ETA: Whoops, I hit âreplyâ way too early while trying to add alt text to that image. Ah well.
As Eddard Stark so frequently likes to remind us, winter is updates are coming. And yes, I do mean for Spire, Surge, and Sea!
Iâve been going through and expanding option text results so theyâre less summary and more in-scene, and so far thatâs added about 25,000 words to the game.
But thatâs not all! Act now, and Iâll throw in these polls completely free of charge.
Thatâs right. These mysterious polls will not only measure your preferencesâthey may just affect brand new in-game content!
Poll #1: Which NPC are you most likely to ask to accompany you to a newly-discovered island?
- Nan/Aanan
- Myrrina
- Odas
- Teurix
- Gerran/Gerrina
- Zooooooo
(And thatâs âZoooooooâ to the tune of âCroooow!â)
Poll #2: Which of the following competitive team sports is most popular on Gigantea?
- kemari
- underwater rugby
- hurling
- korfball
- basket weaving
Poll #3: What kind of fanfiction has Odas been writing?
- Space Wars
- Space Excursion
- Contest of Crowns
- Dragon Sphere X
- The Bread Must Rise
Poll #4: What is Zoâs true name?
- Rumpelstiltskin
- Odysseus
- Sigge
- Zo
Iâm hoping to have the update out by the end of the year, with some additional NPC encounters, more exploration of the Worldsea, and a number of small bugfixes that Iâve found while revising (mostly these are to do with the values being tested in choices). Also, you will now be able to add hints to options that show which stats are adjusted/tested, if you want.
These questions are extremely weird, and whatever you are doing, I am so here for it.
Coincidentally, this is also my middle name. Itâs what the âcâ stands for.
Iâd been assuming the C was for Curious or Cryptic, or possibly Crackpot, but hey, at least I was close!
so hype
Thereâs a pretty clear favourite for The Bread Must Rise fanfiction and for Zoâs true name.
OTOH korfball (which incidentally is a real sport) and competitive basket weaving (probably not a real sport but I could be convinced) are neck and neck.
And you know what that means, right?
(Spoiler alert: You can ask whoever you want to a newly discovered island, in point of fact!)
Hi all!
Itâs been a while, but I wanted to post here to share two quick notes:
-
I am still working on a big update, but have gotten a bit sidetracked with another project. So far Iâve added around 40,000 words of expanded and new content, with probably another 20-30k of new content to go. Iâm not sure at this point when it will be ready to go, but it is still in the works!
-
Spire, Surge, and Sea is on the BSFA Award longlist in the âbest novelâ category! The BSFA has no game writing award and is a multi-tier voting process, so while this isnât a huge deal itâs nice to see that at least someone who can nominate for that award enjoyed it! (But looking at the list of novels on there, I will be stunned if I get to the shortlist, which can only have five titles lol)
Congratulations on being considered!
Are we allowed to ask about the other project thatâs sidetracking you?
I donât think I can share about it yet, but will when itâs sharable! (It is a work-for-hire kinda thing!)
No problem!
I have finally started getting back to work on the long-promised update!
The game is currently sitting at around 435,000 words (the original version release was 380,000) and Iâm putting the finishing touches on the last of the three new minigames I am adding in the late-game as part of a âspend more time with NPCsâ update, and then I need to finish off the vastly expanded fleet explorations bit of the game, which will now let you explore one of two islands far out in the Worldseaâand potentially even reach a brand new ending.
Still no ETA on when I will be finished with it, although I might share a couple of the new minigames here in the meantime for folks to try out if they want to. 
Oh yeah, and I guess if you didnât see the announcements elsewhere somehow, Spire, Surge, and Sea was nominated for a Nebula! The ballot is astonishingly stacked, so I have no expectations of anything beyond that, but itâs always nice to be recognized by my fellow SFF authors!