- 31 Oct, 2025 *
Four years ago, I released my first “tease” for what was called Project Astray. It was a pretty simply little demo, showing my first attempts at RPG mechanics like “walking around” and “interacting with objects” to get funny dialogue. When Astra tries to leave her room, she is told that she doesn’t EXIST yet. She cannot interact with the world unless she EXISTS. And to EXIST means to be observed, and judged.
Originally, I wrote this as an allegory for what it meant to design a game & create its characters. But then it started taking on a greater meaning that resonated with everything else I was trying to say with the game. It became the …
- 31 Oct, 2025 *
Four years ago, I released my first “tease” for what was called Project Astray. It was a pretty simply little demo, showing my first attempts at RPG mechanics like “walking around” and “interacting with objects” to get funny dialogue. When Astra tries to leave her room, she is told that she doesn’t EXIST yet. She cannot interact with the world unless she EXISTS. And to EXIST means to be observed, and judged.
Originally, I wrote this as an allegory for what it meant to design a game & create its characters. But then it started taking on a greater meaning that resonated with everything else I was trying to say with the game. It became the first spark that would eventually light up all the rest of Astra’s story, gameplay systems, and the surrounding world. She can’t leave quite yet, but maybe another attempt will let her leave. Sometime in 202X.
(Sadly, Reginald Seedyguts is no longer in Astra’s room... But perhaps he will live on, in another form.)
Game Garden 2025
For a number of people in Vancouver, 2025 was the first year they got to see Astra’s story leave her room and enter the rest of her house. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had since beginning development on this game. Getting the chance to share what I’ve made, and seeing it resonate with people was everything I needed to keep working on making the rest of the game EXIST.
Many were hearing about the game for the first time. I got so many people approach me saying “wow hi I love your work! i had no idea you were making a game!!” which made me realize just how much I needed to up my “marketing”. Of course, I am not trying to go ham on it just yet, because it is still a while away... But, it would be nice to have more people know about the game & be excited for it.
Some people had actually been following my development and this blog (hello!) and were excited to finally play it. Thankfully, it seemed to be a success for them as well. I’m glad I’m not just spewing hot air here in development update land. I even had to bring in a second Steam Deck to have an additional station for people to play since Day 1 was so busy!
There were a few little accessibility things I took note of, and a bug or two, but overall it seemed like people were really surprised by how polished it felt already. And, you know, I have been working on chapter 1 for a long time. I can’t guarantee the rest of the game feels that way yet. But it’ll get there.
Overall, I am really excited to have made a big impression for a small number of people. I hope that continues to be the case as I show the game to a larger audience.
Combat Overview
One of the fun things that I finally got to show off at Game Garden was the combat system in full. Because I don’t really want to keep secrets about things that were shown publicly, let’s talk about it!
The first thing to keep in mind is that ANOTHEREAL is inspired by top-down shooters and RPGs, but it doesn’t adhere to all the expectations you might have... Try to keep an open mind while reading about the combat system. It’s a little complicated, but like... That’s life, really.
When you enter combat, you enter a picture-in-picture screen, much like a tate-mode (vertical orientation) monitor within your normal game resolution. Astra transforms into her Ghost form and enemies teleport in.
(Fun fact: In the original Dragon Quest, battles popped up as a little window on top of the map screen. This was a big inspiration for how I approached designing the combat screen for ANOTHEREAL.)
There are two main bits of UI to consider.
In the bottom-left corner is a circle of ‘Stakes’ that represent the stability of Astra’s EXISTENCE, otherwise known as her Health. Depending on the difficulty chosen, several of these Health Points are pushed in & turned purple. This represents “scratched” health. More on that later.
At the top of the combat window is a long golden bar that represents the total Health value of every enemy on screen. Think of it as the encounter’s Health. It, too, can turn purple and become “scratched”.
During combat, enemies will shoot two different types of bullets at you:
Damage Bullets have a dark interior and deal direct damage. Every time you are hit by one, all of your scratched health will be removed. And, depending on your difficulty, several more stakes of Health will also be scratched.
Scratch Bullets have a light border and deal scratch damage. Every time you are hit by one, your health will be scratched. This means that the next Damage Bullet you suffer will take away more health.
Astra also has two types of damage.
Shots deal scratch damage. These are her regular shots, fired by pressing and holding the shoot button.
