Phew! Just phew!

Just in time for the Steam Next Fest, we\'re happy to announce that this little text adventure - You\'re a dad - has a new and improved demo out and about! I mean, you can play it! Yay!

But what is this game, even?

It all started when...

... I, Linus, became a dad. Weird times. Lots of things to learn. Sleep deprivation is a thing. Who knew?

I wanted to capture some of the small and big moments. I wanted people to see what I saw, and feel what I felt. The pride, the smiles, the hardships. But I didn\'t know how, until a few years later.

I started tinkering with game making, and decided to make a text adventure for my friends and family. They liked it. They even laughed while playing!

So I shared it on itch and here on Steam. And I got feedback! People liked it again, and even made a YouTube video or two about it! I felt like my little text adventure, initially just made for my closest, deserved a bit more attention.

That\'s when Liberty Jensen, the talented artist providing all of the art, jumped aboard. Her playful style has brought so much character to the project. We really hope you\'ll enjoy the demo we\'ve got for you.

This game is for you if...

• ... you like to read. It\'s a text adventure / visual novel, after all. If you expect a Call of Duty... I mean, you probably wouldn\'t look at a game called You\'re a dad, but you know what I mean.

  [/*]

• ... you like non-linear adventures. In this game you\'re free to roam a small world and find all that it provides.

  [/*]

• ... you like playful humour mixed with serious undertones. You get to experience the sleep deprived dad state of mind while navigating a strained relationship. It\'s not easy having a child.

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• ... you\'re into collecting endings and other things. The story of the game is told by replaying the same day, doing different things each time. The demo has 15 endings, and the full version contains 30+.

  [/*]

We appreciate feedback!

This is our first game - ever - and we really appreciate feedback. You can find us on the community forums here, on discord, or Bluesky. Links are in the game\'s menus and on the store page here on Steam.

Thanks for checking the game out!\nLinus & Liberty

Oh my. Been a while since we talked, you and me, here on Steam, but boy have we been busy on this side of the table.

And I truly mean \"we\" as in me and Liberty Jensen , the artist for You\'re a dad. Aw yeah, you haven\'t missed that, right? We have onboarded an incredibly talented artist!

Liberty is working on redoing all of the art in the demo. That\'s no small task - we\'re talking about roughly 50 background images, a lot of icons, and a bunch of other things. But it\'s looking great, and we\'re both really excited to see it all come together.

In the meantime I\'ve been busy writing out the full game. It\'s going to be at least the double the length of the demo, with 30 or so endings, secret steam achievements, and - perhaps most importantly - satisfying conclusions to all of the arcs.

(I mean, I think so, and I hope you do too. My wife liked the game, and I\'m 40-80% sure it\'s not only because she\'s married to the creator.)

So, how can you play it?

The goal is to have the demo ready in October. If we get there, we\'ll chuck it into Steam Next Fest as well. Exciting times!

You don\'t need to wait, of course. If you want to play with the new art already you can opt in to the art-v2 branch right here on Steam. Most of the art is Liberty\'s new and improved, but some images are still being worked on.

When all pictures are done this will be the default demo build. We\'re pretty sure it\'ll make all children in the world sleep throughout the night, bringing their parents so many restful hours of sleep. It\'s that good.

Upwards and onwards!\nLinus, one of the world\'s many dads

Avast, ye maties!

No, wait, this is not a pirate game. This is a wholesome game about a dad and his family. Right.

I'm happy to announce that a new version of the demo is available! It contains a lot of things, and is essentially a collection of everything that is going into the full version... except the adventure. Saving that nugget for later.

First, about that art...

The update!

• The endings collection tease a bit more about what you can find in the full version. (And more will come.)
• There's a new collection called "The dad". There you can see skills, items and anxiety you've collected over your playthroughs.
• Many reactive things are now highlighted with orange. It makes you wonder how you can otherwise affect the day, does it not? Hm? Hm? :)
• You can now see the ending group when you finish a run
• This just in: hide the UI by pressing a button! Neat if you want to see the illustrations better. Important since we're getting nicer art soon.
• When you finish a run you now see the items you collected over the run, not just the ones you had when you finished.
• We have a custom mouse cursor. Why not, right?
• When you start a run you get a glimpse into the mind of the dad via a short thought. There are many of these thoughts, and which you see is depending on what you have accomplished so far. (Oooh, building suspense!)
• ... and some other minor visual improvements.
  

Oh, hi there! Your friendly neighborhood dad Linus here. I just wanted to let you know that I've just finished the major narrative arc that I want to include in the game, and I'm pretty proud of it! It was the most important thing that I wanted to make for the full version, so it was real good getting it done. Now I just need to get to the one million other things I also want to include.

With that out of the way I decided to revisit the UI. It didn't feel quite right, so I...

• Made the buttons bigger
• Increased the contrast of some elements
• Made it work better on different screen resolutions
• Adjusted some font sizes
• And made the game work waaaay better with controllers and keyboard
  

You want a trailer? I made one! It was quite tricky to make a game about clicking buttons visually interesting, but I think I managed to capture the essence of the game pretty well.

Do you agree? Let me know! Now I will enjoy having that one ticked off. At least after the kids have gone to bed. hashtagdadlife

Take care friends!
Linus

Oh, hello there! I just published a new update for the demo. Turns out the 10 000 word script contained a bunch of spelling and grammatical errors, among things. We can't have that, can we? Here is a nice little bullet list with changes:

• You can now see the diaper on the child when you have both. That's probably the most important change in this patch.
• Pickup labels stuck around when you clicked on them, like an uninvited guest. They disappear when you focus on something else now.
• There is an ending in the collection that you can't get in the demo, but I still want it to be there. Added a label that says "Not in demo" on that one, so you don't spend too much time chasing it. It's a mystery to be concluded in the full version.
• More language fixes than you can shake a stick at. And I'm 40 - practically an old man - so I can shake a lot of sticks.
  

This is a big milestone for me - I just hit the big "release"-button. It released the Demo version of You're a dad. It's the first thing I publish on Steam. Neat.

What do you get if you download it?

• A lovely story based on my experience of becoming a dad
• A non-linear narrative. You go where you like
• Different options based on what you've done in the past
• A repeating day where you can collect 15 endings
• Short playthroughs of roughly 3-20 minutes per ending
  

taps mic

Hello? This on?

ahem

Hello world! My name is Linus, and I'm the developer for You're a dad - a sleep deprived text based adventure about becoming a parent. I'm thrilled that the Steam page is finally published. It's a big moment for me. (Not as big as becoming a parent, but almost.)

This is my first game, built so that I could explore new ways to tell stories. So far I'm really enjoying the process, and I hope you will enjoy the final result, too! I'm currently putting the final touches on the demo, and after having it tested by a trusted group of beta testers, you will have access to it here on Steam.

If all goes according to plan I want to have the completed game out early next year. That plan might change - I juggle this as a side project and have to prioritize family and work, but so far it's looking doable.

Anyway, thrilled to have you here. Please, follow along if you're interested. Like and subscribe... no, wait, that's YouTube. Let's try again.

Wishlist the game to get notified about updates. It really helps me out! I've set up a Discord server to share some updates with my family, which you're welcome to join if you want to talk.

Excited to share more as I discover it. Have a good one!