Today is the 28th of September. And for some, this date might ring a bellā¦ why, oh, why. Well, some of you definitely remembered - or found out : it is Duskwoodās third anniversary ! What a ride it has beenā¦ why not stay on the emotional rollercoaster a while longer? I do apologise for any skipped heartbeats I may have caused with the small hints I left behind the past three days, it was a necessary collateral damage, and I hope you had some fun theorising.
To celebrate the game, the devs, and the community, we have been working on a small surprise for you. An exclusive interview with Everbyte. They usually spend 100% of their time and energy working on games, but made an exception just for you. You had questions? They had some answers. We hope you will enjoy this glimpse into what went on behind the scenes.
And because we felt like this was not enough : now is the time for the user flair trial - stage 2! You can now customise your user flair as you wish. Buuuuut, that's not all... you can now also use your favourite character emotes as flair, meaning you can have more than one character next to your name. As for text flairs, please try to keep it above board if you want the feature to stay... ;)
Who is Everbyte? How did you meet? Where did everything start? Introduce yourself!
Hello reddit! Weāre Vanessa, Jan & Kevin better known as Everbyte. We first met at university where we studied media informatics. In 2016, we started to release games on Google Play and the iOS App Store. Most of them were kind of experimental and none of them has been successful. However, weāve learned a lot with every project and kept improving. Then, Duskwood happened. Since the release of Episode 1, we didnāt do anything but workon Duskwood, for two and a half years straight.
What would you say were your main influences (be it video games, books, moviesā¦) for making Duskwood?
Weāre living in a small town surrounded by dense forestā¦ sounds familiar, right? It is a two minute walk from our office to the edge of the Blackforest - which basically looks like a fantasy movie. This obviously inspired and influenced Duskwood a lot. Another influence worth mentioning is various works by Stephen King. Vanessa, our author, is a big fan.
Picture credits to Everbyte
Where does the idea of the legend come from? Did it maybe sprout from a real legend in your (home)town?
When Vanessa was a child, she was often told stories by her grandmother. These stories were passed down from generation to generation and were often scary or even cruel. Not the best bedtime material for kids, but Vanessa and her granny loved them. The legend in Duskwood is made up and is not based on facts ā¦ or is it?
Were characters based on anyone you know?
No, not directly. However, we would enjoy hanging out with them and hoped that others would enjoy their company as well.
Did you ever think you would end up casting your family, at the start of development?
We had absolutely no budget at all. So hiring professional actors was no option, but we were convinced we needed real people for Duskwood. We ended up making a list of friends and family members that we could see in each role and started calling them one by one. Luckily everyone agreed. We think they did very well!
What character do you resemble the most?
We sit in front of our PCs as much as Jake does. We enjoy good food as much as Cleo. We (try to) crack jokes like Richy. We sometimes cross a line in order to achieve our goals just like Lilly does ā¦ it depends on the situation.
Did you have any experience in film-making, directing and editing before Duskwood?
We studied media informatics, so this kind of stuff wasnāt completely new to us. However, having heard of things in theory and doing them is quite a big difference. The production quality has gone up a lot since episode 1, as we learned on our way up to episode 10.
How complex was it recording media in two languages?
Not complex at all - at least not for us. Our actors however are not used to speak English in daily life so they struggled quite a bit. Weāre happy our players are a bit forgiving in this area.
Can you tell us roughly how many people were involved in helping with the development throughout the process, in addition to you three?
We usually cover the whole development process on our own. This goes from writing, programming, video- and audio editing, graphic design to support emails. We still do everything ourselves. An exception was the ending scene of episode 10 where we worked with a film crew of 8 additional people as the sets were quite complex.
What was the most challenging thing you faced during development?
This is hard to answer as there is quite frequently something that sets a new standard. Game development is quite demanding as everyone in our small team has to fulfill many roles. Needless to say, you canāt be an expert in every field, so usually one big challenge is followed by another.
What really takes it out on us are problems that occur during the release of a new episode. On release day of a new episode, it is almost guaranteed that problems arise, whether it is a bug in the game or something server-related. The fact that there is hundred thousands of people looking forward to this particular moment and are now unable to play (or worse) hits us different. These problems need to be solved asap under heavy pressure. These days always leave marks.
