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Hello all,

The day has finally come. After three years of very intense work, Wayfarer Episode III is finally complete! This early access version is launched and ready to play on my Patreon.

With this release, Wayfarer’s early access build is now over 1.8 million words. There are thousands of branching choices, all of which can shift the narrative. It is highly recommended that you explore as much as possible to learn what you can about the characters and the setting, and see how your successes and failures change those relationships. 

But most importantly—failure is not the end.

✦ Overview

850,000 words of new explorable story, harrowing choices, and gut-wrenching consequences

The conclusion to Act I—your Wayfarer will never be the same again

A new Prologue, featuring all-new scenes with Rindan Cenric, Brissa Varyn, and Amali Sero

Updates to worldbuilding and lore, including adjustments to maps, letters, and codex entries

A brand-new skill point system including skill allocation

General bug fixes for Episodes I & II, along with fixes to the previous Episode III content 

✦ Story Features

Pick up where the story left off in Episode II and dive into the mysteries and secrets of Diradan Tower

Entangle with two powerful factions vying for control

Continue building—or destroying—your relationship with Aeran

Engage in the most intense negotiation of your life

Learn (or fail to learn) devastating information about the Wayfarer Order

✦ About the Early Access Build

Episodes Released: Prologue, Episode I, Episode II, Episode III

Average Word Count Per Playthrough: 215,000 words (approximate)

Average Playtime: 15-20 hours

Total Cumulative Word Count: 1.8 million words (approximate)              

If you have played the Episode III early access before, please note that your Episode III save files will not work correctly. They will load, but they will contain continuity errors and other bugs. For a seamless playthrough, please start the game over or from the save point at the end of Episode 2. Additionally, if your playthrough was started before 2024 you must restart the game, or you will encounter errors.

A huge thank you to Wayfarer’s playtesting team for their hard work getting the episode in shape, and of course to all my patrons, supporters, and followers. I would not have made it this far without you!

✦ What's Next for the Public Build?

January will see the release of Public Build Patch 3, which adds: 

The new Prologue and skill allocation system

Worldbuilding and lore updates

General bug fixes for Episodes I & II

Episode III’s public release is TBD. It will remain a Patreon exclusive until Episode IV is complete.

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Idrelle Games is the studio name for A.M. Morrigan (she/they), a solo developer based in Canada.

Wayfarer artwork is by @sunshinemage.

Wayfarer sigil is by Jessica Roy. 

All other image assets are as credited in-game.

💥VERSTAVE VISUAL NOVEL UPDATE💥

Update 17. Waving from the Monolith

You thought we perished? But we are alive, working and we have some news.

So, what exactly happened?

A bit of a sad update — we won't be able to release on Sunday, and this is rather upsetting for us since we already moved the release date for extra day.

However, the reality is that life hits us and technical delays happen. The choice was between releasing half-baked game and what it meant to be from the beginning, which is not broken and with mini-games. We opted for the latter and decided to give our technical team another week

Please, accept this teaser with the release date in the end of the video and wait for more updates soon!

Development Log #1: CG Redraws, Character Customization, Writing Updates, and Ko-fi Goal

Hello, Luminas!

Welcome to the very first official development log for Backstage Infatuation!

In this post, we'll be sharing some of the progress that's been happening behind the scenes over the past month. We've divided everything into four sections so you can easily follow along with the latest updates.

Part 1: Prologue CG Redraws (and Sprite Improvements!)

It's officially been a year since the game's release, and our main artist, Iverelle, has grown a lot since then. Because of this, we're currently redrawing the original prologue CGs to better match the game's updated art style and overall visual quality.

We're also giving all of the character sprites a major overhaul!

Fun fact: when the original sprites were created, Iverelle wasn't familiar with layered image systems yet. Instead of using a modular sprite setup, we ended up with countless individual variations of the same character. While it worked at the time, it definitely wasn't the most efficient approach!

The new sprite system will help reduce file size, improve organization, and open the door for more customization options in future updates. New outfits? Alternate hairstyles? Additional expressions? The possibilities are much more flexible now.

We'd also like to give a huge thank you to our team member, Luna, for assisting with the line art for the updated sprites that will be featured in an upcoming update. Your help has been invaluable!

Part 2: Character Customization Preview

This preview was previously shared on Tumblr, but we'd love to showcase it here as well!

For those who may not know, Backstage Infatuation will feature character customization, including selectable pronouns, along with the option to play as the default protagonist, Haesol.

