Some News Updates From InTheAtticDev!

Jul 21, 2026

Hello, all!

In the time since my last update to the site, I have been hard at work focusing on my schooling and written prose projects. I want to update everybody on the current state of InTheAtticDev as these projects shape up.

First, progress on a prose novel version of the Heartstone Caverns is still well underway. The prose draft is going very well and I have had a blast writing it. I cannot wait to be able to share it with everybody, as I believe it stands as the ‘true’ canon of the Heartstone universe. As such, I have come to think of the Heartstone Caverns game as the first draft of this project. It’s really something to see how we’ve gone from the first Heartstone short story, to the game, to this current state of the draft. So much has changed but the core shines through: a story about what one will give up to find power.

And as I continue with the Heartstone universe, I do want to refocus again on what matters the most both in terms of quality and your time spent reading about the world of Valeria and beyond.

That is why I have decided, to better align with the release of the first Heartstone novel and Turtle Lake novella, the Castle Pacifia DLC will be postponed indefinitely.

I learned so much about writing and creating a shared universe during the last year, and all the fun we had during the Beta phase of Heartstone proved to me that these concepts would work and the characters were worth building on. Kaitlyn the Enchantress, Marla the Catperson, the Serpentmen, hints to the Divine War, the city of Gort! Every stop along the way was a new brick added to this world. Looking back, the time spent on each update creating the layouts and interactions was invaluable, however it is time to move on.

I simply believe the numbers of engagement would favor Marla’s story to be found within a complete (physically printed and digital) novella.

With Rogue of Turtle Lake 3 + 4 (both now fully drafted!) and my work on the Heartstone draft, the universe is synergizing in brilliant ways. Every piece introduced makes a place I want to continue to stay in and tell stories at. This has led me to the most comprehensive outline phase for a story I have done– the first draft/outline of The Occult: Binary Systems.

As of right now, that outline for the first Occult crossover consists of 8k words. It may be more than a novella, but I have also come to a point where my outlines are akin to first drafts. I give myself prose notes, dialogue, describe each scene and character beat, etc. Again– that is why I consider the Heartstone game to be the first draft of the novel, as I did something similar there at a much larger scale.

Spending over a year on the story of Heartstone has made me so very confident in the quality of this re-write. An example without giving it all away: Kaitlyn’s role in the game is similar enough to how she appears in the Heartstone novel, but a few choices and way things are arranged have completely new contexts and implications. In the game, it is somewhat vague how/why she figured out her powers. In the novel it becomes the central part of her character it deserves to be, and therefore part of the worldbuilding. It seems obvious now, but from the lens of a game without a set protagonist the choices worked for the story being told at the time. With a protagonist, they have a unique identity that (obviously) shapes how they interact with these characters, changing the questions they ask and how connections are formed. There was a lot of implied dialogue in the game (as we did not have the branching topics system figured out for a long while) and the novel of course does away with that.

Overall, I went back to what matters most to me creatively in 2026: telling stories through prose. I still plan for the upcoming Hermes II project to be presented in late August, but updates to the Heartstone Caverns will rest for the time. (If you were around for the presentation of announcements in June, you may have also noticed another 3d project slip off the radar. I made the decision not to make it public due to what I felt was poor quality and not enough time to fix it. However, if you are interested in the project please email the site at [email protected] and I will reach out with some details. If there is any interest beyond myself I may go ahead with fixing it up but it’s more a matter of time that is sparse and the fact I have to boot into Windows 11 to work on it. Going from my customized and comfy Linux build to Windows 11 is literally like that Goofy ‘you live like this?’ meme.)

I have immensely enjoyed my time creating the Heartstone Caverns, the engine that runs it, and the other projects I made during that process. All of it, from Chrono-Wing to Cosmic Collector, has gotten me to this point in my writing career. I would not take any of that back, and during that time I learned some important lessons about finding the right audience, community, and industry. But, for the point in time we are at, it is time to let that game rest.

And the truth is, for what I value the most in creation, game dev was a fun avenue of exploration for the spot I was at. The skills learned will continue to fuel my coming projects and my career to come. I proved to myself and others that I was able to program an intricate logic engine in a triad of coding languages. This led to me to create my own website, which is what you are reading this on. That led me to create InTheAtticZine, the third issue of which comes out on 8/7/26. That issue led me to go back to a piece of writing I made in 2020 and redraft it with what I have learned now. I feel that is a perfect description of where I am at with my creative process: I have learned a lot and still doing so, I am confident in my ability, and I want to keep making some awesome things.

Just know for the time being you can expect to see less programmed game projects and more writing.

Upcoming in 2027, I have at least two written projects that are planned to be in physical print. InTheAtticDev will be an actual publishing imprint and the Heartstone universe will be in full production. At that point I will plan to go ahead with local networking rather than charting ahead solely in the sea that is online development. The entire region of Pacifia is based around the region of Cascadia, so it makes sense to focus my time where home is.

As always, we got good stuff going on. I have the short story ready for InTheAtticZine #3, the idea down for #4 (spooky October issue!), and a hint of an idea for #5. I will likely upload a few of the articles I made for InTheAtticZine to the website to get some SEO going.

Anyways, you can tell the post is running out of steam lol. Just know that I’m somewhere thinking about either communications, the Heartstone universe, or some other type of writing!

As always,
Peace and Love (except Big Orange and the– OH MY GOD THE STRAIT IS STILL CLOSED?!?!),
Connor | InTheAtticDev