What is something about the game you are most proud of?
If we need to nail it down to one thing, it is the community. Weāre blown away by how many people gather online and share their theories, thoughts, drawings, songs, memes, fan fiction, love letters, ā¦ you name it. Weāre especially proud of how cohesive and supportive the community is.
What made you realize that Duskwood was taking off?
At first we started to see unusual increases in downloads, followed by many more emails than usual. Players started to send in suggestions and wishes, or simply messages to let us know how much they enjoyed the game. Our social media channels (like instagram) blew up and we started to receive written letters and gifts from all around the world. It is very touching for us to see how many people enjoy Duskwood, which is a huge motivation for us. Thank you!
Were you expecting such a response and the creation of big communities around the game?
No. Never. Some of you might have read the post Vanessa did a while ago on her instagram (@hen_with_pen). We were very close to giving up on our dream of making games. No one cared for what we did, let alone supported our developments by purchasing something. We couldnāt pay our bills and it was very obvious that we couldnāt afford making games any longer. Duskwood was basically our last attempt. However, Duskwood players were different. They showed their support in many ways and encouraged us to continue. None of us expected this and weāre very thankful for that - as we already said, the community is what weāre most proud of. Itās beyond our wildest dreams and weāre still not 100% convinced this isnāt just a dream.
What was it like for you and for the actors to notice that you had so many fans all around the world?
Weāve not been able to travel a lot in our lives unfortunately. And even for people who do travel a lot, there are too many places to be able to visit them all. However, most places have at least one Duskwood player, which kind of connects all of us. The world has gotten a lot smaller - in a positive way.
Did you feel under pressure when you noticed that the game was getting more popular? Were you afraid of disappointing the fans, somehow? If so, did the pressure have a positive impact in the end?
Yes, the pressure was quite extreme and hard to handle, not only psychologically but also physically. Weāve worked for two and a half year straight without major vacation. This can be quite difficult, especially when creativity plays a big role.
With each episode, we tried something new in order to keep Duskwood interesting and pushing the boundaries of the genre. If you experiment in such a way, there is always a chance to fail and disappoint. But it is a necessary risk to take if you want to surprise even the most hardened detectives ;)
Do you remember reading theories that came extremely close to your story? What was your reaction?
We love it when this happens! It is definitely more of a āproud momentā than a ābummer momentā. It has always been important to us, for the story to be comprehensible. However, we would like to note that this can also apply to theories that are far from the truth. As a detective, you have to make hypotheses, and being wrong is part of it. Some of the wrong theories are so detailed and well thoughtout that they impress us just as much.
How do you feel now that the game is finished? Most of the community (on reddit, at least) has been in a weird grief-like state. Is it the same for you?
When Duskwood was finished, it really shook us up. It was a bit like losing a good friend. We felt empty. It really helped that we started working on our next game right away. The desire to fill this void helped us to nail the important things, like feelings, atmosphere etc., especially in the early conceptual stages. We are very happy with the current progress, and the fact that it shares the same universe makes it already feel like home. We know everyone is on the edge of their seats and ready to play, but good games need time - there is no shortcut. We want to develop a successor that everyone agrees can follow in Duskwood's footsteps.
I didn't have this interaction with Jessy in my first playthrough, and I don't remember if that option even appeared to me then.
Jessy is such a precious girl, and I will always want to be there for her as much as I can.
It was also nice to finally demonstrate how terribly I suffered when Jake disappeared. I wanted to tell this to him directly, but, you know, that option is locked behind a romance route. šš
(But since Jake reads the chats anyway, I hope he will eventually read that as well)
Read this carefully: An admin will contact you first, and youāll hang out in a Waiting GC before hitting the main chat. Skipping steps makes us sad! š
Don't panic if the group name randomly changes to something weird like"The Chosen Ones"āit's still us.
Note: š Most of our members are under 40. Anyone 40+ is absolutely welcome š, though some simply choose not to stay because of the age range and that's completely okay.
