. Thanks to my savings, a bank loan, and the contributions of my Patreon supporters, I suddenly found myself able to devote far more time (for a brief period, even full-time) and resources to the game which lead to that I decided to turn Forlorn Memories into a fully fleshed game. That budget let me hire professional freelancers for extra character concepts to speed up development, as well as voice actors, composers, and singers, most notably Emi Evans (known for her work on Drakengard and Nier). As an indie developer, that felt like a dream come true.

To show my gratitude to my patrons, and because I wanted to compensate them for their financial support in some way I offered Forlorn Memories as a digital reward in some Patreon tiers and because of it decided to turn it into a paid commercial title in their honor and because it would honestly be otherwise be unfair if the game remained free for everyone else. But to soften the shift from free to paid (even though probably nobody knows that I originally planned to release it for free), I also began work on a free demo (still in development and not released yet but more on that in my next devlog post which will released relatively soon after this devlog) to gather feedback from my patrons but also later to release publicly so anyone can try the game for free and see if it’s their cup of tea. Besides that, I also host occasional Forlorn Memories key giveaways on my Discord server, so there’s still a way to obtain it at no cost.

Since then, I’ve worked on Forlorn Memories whenever my health and time allowed it. After shutting down my initial Patreon page, partly because I’m planning a crowdfunding campaign to fully fund the game (making Patreon redundant) and partly because surgeries and treatments slowed my update rhythm back then, which my patrons at the time had grown accustomed to because of that speed I felt uncomfortable keeping the page up and made it free at first for several months but then ultimately decided to delete it. I still share the Patreon-exclusive updates via Discord and will deliver the rewards to them upon the game’s release. But as a result of the deletion of the Patreon page, the Devlog series on the Patreon page came also to an end, and in the hindsight anyone interested in FM lost erm some sort of central hub for Forlorn Memories development news, making it harder to follow progress outside social media and my little Discord server.

That’s why I’ve now launched a new Devlog here on itch.io. With this first devlog entry, I want to talk a bit about the progress I’ve made in the past months, old and new. The upcoming entries will go into a bit more detail behind my design decisions and will go a bit into detail when it comes to my next steps for this project.

Devlog:

Anyway as for the Devlog: As some may remember from my short social media clips when I began developing Forlorn Memories, its controls were originally very close to some of my inspiration sources, games like Golden Sun, Final Fantasy IX, and Bravely Default, which, in other words, felt more like RPG Maker controls/grid based movement. That’s what I grew up with and still love to this day. Over time, however, I wanted to allow a bit more movement freedom, which gave me more options for designing the Forlorn Memories game world. Below is a list of things that weren’t possible before but are now fully part of the game. Honestly, this change took me quite some time.(sigh)

• Jumping:

• Sprinting:

• Swimming:

• Climbing:

• Gliding:

• Driving:

• Riding:

• Dashing

• Rail Grinding (Some Vehicles can do it as well!):

Something that also wasn’t the case previously is environmental hazards, for example, traps, poisonous swamps, or even lava, that can harm your party. But worry not also thanks to the new movement options, players usually have several ways to avoid hazards or even deactivate traps permanently. To compensate for these dangers and to also design how items are picked up with all those new mobility options, I made potions, resource items, and currency items physical objects in the world that you automatically pick up by approaching them; previously, you had to press an interaction button to pick them up, which was way too slow for consumable items you encounter frequently (but you can still manually pick up equipment items via button press). I also added completely new pickups, like health orbs dropped from chests or defeated enemies, which let you quickly recover a tiny bit of health in the overworld without having to spend precious potions which are either quite rate or expensive.

Health Orbs:

As some may remember, I talked in the past about adding cooking, not just as a way to obtain buffs and restore health, but also as a social activity.

You can share a meal at a campfire or invite party members home to deepen bonds. I’ll go more into detail in a future Devlog, but here’s a short sneak peek:

Every party member now has their own set of movement animations, idle, walk, sprint, glide, open chests, etc. , to make each character distinct and communicate their personality visually.

Another feature that wasn’t part of Forlorn Memories before is marriage and the ability to have and even adopt children. Once they grow up, kids/young adults can optionally accompany you on your journey, play with you, or help out in the garden or even in battles. This feature took more time than I expected, especially since it considers parents’ genes, meaning I had to account for each parent’s personality traits and create several modular child models for different ages, skin tones, hair colors, eye colors, and so on.

