2025 was a breakthrough year for UTOI. From a single-character narrative, this project has grown to a full-fledged plot with multiple characters, different endings, and an alternative perspective on the lives of monsters and their history. At the current stage, the priority areas of development are still plot writing and character spriting.

Despite the difficulties, we are determined to move forward

= What have we achieved over the past year? =

   We have rethought the concept of the old plot and transformed it into a detailed story, moving away from simple and frankly depressing settings in the narrative to the unfolding of complex and ambiguous chains of events and actions

   The composition of the main characters has been formed, an understanding of the relationships between the characters and the place of each of them in the plot is being worked out

   Significant progress has been made in overworld and textbox spriting of the main characters, at the time of writing the post, the readiness of the basic overworld sprite-sheets is estimated at about 33%, the concepts of textbox sprites are ready at 67%

   Work has begun on the concepts of the main characters' battle sprites

   Overworld and battle spriting of the NPCs and writing dialogues for them have begun, and several important plot concepts are ready

   The writing of the detailed plot has begun

   Some conceptual details of the locations have been formed

   Started working on Log 1-2 (~30% done)

= What needs to be done next year? =

   Publish Log 1-2 and go to the early development stage , which will focus on detailed writing, spriting and music writing

   Complete the creation of basic sprite-sheets of the main heroes, work out their characters and roles in the story

   Start more active work on creating NPCs

   Start tileset spriting

   Go deeper into battle spriting

   Start working on UI concepts, "game" mechanics, and storytelling approaches

   Start writing the detailed plot of the first part, which takes place in the Ruins

Maybe something else?..

Thanks for reading this post! See you in 2026!