Open for a top secret announcement👀
You know you wanna open this and wishlist a really cool indie game XD
Finally, the day has come: you can wishlist lily’s world XD on Steam! WOO 🎉 Watch the trailer and check out the Steam page!
lily’s world XD is a psychological horror game where you investigate a young girl’s computer. Channel your inner 2000s teen as you read her old conversations, customize her blog, and look through her embarrassing selfies. That is, until you find messages addressed to you...
I’m so scared and proud that my lil’ game is coming to fruition. A few months ago, this was just a crazy idea, and now I’m putting my all into this project. Thank you everyone for your support — please spread the word about lily’s world XD!
In this newsletter, I’ll be delving into what the game is about and my development process. Starting with the game itself…
What is lily’s world XD? How do you play it? In my game, you find the laptop of a young girl from the early 2000s. Look through her computer files, social media, and diary to reveal her dark past. The gameplay consists of stalking the remnants of her computer history and solving puzzles such as finding her passwords.
What is the plot lily’s world XD? Lily is a young girl who dreams of escaping her hometown with her best friend. But something is standing in her way. The story is inspired by my upbringing as someone who prioritized academics. I was an overachieving teen and missed out on a lot of typical "kid” things. Lily’s feelings mirror my own, except with a twist.
How much will lily’s world XD cost and how can I play it? I’m not sure how much the game will cost yet, but most likely under $10. The game will be available on PC. Right now, I don’t have plans of porting the game as it’s expensive. Since the gameplay takes place on a computer, I don’t know if it’ll have the same emotional impact on a console. This may change if the game does well and there’s demand!
When will lily’s world XD come out? Hopefully within the next year and a half.
Now onto my development…
What inspired lily’s world XD? The games that inspired lily’s world XD are Emily is Away, a narrative game set in AIM, and Simulacra, a horror game set inside a phone. I love the nostalgia and rawness of Emily is Away, and I liked exploring lost media in Simulacra. I’ve previously made cozy, wholesome games, but after playing games like Omori and Inscryption, I was interested in a darker tone.
How did I come up with the game idea? I knew I wanted to make a horror game and I love genre-defying/fourth wall breaking games. I watch YouTubers who cover internet mysteries, and I wanted to put the player in the shoes of the YouTuber, who has to search down these obscure rabbit holes and uncover a sinister story. In late 2023, I made a game set inside a phone. So all of those things together, plus my own creative twist, is how I came up with lily’s world XD.
What are my development plans? Get better at coding. Or at least try. I am spending the next month on game design, then I’ll begin building a bare bones build of my game to test the design. I hope to participate in June’s Steam Next Fest, where you can play a demo of my game.
What gave you the idea to use pictures of yourself in the game? While I enjoy drawing, I’m not great at art. I was worried using my drawings would make the game look wack. So that left real world images, but stock images look too posed. I don’t have to budget to hire a model. Due to my game’s dark themes, I didn’t feel comfortable asking anyone in my life…I guess that leaves me! Plus, I figured it’s a cool development story, where I’m in my own game.
What tools am I using? Unity as the game engine, Visual Studio Code for programming, Figma for design, Clip Studio Paint/Aseprite for art, Notion for my to-do list, Google Docs for brainstorming, Google Sheets for marketing/bug list, Google Forms for gathering feedback.
I’m running an October Steam campaign where you can unlock rewards for wishlisting lily’s world XD. Hit these wishlist milestones in the month of October for cool rewards!
And that wraps up this first newsletter! Now that lily’s world XD is on Steam, I’ll be emailing at a more regular cadence. I will also be posting dev logs to my YouTube and Instagram.
I loved reading about the development process of this game! It’s super up my alley because my favorite trope is breaking the fourth wall, so I’m excited to see what cool things you can do with this project. I can already tell my expectations will be blown out of the water :)