Below you can see some romance and children related example interactions:

Baby Variant Examples:

To further illustrate just how close a bond you can have with your optional in-game love interest, I’ve also added the option to sit together with your partner on a mount or vehicle:

Besides that, I’ve also added some accessibility options. While Forlorn Memories probably gives off a welcoming or perhaps even cute first impression, its main story and side stories can cover darker themes depending on the player’s choices. The same goes for combat: Forlorn Memories will feature blood to better communicate the consequences of choosing a violent, battle-ridden playthrough. But since I know some people are looking for a more wholesome experience while still interested in the battle aspect, I decided to add the option to disable blood completely, so you don’t have to see it if you don’t want to. I consider myself a huge fan of games that let you customize your experience, so this probably won’t be the last new accessibility option I’ll add, in addition to features already implemented like for example customizable keybindings, text speed, font size, color-blind modes, and the ability to hide your user interface, which may be useful if you want to immerse yourself or take a screenshot (not sure if FM is screenshot-worthy). But anyway there will likely be even more accessibility options down the road (feel also free to suggest me some if you have any ideas)

Hide Blood and Gore via button press:

Hide UI via button press:

Not only major story choices, but also your trade decisions influence Forlorn Memories World. For example, buying or selling rare goods with the Giagocci Empire can give them access to new resources, leading to equipment upgrades that make their troops stronger, and you’ll see those upgrades visually on the enemies, so you know what you’re up against.

Visual progression was important to me, so characters now display equipped weapons, clothing, earrings, rings, helmets, hats, glasses, masks, and even your currency pouch and potions. I’ve also added requested items like glasses and top hats.

But don't worry I’ll do a full Devlog on character customization soon.

You can obtain a Merfolk form that lets you swim and dive faster and breathe underwater, opening up optional submerged areas.

I overhauled the dialogue UI to match other interface components with a hopefully cleaner, more consistent look.

Since I more or less promised that the demo build will include some voice acting, I included recently voice acting for some of the playable characters in the game. 

Below you can listen to a short example of Gavin one of the starter characters in the game:

Technically some older news, but I never did a proper announcement except for posting it once via a short video clip which had the track as background music on social media. For me, this is a little personal achievement, because it was always a little dream of mine since I played the first NieR game to be able to work with Scarlet Moon and Emi Evans, and thanks to the Patreon support I received back then, I was able to collaborate with them and have Emi Evans on board for the project. Below, you can listen to the menu song of Forlorn Memories, which features her voice. I personally hope that I can work with Scarlet Moon and Emi Evans again in the near future.

In‑game time affects NPC schedules, monster spawns, and item availability. Each party member carries an instrument for example a mandolin, trumpet, triangle, pan flute, maracas, saxophone, tambourine, flute, ocarina, harmonica, handbell, or violin, that lets you control the day/night cycles a bit.

Gavin (Mandolin)

Liridon (Trumpet)

Alduran (Triangle)

Kiri (Pan Flute)

Luna (Maracas)

Lihan (Saxophone)

Pina (Tambourine)

Aria (Flute)

Alengia (Ocarina)

Xela (Harmonica)

Zain (Handbell)

Ida (Violin)

Meet Integra and Zain, an underground resistance duo you can hire as mercenaries, who will fight alongside you for a small fee. When they’re not with you, they operate against the Giagocci Empire and care for orphaned children on the streets. Zain also enables the player to adopt children, given that he trusts the player enough for that.

Besides that, I have expanded the upcoming demo build (the one I’ve been talking about for quite some time now, so sorry for that). I’ve made Alastair and Pina playable for the demo, as some may remember, they previously weren’t planned for this build, but since the current version lacked sorcerer alternatives, I decided to add them as well. I’m also happy to say that I was able to collaborate again with Mai, my bust illustrator, who kindly agreed to work with me once more after all this time to maintain a consistent art style for the bust illustrations in Forlorn Memories.

Last but not least, some of you may already know what happened to my Discord server it unfortunately got deleted due account comprising. But I’m happy to say I’ve created a new one as some sort of replacement (Sorry that it took me so long to create a new one), but this time I’m aiming for a smaller scope server and a more comfy vibes, which is why I called it Forlorn Alex’s Corner this time instead of Forlorn Memories, the small name change may also allow me, if my health allows it by then, to use the server for other potential projects after the release of Forlorn Memories, or for general, comfy conversations and discussions about your own projects with the community, rather than strictly talking about Forlorn Memories.

Although the server is currently still more than empty, it will come back with all the old emojis, stickers, roles, and benefits, which I’ll be happy to reassign to anyone who had those roles (especially my former patrons, to keep my promises to them). I also plan to continue my usual Steam key giveaways for all kinds of games, since I noticed they brought some people joy back then.

Anyway, if you’re interested, feel free to join:

https://discord.gg/hxfZvPmTQW

But anyway to keep this first blog post from getting too long, I’ll continue showing and explaining what I’ve been working on during my longer absences in my next updates. I hope you look forward to it as much as I am, I can’t wait to share my next Devlog post with you!


Thanks for reading I hope you have a wonderful day/night! Stay Safe!