1. How long is the game?
Because of diverging paths and the emphasis on player choice, the full game will ultimately comprise millions of words. However, that doesn’t mean that a single playthrough will be that long. One playthrough will only see a portion of what the entire game includes.
There are three stats listed with each update:
- Average Playtime: the amount of time it will take to do a playthrough
- Average Word Count Per Playthrough: the average amount of words the player will read during a single playthrough
- Total Word Count: the total, cumulative word count of the game. This includes all paths, routes, outcomes, codex entries, tutorials, and notification text.
Currently, the public build contains the Prologue, Episode 1 and Episode 2.
- Average Playtime: 8.5. hours
- Average Word Count Per Playthrough: 156,000 words
- Total Word Count: 927,000 words
Wayfarer will be 3 acts and 15 episodes. The game will likely be several million words long by the time it is complete.
2. When will the next episode be released?
An in-progress version of Episode 3 is available to play on my Patreon. Its public launch date is TBA.
3. Why am I failing skill checks?
During the main game (Episode 1 onwards), all skill checks take your current skill level and add it to a dice roll. Your skill level alone is not enough to pass a check. The higher your skill level, the more likely you are to pass a check. However, passes are never guaranteed. On some playthroughs, you may be lucky; on others, you may not. While you may end up failing skill checks you thought you could never fail, you may also end up succeeding skill checks you never thought you would pass. There is an element of risk with every action.
There are some rare red herring skill checks that result in an automatic fail; this is to encourage players to really consider the situation at hand and choose the skill they think best serves the scenario they are in. Sometimes, the right choice will be to try a skill you don't have a lot of points in because the other options may backfire. In this case, you will get a Skill Ineffective notification and it will count as a failure in your character's records.
I highly encourage players to take their player character's failures in stride and continue the story. Failing skill checks provide alternative content to successes. Succeeding a skill check is not the same thing as "winning" and failing a skill check is not the same thing as "losing." This is not a game that you can win or lose. Success and failure changes the story content you see and how your character's journey progresses. Failing skill checks may lead to desirable outcomes and story events you did not anticipate.
4. Why am I not levelling up?
The Prologue serves as an interactive way for the player to set their stats. Certain specific choices you make during the Prologue increase your skill level (you will receive a notification about which one after you take your action).
This is only true during the Prologue. You cannot level up your skills when an episode is in progress.
After the Prologue, skill points are assigned when the player completes an episode. How many skill points you acquire is based on your health status at the end of the episode. If you are at full health, you will receive 3 skill points. If you are injured, healing, or recovering, you will receive 2 skill points.
5. The game won't launch on my device.
- Check your browser extensions and whitelist the game page. Extensions like Privacy Badger and UBlock Origin typically stop the game from launching.
- Do not launch in incognito mode.
- Use another browser.
6. I lost my saves.
Browser saves are stored in your web storage. If you clear your browser history or cache (or if an extension does it for you), your saves will be lost.
iOS automatically checks and purges apps’ cache. If you are playing on an iPhone or iPad, this is often the reason you are losing save data. Use Save to Disk to save directly to your device instead.
7. I can't use the save function with the itch.io app.
The itch.io app blocks the popup for naming browser saves. If you are playing on the app, make sure Autoname Saves is enabled.
You can also save directly to your device with Save to Disk.
8. Will there be a non-English version? Can I translate your game?
No.
9. Is there an offline version? Can I download the game?
Not at this time. I will not be offering an offline version while the game is in development.
10. Will Wayfarer be released as an app?
Not at this time as the game is fully mobile compatible with a browser. I may consider releasing an app version when the game is finished.
11. Will Wayfarer be released on Steam?
Not at this time. I will only consider that once the game is fully complete and as polished as I can make it.
12. Can I use Wayfarer to train AI?
No. Any use of Wayfarer’s text or images to train artificial intelligence (AI) technologies is expressly prohibited.
13. Can I make a chatbot based on Wayfarer?
No. Using Wayfarer’s text, characters, and dialogue to create chatbots and interactive scenarios is expressly prohibited.