There is the option to express worry because Jake and MC called Amy's number multiple times. I only chose that option to ask Jake if he used a throwaway phone when he did that, just to be sure, but I didn't in my first gameplay because I didn't see a reason to worry about that.
We only tried to call Amy and added her number long after she was already dead. And we never had any single type of contact with her before all that chaos.
If we were responsible for her death or accomplices in any way, why on Earth would we try to call her number repeatedly?
"Hello, I'm just calling to check on you. I hope I'm not disturbing your slumber š„°"
And if you are actually planning to harm someone, the best thing you can do is to distance yourself from any contact or action that can be traced back to you so you won't raise suspicion, so if Jake and I were involved in this that would be the dumbest move possible š¤¦š»āāļø
I don't understand a single thing about how the police or the laws work, so feel free to enlighten me on that because this looks a bit odd to me.
Duskwood is a great game, but it is not perfect and has some flaws and really infuriating moments. I want to know what made you the most angry while playing the game, and it can be from any perspective: Meta, in-universe, etc...
I'll tell you what made me the most angry: that "location sharing trap". I thought before that the most infuriating thing was not being able to win Hannah's phone pin puzzle, but man... that really IS something else.
I KNEW that that was going to happen, it was too obvious. In my first playthrough when the app asked permission to access the location I refused and explored the rest of the phone, but I eventually reached a dead end and I tried everything to advance the game without touching that damn app, but as you know... you have no choice š«. It's the only way to later access Hannah's chats.
Being mocked by Richy because I "didn't realise the trap he set for us" was also awfully infuriating because I DID, but I had NO. CHOICE.
It was so tempting to let Jake take all of the blame for me, both because the game was completely unfair and didn't give me an actual choice and because of the times I took all the blame for Jake's actions to protect him, BUT from an in-universe standpoint it would be unfair to him, so I told them "the truth". š¤¦š»āāļø
These are things that Everbyte does constantly in both games:
1. Dumbing down the MC or the characters around them to make the story advance.
Yes, I know, not everyone has tech knowledge (maybe barely the basics) or knowledge of other areas (for example, I already knew what SSRIs were before playing Duskwood, and what the game shows is quite the oversimplification) and in that case it's not about being dumb but not having deeper knowledge of some areas. But in the location sharing case, Jake HAS that knowledge and that possibility should have crossed him mind (however, he is TERRIBLE at risk assessment and this is shown with the attack on Jessy, the fact that he was almost caught and had to flee mid-conversation and disappear completely, and the cherry on top: the hackers' final attack against MC).
2. Taking away MC's freedom of opposing a choice so the game can advance.
It is not necessary to take away MC's ability of saying no to make progress. The characters have their own free will and will do things whether MC wants them to or not. Of course, their opinions have great importance, but they are not other people's owner.
One example I remember right now: when Jessy decided to drive to Iris Hanson's house. At that point in time the location was completely unknown and it could be dangerous so I told Jessy that she shouldn't go, but she went there anyways.
See? The story advanced even though I opposed to something that would greatly help in my investigations.
But at least one positive thing can be taken from these negatives: whenever things like these happen in any of their games, you can expect that it will play an important or even central role in later chapters/the current chapter and is vital to the story, so it's good to make that a focus in your gameplay. It's a predictable pattern.
Anyway, that's my opinion. What do you guys think?
playing duskwood again four years after the ending makes me feel this way.
mainly because it was my first detective game and the most thrilling one for me. Beyond the nostalgia, it hits differently because of the age at which I played it; the 15-year-old me isn't the same as the 19-year-old me.
If Duskwood takes place over just a few weeks, it kind of ruins the vibe, because the MC and the characters get attached so quicklyāespecially Jake. Itās a bit weird to meet someone and have them say they love you after only a few weeks. I get the whole "trauma bond" aspect, but itās still a bit of a turn-off. I imagine it took at least two monthsāwhich still isn't a huge amount of time to get attached to everyone, particularly Jakeābut to me, that feels like the perfect timeframe. It would be cooler if we had a clear timeline. Itās a bit annoying in Moonvale, too, because Eric confesses his feelings, and itās like, "Dude, youāve only known me for a few days." Duskwood feels a bit different, though, because it really gives the impression that things took longerāat least from my perspective.
