The Trailing Edge is now Bundle of Joy

Hello!

It's been a while, but I wanted to share a super important update with everyone following Essay Games. After a big round of feedback, playtesting, some soul searching, and hours of redesign, I'm officially announcing that The Trailing Edge is now Bundle of Joy.

This change comes after careful consideration, lots of pitch meetings, some fundraising, talking with other developers, and truly amazing feedback from my community and supporters. What I found in the development process was that I wanted to have the interactions and gameplay do some of the narrative "heavy-lifting" and for players to feel the experience of stress and doubt as opposed to being told that's how they should feel. So this required a huge overhaul of game mechanics and structure. I spent a couple of months prototyping some ideas and have arrived at BoJ: a narrative-focused minigame anthology that challenges the player to manage stress while taking care of an infant child during the pandemic.

I'll spend the next couple of updates and devlogs getting into the particulars and sharing insights into the development process. For now, however, let this announcement serve as a way of reintroducing the project.

I'll be bringing the demo I'm working on to GDC next week and if you happen to be reading this and are going to be in SF please send me a message so we can meet up!

Before I go, I need your help! If you'd like to check out the new design, please fill out this form for early playtesting.

Thanks for reading and more soon!