Mark Aherne

//✨𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐈𝐏✨// "𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭-𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘚𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘱𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩. 𝘛𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘸𝘦'𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥-𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵."— 𝐀 𝐟𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐕𝐍𝐃𝐞𝐯 ⁣⁣

#indiedev #indiegame #screenshotsaturday

Rise of Piracy - Early Access Release Date Announcement ! - Steam News Rise of Piracy will come to Early Access this MONTH!

Its OFFICIAL, Rise of Piracy Early Access begins: 24 February 2026 !

Check out the full announcement here:

store.steampowered.com/news/app/140...

#earlyaccess #riseofpiracy #pirategame #irish #gamedev

I wrote a blog post about pathfinding and pedestrian simulation: www.psychicsoftware.com/2026/pathfin...

Thank you so much to @screenireland.bsky.social, @imirt.bsky.social, @ardan-ie.bsky.social, and Screen Northern Ireland, to the staff and volunteers, for making IndieDev happen, and for the support you have given to us, and the rest of the brilliant teams. You have helped to make dreams a reality.

I am still a bit overwhelmed by the reaction to Persevere at the @imirt.bsky.social AGM. It was so far beyond any expectation I had, the positivity and energy people had for the pitch, and the demo, just, wow. Getting a little emotional now even thinking about it. #indiedev @ardan-ie.bsky.social

Persevere_PitchDeck_ImirtAGM

I will be doing the first pitch of Persevere at the @imirt.bsky.social AGM in just over an hour, as part of the IndieDev program (shout out to @ardan-ie.bsky.social also!). This marks the end of our IndieDev period, and the start of our road to release! Exciting! docs.google.com/presentation...

Save 20% on The Necromancer's Tale on Steam A story-rich gothic RPG. Master the rituals of an ancient spellbook. Raise an undead army to march against your enemies. Commune with the realm of the dead & struggle with your descent into madnes...

"A Gothic Masterpiece That Dares to Be Different"
-- Expert Game Reviews

The Necromancer's Tale is discounted by 20% this week. Check it out if you like good (un)wholesome fun, dabbling in the dark arts and raising the dead.

store.steampowered.com/app/1315320/...

Persevere_PitchDeck_WorkingDraft

I've completed the first draft of the Persevere game pitch deck, which has been written for our publisher funding round. I will be presenting at the IMIRT AGM next week! Feedback is very welcome! #gamedev #indiedev
docs.google.com/presentation...

Persevere's Art Direction slide. It states that Persevere's goals include having a strong, immediately recognizable visual identity, and a stylized painterly sci-fi aesthetic that remains grounded.

Work on Persevere's pitch deck continues. Here is the final draft of the Art Direction slide. Writing a deck really is a useful tool for re-focusing your understanding of your game #gamedev #indiedev #narrative #strategy #simulation #pitchdeck

The final draft of the core loop slide for Persevere's pitch deck.

The first draft of the market opportunity slide for Persevere's pitch deck.

Work on Persevere's pitch deck continues. Here is the final draft of the Core Loop slide, and the first draft of the Market Opportunity slide (there will be a separate Market Analysis slide with metrics). #gamedev #indiedev #narrative #strategy #simulation #pitchdeck

I'm working on the pitch deck for Perservere, our narrative strategy game. This is the most technical slide in the pitch deck. It's designed to show our competence, how well we have considered the design and the moment-to-moment gameplay of the player. I'd love to hear feedback on it. #gamedev

Neat write up of @psychicsoftware.com's The Necromancer's Tale here: medium.com/@Froswald/th...

Save 30% on Axyz on Steam Axyz is a retro gravity switching puzzle game that asks the player to use their environmental and spatial awareness to beat every level. Soak in the vaporwave, switch gravity, collect tapes, and more ...

Axyz is a fantastic puzzle game based on the PS1 classic Kula World (Roll Away). One of the rare 'indie homages to an old game' that understands what made the original fun and builds on it in a smart way. Highly recommend!

The Séance of Blake Manor has been nominated for Best Art Direction in the @thinkygames.com Awards!

Here's the first draft of the "Ballistics" train carriage for Persevere, our narrative strategy game. When added to your train, it gives you access to basic projectile towers. Train cars aren't just for tower defense though, there will be cars for research, medical, training, scouting, and more.

@harvey1966.bsky.social Hey Harvey. I had been meaning to reach out and say hello, but I deleted my Twitter account, and I only have your old arkane-austin.com email. I took the plunge this year and started my own studio, to create a narrative strategy game, Persevere. I'd love to catch up!

I do really like your pronoun notation, particularly when it comes to the more complex <doctor.they+trails/trail>, it is fairly easy to follow/read.

Really, I feel we have to write a lot more scripts for Persevere before I have a handle on what will work on terms of traits, the personality system, and scripting features. I think the bones of the system are good, but I am not sure if it's enough.

Oh, cool! I've signed up to be notified of the release. Thanks.

We limited pronoun generation to he/she for the prototype, for simplicity. Our writers for the prototype had never written for a game before. I will need to extend the system during production in order to support a full range of pronouns, much as you have with <doctor.they+trails/trail>.

It just happened to be that the secondary character was written without gender in this case. We still need to work on consistency between writers, some drifted towards they/them explicitly, instead of using the pronoun function, as it was easier for them to write. I'm learning as I go.

And yes, pronoun implementation is an ongoing topic of discussion!

Will your essay be public? I'm keen to read it.

We'll have more depth in the character motivations, which are collections of narrative events which tell a more authored story for that crew member. In the motivation data, we specify what traits are compatible with the motivation, and use that when generating the character's traits.

Yes, the poles design was very much a trade-off between the needs of the mechanics, and the narrative. In the end, we decided that this should be fine for our use-case, as we don't expect to have a lot of depth within the procedural events.

This may be of interest to you @radiofreelunch.bsky.social. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Persevere Dev Log - Trait/Personality System Introduction YouTube video by Universe or Nothing

I recorded a dev log for Persevere, giving an introduction to how crew traits are used to generate personality profiles, and how those personality profiles are used in our narrative scripts to fill roles, and adjust behaviour, within the story.
youtu.be/0IDsIvnasz0
#narrative #strategy #gamedev

GameSpot's 10 Best Games Of 2025 We've tallied the votes, debated the games' merits, and chosen our top 10 games of the year.

This is cool. The Séance of Blake Manor made GameSpots 10 Best games of the Year list! We're up there with some big games.

www.gamespot.com/gallery/game...

The Necromancer's Tale is Mortismal's favourite indie RPG of 2025. This means a lot to me, Mortismal being a very in-depth RPG reviewer with high standards!

Well done @unfetteredmuse.bsky.social @zgpope.bsky.social @michaelthomet.com @davetheallthing.bsky.social Damir and all the voice actors! :-)

The Necromancer's Tale is in the #ChooseWiselyFestival this week, celebrating branching narrative games where choices matter! Thanks @studioephua.bsky.social for hosting!

20% discount this week... time to dabble in the occult and raise an undead army 💀💀💀💀💀

store.steampowered.com/app/1315320/...