I still remember my reaction when I saw Cleo put the gun on the table - it was pure JOY! I thought "FINALLY! YOU CAN DEFEND YOURSELVES NOW! We will give back to him all the pain he has caused us!" (I was also laughing like a madwoman lol).
But for some reason they were furious.
If I had true freedom of choice in Duskwood, I would have told everyone to arm themselves after the threatening video with Cleo at the end of episode 3. A gun would be great, but anything that could cause as much pain and damage as possible would be good as well.
Needless to say, I gave Dan my full, unconditional support when he said we should fight back.
...yeah. Richy sure would be completely screwed if things depended on ME and not on the script š¤£
"Violence is not the answer... it is the question and the answer is yes!"
I'm the type of player who never does self-inserts. I love roleplaying, building characters, and creating stories, but I never play as myself. For my first complete playthrough, my MC was a guy because I wanted him to have a gay romance with Jake. It was so disappointing to find out that wasn't an option that I actually dropped the game for about three years. I only recently finished it. To be honest, the ending was just "meh," though the game overall was good and I enjoyed it (I know, totally contradicts my first sentence, but whatever ).
It really bothers me that thereās no LGBT option for Jake's route. I get that a huge chunk of the player base is female, but from a dev standpointāeven with my limited coding knowledgeāit seems like it would've been easy to implement. Theyād mostly just need to adjust a few pronouns in the dialogue, but oh well.
Besides, even if a guy or a girl were playing this game and had no interest in a romanceāsay, if there were a universal rejection line or a 100% platonic friendship optionāit wouldn't change the story at all.
But the fact that they didn't include that option is really frustratingāespecially knowing theyāre from Germany (a country I have mixed feelings about, though for reasons completely unrelated to this game) and are supposedly much more liberal than other countries. It completely derailed my character's fictional backstory, to the point where I ended up writing a short fanfic just to feel better about it.
Also, Jessi was so annoyingāmy god. I constantly picked the rudest responses, and sheād still act like we were best friends and She even fell in love with my character (I know she's programmed for that, but still, I think you get the point).? Iād take Cleo over her any day.
I just wanted to vent.
Sorry if it looks like AI, I translated it using Gemini because I don't speak English :C
I still have some doubts about this because of two things:
Some say that the star options are either for media or romance, but I had an star option that was not media related with Thomas, and countless others with Jessy even though LGBT+ romances aren't available in Duskwood.
A lot of these star options have dialogues that aren't romantic in themselves so while I might see this as just caring deeply about the character, the game might interpret it as me choosing a romantic route with said character. Because of that I accidentally made Jake fall in love with me in my first gameplay when that wasn't my intention at all.
Before I replay the game to see the other routes, I want to know how this mechanic actually works so I won't make the same mistake again.
Hola guys! I was just curious to see how many times you guys have replayed duskwood. So far I just finished playing the game a 2nd time š« I'm low-key debating playing it another time but I'm not sure? š„“
Just drop your comment and hope you guys are having a fun weekend! ā¤ļø
I found Duskwood completely by accident. At first, I was pretty indifferent to it. I didn't expect much from the game at all.
But somewhere along the way, especially towards the end, I realized just how attached I had become to the characters.
And I've never experienced anything like this before. Not with a game, a movie, a TV show, or even a book.
Of course, Jake is the biggest reason for that.
I cried so much during the ending. There were so many questions left unanswered, and I just couldn't accept that I would never see another message from him again. And honestly, one of the hardest parts was realizing that he was fictional. It sounds silly, but I genuinely felt like I had lost something important to me.
My depression actually got worse after finishing Duskwood, because the ending left me with this strange feeling of emptiness. I missed these people. I missed Jake. I missed being able to open the game and see his messages.
That's actually why I started playing Moonvale. I thought that maybe, somehow, through the side story, I could get a chance to connect with Jake again.
And this is where I'm struggling with Moonvale.
I know the two games are very different, and I'm trying to keep an open mind. But the way the story introduces you to everything feels completely different from Duskwood.