So far, Iverelle has completed 10 outfit designs, each with their own color variations. That's already a lot of options to mix and match! Of course, this is only the beginning, and we plan to continue expanding the wardrobe with even more outfits in future updates to give players greater freedom when customizing their character.

Part 3: Writing Update

Writing development has been progressing steadily over the past month!

One of our current priorities is revising the Prologue. While the overall story remains the same, we're making significant improvements to the writing, pacing, dialogue, and presentation to create a stronger introduction to the world of Backstage Infatuation. These revisions will help establish the characters more effectively and provide a smoother experience for both new and returning players.

At the same time, work on Chapter 1 has been going very well. Writing progress has been steady, and we're excited with how the chapter is shaping up so far. Alongside the story itself, we're also implementing features such as character customization support and the Affection Point system, making Chapter 1 a much larger and more ambitious update than anything we've released before.

There's still plenty of work ahead, but we're happy with the progress being made and can't wait to share more previews as development continues!

Part 4: Ko-fi Goal for Backgrounds

Finally, we'd like to ask for your support!

As work on Chapter 1 continues, one of our biggest upcoming expenses is the creation of background assets for the game. To help cover these costs, we've opened a Ko-fi goal dedicated to background production.

At the moment, we're considering two possible approaches:

• Commissioning an architect/interior designer to create 3D-rendered environments

• Commissioning a background artist who specializes in illustrated scenery

Every contribution, no matter the size, helps bring the next update closer to reality. Your support allows us to continue improving the game and creating the best experience possible for everyone.

Closing Remarks

Thank you for supporting Backstage Infatuation and for following this journey with us. Whether you've been here since the beginning or recently discovered the project, we're incredibly grateful to have you as part of the community.

We have plenty more content, improvements, and surprises planned for the future, and we can't wait to share them with you. As always, thank you for your patience, encouragement, and continued support.

See you in the next development log!

— The Backstage Infatuation Team

Also, expect these sort of silly updates every Tuesday — we want you all to get excited about the game! We're going to be posting a lot more here, very soon!

Feb 2026 Dev Log

Hi everyone!

February feels like such a short month, but lots of it was in preparation for March, which is absolutely jam-packed with activity! Hope this month has been kind to all of you. Happy lunar new year and Ramadan Mubarak to anyone who celebrates!

As of March, I also started my sabbatical year, so here's to hoping I get lots more time to write and make games and be outdoors :)

CT:OS

Chapter 7 update was publicly released on 14 Feb, which brings the entire National Doubles Championship arc to a close. 🎾 

Valentine's Day bonus snippet 💕

Merry Crisis

Finished the Merry Crisis Visual Novel extended demo (well, music's not done and there's a bit more play-testing and polishing left to do)

The extended demo will be released on Mar 6th!

Behold, trains!

That's a visualisation of my first week of coding efforts to make virtual trains run on schedule between some placeholder place names. If the project gets past its baby stage, this code will need to support a whole big network of public transit, so it's been a huge learning effort for me to program something sturdy enough to support that.

Week 2, enough with the abstract data structures, here's some awful little trains you can embark to travel between all these awful little stations:

After many, many hours of troubleshooting invisible trains, trains that eject you off screen, trains that contain another smaller train, and trains that flicker in and out of existence quantum-style, I'm beyond chuffed that this ended up functional somehow.

Entering week 3, I'm sick of looking at the awful trains & awful stations, so it's finally time to explore a potential art style (ft. one of the prettiest tube stations, in my humble opinion):

Ignoring the fact that I haphazardly tiled a bunch of non-tiling sketches and slapped a default font on top, I'm actually pretty jazzed about further developing this sort of rough lineart style. I was inspired by some sketches I made in FFXIV and the ink pen drawings in my travel sketchbooks overall. Thematically the travelogue connection is kinda adorably appropriate, but mainly it checks my three big requirements:

Enough personality to make locations feel organic & alive despite the amount of straight lines and boxy shapes that inevitably arises from drawing modern transit stations in flat 2D. I cannot draw a clean straight line and I want to revel in that.

Able to convey a ton of atmosphere. I like a game with a distinct vibe, plus I want to portray a variety of moods between the locations.

Fast drawing speed. One of the major issues that makes this game project one of my stupider ideas is the sheer number of unique stations and transit types I want the player to be able to visit. The less intricate rendering each asset requires to look passable, the better.

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