NEWS
Foundation Rebuild, Moving Again
Dear Supporters, After a year of solo rebuilding, I want to share a way-overdue recap of the project — where we've been, and more importantly, where we are. I've been quietly learning Savior's systems. I'm finally equipped to give a direct overview.
Re-Building our Email List
First off, to help you get update notifications and follow Savior more closely, we have a new, custom account system. Even if you already shared your address, we'll need it again. Mailchimp helpfully deleted our entire email list :( So I built a custom account system. It will grant everyone a proper 'role' badge (member, backer, investor, developer etc.) — to help coordinate players and supporters on all the various backer and social-media sites and grant variable access to Savior's secrets.
Some Hard Lessons
Starting from the beginning... The early years of this project took far longer than they could have. In my estimation, it wasn't effort or ambition — it was architecture. We were building visible features before the base systems were solid. I was directing the project visually, while relying on others to define structure, without a technical blueprint. This led to chaos — multiple refactors, and compounding technical confusion. On the art side, I made a bone-headed choice that slowed everything down. I insisted we build levels in 3DS Max — familiar software that was way too complex. It added friction, slowed iteration, complicated imports, and prevented anyone else from helping with level building. By early 2024, our technical debt from many dead-end decisions finally forced a hard stop. It became prohibitively complicated to make forward progress.
The Foundational Rebuild
In March of 2024 I discovered new tools that allowed me to quickly parse our code base. Something I've never been able to do. Even our most convoluted systems were suddenly relatively easy to decipher. Since then I’ve been rebuilding Savior from the ground up — deliberately and aggressively. What started as targeted fixes quickly revealed how intertwined the systems were. So I went all the way down to the animator, frame-ticker and our core definitions of units and data containers, and I rebuilt upward with clarity and intent. Over the past 18 months, I have:
I want to go into detail on each of these overhauls. But for now I'll leave you with this overall bullet-point scope of the rebuild.
Starsoft.com - Our New Hub
Inefficiency wasn't just rampant in the code and art production — Project management and communication with our community was scattered and confusing (as you may have noticed). So in parallel with Savior's overhaul, I’m rebuilding our website into a central hub for players, collaborators, and stakeholders. After a decade of working with restrictive, disconnected, generic commercial tools, we can finally have integrated task lists and asset organization systems that we can open up to our supporter. These are the three core tools I'm adding to our site:
After being quiet and opaque for years, these systems are intended to make Savior significantly more transparent. Each system is mostly done, with a small fraction of our total content. I'll be adding chunks of existing work each week until they reflect the actual state of the project.
Grabbing the Wheel (Finally)
The result of all this is simple but critical: This project is finally under control. I now understand the systems at just about every level. I can design, implement, refactor, and extend them directly — and quickly. That alone has changed the trajectory of development. A notable indie developer once told us he would never invest in a game “run by an artist.” At the time, of course I disagreed. But in retrospect, his skepticism was justified — not because artists shouldn't lead game projects, but because I didn’t have the technical knowledge to execute at this scale. I believe I finally do.
Democratized Development
We're in a moment where accelerated learning and coding tools have exploded what a small, focused team can do. Designers can directly build the systems they envision. Tooling can be artist-made. Iteration can happen at speeds that weren’t possible before. With Savior already roughly 80% complete, we’re ideally positioned to leverage this shift. We can produce content and code faster, cheaper, and more precisely than ever before.
We Still Need Runway
All that said, we're still in need of funding: I’ve exhausted our investment funds and my personal savings to reach this point. The thrill of being able to effect change so fast has made it hard to pull away to seek funding, but I must do that now.
I’m looking for people who love this genre and believe in what Savior is becoming — people who want to help us finish this decade-long journey. Despite the delays and financial strain, I'm sure this is the strongest Savior has ever been — technically, creatively, and strategically.
Thank you for reading this far, and thank you for staying with us. — Weston