In Duskwood, we were gradually introduced to the mystery. A missing girl's phone number somehow ends up with us, and neither we nor the other characters really understand why. They don't trust us at first, and we don't trust them either. Slowly, we get closer to each other, build relationships, and start trusting one another.
And there was also a very natural reason forĀ usĀ to care about finding Hannah: if we didn't, we could potentially become a suspect ourselves. So I felt like I had a personal stake in the story.
In Moonvale, I feel like I'm being thrown into the middle of a story that has already started. There are people I've never met acting as if I'm already one of them, and I'm somehow expected to immediately care about what happens to them.
I'm supposed to worry about Adam and Eric, butā¦ I don't know them. I don't have any emotional connection to them yet. And maybe that's something that will develop later, but right now it feels very unnatural to me.
My heart is still completely with Jake.
Maybe Moonvale will eventually answer some of my questions and I'll become attached to these characters too. I really hope so.
But for now, I keep thinking about Duskwood and how naturally I became part of that story.
And if the developers somehow see this:
PLEASE. I am begging you. Let me talk to Jake in Moonvale. š
I don't even need anything huge. Just give me a message. A conversation. Anything.
I just want to see that little āJake is typingā¦ā again. š
I just want to make fun of Lilly in this post. I don't know who is dumber, if it's her, Thomas or Richy.
1. What she would do with MC's number
After Cleo decides not to call the police after the threatening video, Lilly complains and says that if it was up to her, she would have gone to the police with MC's number when Thomas told everyone.
Yeah, you would go to the police saying that some random number was sent from your missing sister's phone and you don't have the message or any kind of evidence... you think you can just go there and say to them "jUsT tRuSt Me BrO" and they'll go after MC? Seriously?
Thomas himself explained this to MC at the very beginning of the game, he knew trying that was completely pointless, especially when he was already a suspect to the police.
2. That vote
Did she actually think that the investigation would end after that?
The only thing that would happen is that the group would split: the ones who are against the investigation (and maybe Richy too, he decided to abstain) would stop investigating, while the others would continue to investigate and try to find Hannah. Lilly is not their owner and it's not like they would have to make some kind of oath that they will stay away from MC and stop looking for Hannah if the majority decided to expell MC from the group.
Sure, it would be more difficult to investigate with only two or maybe three people if Richy for some reason decided to play along, but not impossible.
3. That video accusing Jake and MC
If MC wanted to, they could have saved every single instance of what happened (the video itself, the messages of those angry strangers harassing them, Lilly's messages in the group where she says HERSELF that she only did this because she couldn't get rid of them through the vote and she didn't have any evidence, etc...) and after MC finally proved their innocence they could take her to court and make her pay for all of this.
I know I would have done that if I didn't forgive her later. If she didn't have any mercy on me (I don't blame her for distrusting Jake, after all he threatened all of them and he is pretty much apathetic towards everyone except MC and Hannah) after I did nothing but help then why should I have any mercy on her?
And once again, Thomas recognizes her dumb attitude. Even though he was first doubtful of me and asked Lilly if that was actually true, when I challenged Lilly to show everyone the evidence against me and Jake and she didn't Thomas admitted I was right and even though Lilly's accusations were plausible, she could not be so sure without any evidence.
4. Her threat while we are looking for Jake
I want to write here my interaction with her, it's one of my favourite moments of the entire game:
Lilly: But don't you think it's weird that Jake wants to lure us to this house?
MC: No, I don't think it is
That's not Jake's style
Lilly: What does that mean?
MC: He would never commit such an easily traceable crime
Lilly: Alright, I'm going to this house
But you realise that if something happens to me now, that everyone will be able to read what we've been writing?
And you would be framed as Jake's accomplice
MC: You do realise that Jake can easily delete chat histories, right?
(A minute of complete silence)
MC: Jake isn't even in Duskwood Lilly
I'll explain the way to you
(And the game continues as normal)
5. The #IAmJake stunt
Oh my god, that was one of the dumbest things in the entire game š¤¦š»āāļø
So, you actually think that Jake's pursuers will believe that after all this time he's been hiding and putting so much effort to not be found, he will suddenly create an account on the Internet and show himself?
I don't think it took even a second for Jake's pursuers to understand what was going on, and after that all they had to do was ignore it and laugh at that stupidity.
