Checkpoint IV · dev diary
Notes from the mill.
How we make hard games, written by the people making them. Development, art, audio, patch notes and the occasional flood.
Every entry, newest first
Art
9 min read
Painting fog that plays nicely with a lantern
How the art team layers painted fog cards, real volumetrics and one warm light so the cathedral reads at a glance.
Audio
6 min read
The sound of a bell you can't see
Recording a real church bell at 4am, and how we hide a boss behind a sound for the Frost Chapel.
Patch notes
4 min read
Wickmoor 1.4 patch notes
Parry window changes, a new candle type, fixes to the wolf pathing in the lower village, and a quieter bell for people who asked.
Studio
8 min read
Ten years in the mill
We moved into a flooded Victorian mill with nine people and no heating. A decade later there are forty-one of us and the heating mostly works.
Development
10 min read
How we run a playtest with strangers
Forty chairs, a one-way mirror and a rule that nobody from the team may speak. The method behind 212 Wickmoor sessions.
What we write about
Four kinds of entry.
01
Development
Design notes, playtest findings and the things we cut.
02
Art
Fog, stone, light, and how a cathedral gets painted.
03
Audio
Bells at 4am, footsteps on wet slate, silence as a weapon.
04
Patch notes
Every change to every game, written by the people who made it.
“The last thing a player says before they put the controller down has changed more of our games than any metric.”
Ines Harrow, game director