v1.1.3: Now free

Due to mental health reasons I was unable to meet the deadline to submit soundStrider to the Bundle for Ukraine. By donating only $10 you can support two essential charities and gain access to about 1000 great games! It is critical that we support affected folks in these times of senseless violence and uncertainty. Please donate if you are able.

It was my pleasure to contribute my work previously to bundles for Racial Justice and Equality and Palestinian Aid. With this small update, I’m happy to announce that soundStrider is now free, no bundles required!

About the price change

If you have previously purchased soundStrider, then I’m extremely grateful for your support over the past two years. You enabled my growth and inspired me to continue to pursue my passions, such as creating an open-source game engine and copyleft projects like S.E.A. and E.X.O. Without soundStrider and the folks it reached, these sadly would not exist.

There’s no doubt that you may have some questions about this price change. I’m sorry if you maybe even feel as if your purchase was in vain. For a very long time I have been unable to support the project. Here is my reasoning behind this:

• It represents a very specific and personal era of my life. I’ve been hyperfocused on moving forward, not being stuck in the past.
• The codebase predates my engine, and is quite messy in certain problematic places, so creating new updates is a pain.
• The bookmarks system prevents making meaningful changes to its procedural generation and musical systems.
• It’s been easier to make smaller projects for game jams to experiment with fresh ideas than shoehorn them here.

Therefore it’s time that its price reflects this.

Our next destination

For those who supported me by purchasing soundStrider, I promise that I will find a way to grant you free and early access to my next project: Periphery Synthetic EP.

In early preproduction, its objective is to combine my games S.E.A and E.X.O., along with some fresh environments, into a new and cohesive experience. Piloting an upgradable exosuit, players will explore an uncharted star system with a mysterious past. My goal is to release it episodically, one planetary body at a time. The first is a desert planet.

More information is forthcoming.

v1.1.3 changes

• Adjusted some labels on the Audio Mixer screen
• Fixed a typo on the Audio Glossary screen
• Updated the desktop application to Electron 17

Thanks for your support. Don’t forget to grab the bundle if you can. Enjoy!