While Astra deals scratch damage to enemies, a little moon icon will appear above an enemy’s head to indicate how scratched they are. The moon goes from New to Full as an indicator for this. When an enemy is fully scratched, their attack patterns often change. So it’s recommended to keep shooting an enemy to connect and see what they’ll do.
She also has Supers, which she can only perform once she has accumulated Power. How do you gain Power? Well...
Normally, Scratch Bullets will scratch Astra’s health. But if she enters Absorb Mode, her halo will extend and be able to absorb Scratch Bullets. Each bullet her halo absorbs will give her Power.
Once she has enough Power, Astra can fire off a Super to deal direct damage. This will convert all scratch damage done to enemies and make it permanent. If an enemy is fully scratched when being hit by a Super, they’ll be removed from the combat field.
With all of this in mind, you might be able to start to picture how battles might unfold... This isn’t a typical top-down shooter where you’re simply hitting enemies until they are destroyed while avoiding bullets. It’s a dance, making connections with others while struggling to defend your EXISTENCE without becoming overwhelmed. But if you’re determined to EXIST, I’m sure you can make it work out.
Chapter 2 Progress
One of the biggest things I’ve been working on in the past few months has been building out all the assets and tech I need to complete Chapter 2. It’s a LOT bigger than Chapter 1, has around 3x the amount of maps, and will require around 4 different tile sets to build out. Chapter 1’s main gameplay field is very dense and packed full of details, so it was easier to make with a single primary tileset. Chapter 2 trades this for more of a linear journey.
I’m trying my best to explain without giving anything away, sorry lol...
There’s also several very heavily scripted moments that have required me to refactor a lot of systems to make them look as polished and seamless as possible given my own technical limitations. It’s all work that will go into making later chapters even stronger, but again it’s things that complicate the development process.
I have finished building out an initial version of the first 3 maps of the chapter, including the 1st major gameplay field. I’m also several drafts deep into the script for the entire chapter. October was extremely busy, but it gave me a lot of time in front of my phone thinking about dialogue... There’s only a few more scenes left to write, but it’s all very exciting to think about implementing.
My big goal is to hopefully have a roughly implemented version of chapter 2 done by the end of the year. It still puts me a little behind in my overall estimate on how long it would take me to make, so I’m hoping to speed up a bit in 2026.
As a little sneak peek without giving much of the context away.... Here’s some props that I’ve been working on for Chapter 2. Intuit as much as you want from these little objects.
Other Projects!
Much of my general busyness in the past few months has been an accumulation of smaller projects that are all starting to release. So I thought it might be appropriate for me to showcase them a little!
UNBEATABLE
This just got announced!! I am really excited to be doing a track for the upcoming game UNBEATABLE in collaboration with in-game band Unbeatable. Specifically their Breakout Edition. The song’s called Binary Reasoning. Please look forward to it.
Wishlist & buy when it’s out etc etc
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2240620/UNBEATABLE/
BEASTIEBALL
Yeah I’m still working on this game! Specifically, we did a secret spooky update in time for Halloween that introduces a brand new sports theme VS. The Magic Moons, the team of resident grandma witch & professional hater Callisto.
The OST on both Bandcamp & Steam have been updated with the track & continue to be updated every update. It’s over 3 hours of music and counting!!
https://radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com/album/beastieball-original-sound-track
LOST IN THE BITRATE
What’s this? An NTS show?
If you aren’t familiar, NTS is an online radio station based in the UK that has an incredibly diverse group of regular contributors called “residents” that put together hour-long shows to showcase various kinds of music.
I was invited to create a new show as a resident at NTS for the next year. I decided to curate a celebration of the digital era of composition including digital fusion, modern classical and various electronic genres. It’s a healthy blend of soundtracks and independent tracks that I am excited to continue as the show goes on.
You can check out Episode 2 here: https://www.nts.live/shows/lena-raine/episodes/lena-raine-20th-october-2025
And Episode 1 here: https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/lost-in-the-bitrate-w-lena-raine-26th-june-2025
The next episode will premiere in December, and will contain a whole bunch of my favorite music from 2025.
DELTARUNE CHAPTER 4
I edited pianos.
OTHER THINGS I CAN’T TALK ABOUT
I wish I could, but they’re not announced yet. Probably soon. I’ll yell about it on Bluesky (@lena.fyi) once it happens. I’ll also write about it in the eventual Winter Update. I’m excited as hell, though.
#ANOTHEREAL [#game dev](https://blog.radicaldream.land/blog/?q=game dev)