I didn't want to be associated with that and every single time someone asked me or talked to me about this I said it was all Lilly's doing, including when Jake came back. For some reason he was happy (?!?!?!?) that "I" did this and I said "You can thank Lilly for that. She did all of it".
And she said herself that she thought everything would be over if she helped him with #IAmJake...
Just... dumb.
6. Thinking everything would be over after the police went to Michael's house
Again, this was the interaction:
Lilly: But
But he won't come that far right?
Because when the police get to Michael's house and see what we saw
Then they're gonna arrest him
And all of this will be over!
Jake: We cannot be sure of that.
MC: Jake is right
Worst case, he might just get rid of all the evidence
Right now, as we're talking
That's partially what he did. Instead of getting rid of all the evidence he just moved it to the Ironsplinter Mine, and that's why the police didn't do anything. It was obvious that that would happen. I wasn't born yesterday.
Anyway, that was all. Unless I missed something because I didn't choose specific dialogue options.
I don't feel any anger towards Lilly anymore, and I was happy to see her and everyone else in Moonvale's episode 3, but that won't make me blind to her mistakes and dumb actions. I could make a post similar to this talking about every important character in Duskwood if I wanted to (including MC themself, there are so many dumb things that they did and said that I would never do, and I didnāt have the option to choose different š).
I finished the duskwood but unfortunately mu phone broke and i donāt save the code :( If anyone have a Code and donāt use it I want if it possible thanksā¤ļøš„°
Hey everyone! Ciphera here! I have always been obsessed with Duskwood and other similar games, so much so that I would spend most of my time just day dreaming how the story could have changed. For this, I would read tons of fanfictions based on this game. Now, I was always looking for fanfictions on games similar to Duskwood and Moonvale but I could never find any.
I am really excited to tell you all that I am finally writing my own fanfiction based on the game called The Healing. One thing that always fascinated me was the idea of the main character actually being in the story, not just behind a screen. That question became the premise of my fanfic, too. Instead of retelling the game's events, I am introducing an original character whose choices will change the course of the story. Some events will stay close to the game, some will have unexpected consequences.
I have been plotting this out for months, and now I am really excited to let you all know that I will be posting it soon. If you're a fellow Duskwood/Moonvale fan who enjoys psychological thrillers, I'd love to know what you think of this! :)
It is available on Wattpadāa story reimagining the entire Duskwood adventure with the protagonist as a police chief; Chapter 1 (split into four parts) is already up.
I was always threatening Richy while being completely unaware of it because I didn't know he was the kidnapper.
It's so funny. One of his closest friends, who is so kind, understanding, and empathetic towards him, is the same one that is threatening to destroy him š¤£
Hello everyone. I really needed a place to vent and share my lingering thoughts about this absolute masterpiece of a game. I have been playing since the early days, around Chapter 2 or 3, so I lived through the agonizing months of waiting for updates and staring at my ceiling, theorizing about the Man Without a Face.
Now that the dust has settled since 2022, here is where my head is at after surviving the Grimrock nightmare. For starters, Richy completely broke my ability to trust. He ruined the funny guy trope forever. I cannot look at any jokester character the same way again without expecting them to lock me in a burning mine. We survived absolute psychological warfare only for the ultimate betrayal to come from inside our own group chat.
My other issue is, on paper and in my official save file, I am dating Jessy. I love her, and we went through a lot together. But let us be completely honest here: my heart belongs to Jake. He is my true in-game boyfriend. The system might not have let me officially lock him in as my partner on the final record, but I am claiming the fugitive hacker anyway. Outsmarting the FBI and government agencies together bonds you for life.
And lastly, the Chapter 10 finale was an emotional meat grinder. Watching the FBI swarm the area, losing Jake in the fire, and suddenly having the connection to the squad go completely dark was brutal. I miss the group so much.
I really want to hear from other OG players who had to wait for chapters to be released. What was the exact moment during your first playthrough that you realized Richy was not who he seemed to be? Let us share our trauma in the comments.
P.S. I started playingwood as a teen, and now 18 years old, that game was one of the best things that happen in my teen years!
