Hello everyone, 

I posted this update in the Balance of Power Discord a while ago, but I realised I hadn't made mentiom of it on Itch.io, and so I thought it was time to share this publically. 

Development of Balance of Power has been and will be paused for a time while I work on To Grant A Wish.

I'd like to start with an apology, for everyone that will be disappointed by this. 

I'm sorry.

And then an explanation:

There are a number of reasons for this, but the biggest one is that I realised that with the amount of cuts that I was making to Balance of Power to make it possible to develop by myself with the funds I had access to, I wasn't doing the game any justice at all.

Truthfully, funds are not the biggest roadblock while developing Balance of Power. 

When I first planned the game, I had another writer working with me, and that made a lot more of a difference than I realised. After the Kickstarter failed, they decided to walk away from the project, which was entirely reasonable, and I chose to continue it, because I was (and am) determined to bring this game to life.

But the reality is that for a single writer, Balance of Power was a very large scale project.

7 routes (before DLC), all of which have multiple endings.

As I finished Ellis's route, and started on Tommy's, I planned the chapter count with the thought hovering overhead that I was committing to this number of chapters for 7+ routes. When I worked on the endings, I thought the same.

And with each time I removed something, or rewrote a route to fit within new confines, I became more dissatisfied with the game as a whole, because I knew it could be more than this.

I realised that I was compromising a game that meant a lot to me because I felt rushed and anxious.

As I got more dissatisfied and anxious, I struggled to write anything I was happy with, and I worked on To Grant A Wish to clear my mind so I could return in the best mental place to write for BoP.

Before I knew it, I had more written for To Grant A Wish than I did for BoP, and I was overall far more happy both with what I had written and planned, and with the experience of working on the game as a whole.

I decided to take a small break from developing BoP, and see what I could make of this new game.

It was scaled with a single writer in mind (3 main routes) , but with a lot of potential for more later.

Before I knew it, I had 2 full routes completed (at least the 1st draft), with the third underway.

Writing was a lot more fun again, and as a result it came so much faster.

All the same, I still felt worried because I knew that this was not the game people were waiting for, and any announcements I made about it would inevitably come with the disappointment that it was not the game that people wanted.

Balance of Power hasn't been cancelled. I will return to work on it again. But first, I'd like to finish this game, and build up both some funds and some contacts so that when I do return to BoP, it will be with the resources to make it the game that I know it can be, and one that will have been worth waiting for.

For information about To Grant A Wish, you can see a small unofficial demo on the BoP discord. I will be revealing it publically as soon as I have finished testing and polishing it.

Best wishes,

Cami