7/12/2026 Progress Update: Some Emotional Moments with the Family
Hello, Meerkats!
Okay, so the update has just gotten over 50k words today. Progress has been slower than usual because it turns out writing these emotional beats with the family is tough. A lot tougher than whatever silly nonsense the characters were on during the Culture Festival. This update has crying and hugging and confrontations. I hope you'll like it; I think it's a good return to the serious after the fun of the Culture Festival.
I'm hoping to finish up the writing by next week and get the update out before the end of the month. I'm aiming for some time around the 25th, but I won't promise it. I do not want to risk not getting it out on time.
Okay, so art time! Mr. Bennet has finally gotten a design.
His CG got finished too! This will be added retroactively to 0.34.
We also have some work for Day 28. It will involve a visit to Luke's crazy family. This is our poor protagonist being introduced to this mess.
Finally, there will be the dreaded Madame Serena Evaluation at the end of Day 28! A lot of the choices you've made so far will be judged by our enigmatic sorcerer.
I also have an additional CG that will be coming in 0.37, but I'm saving it. I feel it's a major moment, and showing the art for it here would ruin the surprise. I'm sure you'll like it, though.
Okay, that's it for the part most Meerkats are going to read. There's some additional information below on my plans for the future, if you're a true Mirrorhead.
Much love,
amaty
Still here? Let's get started.
Okay, so Week 5 will result in some big reworks. First, and this is the big one, there will be a time skip. I don't want A Mirror's Curse to just become a never-ending soap opera. I want to eventually reach the end, even if it will take a long time.
The truth is, at this pace, we'll never reach the end. Scope creep has gotten to me, and the last update was 120k words long. 120,000, can you believe that? For a single day, too. It'll probably take 2 years for us to get through 28 days, or four weeks, of this game. Considering there are 36 weeks of school in the United States of America, it's looking like... Um... It's looking like it'll take 18 years to finish this game.
Yeah, that's just not it. So, week 5 will have a short time skip so we can get to Halloween sooner. I'm sure a lot of you are looking forward to dressing up your Ethan for a spooky day.
With it will also come some reworks. Right now, the stats do not matter. You can already max out some stats already, the academic/social/etc. stats have been abandoned since day 2, and it's just a rather confusing system overall. I'm planning on reworking these to make them clearer and have bigger impacts.
Also, you are not meant to play all 4 variants at once! I saw that a number of people played all 4variants at the Culture Festival booths at once. Please do not do that, they are intended for replays. It would absolutely murder the pacing if you read through all of them in one playthrough.
I've tried to make A Mirror's Curse work for 4 playthroughs. I do my best to include at least 4variants at many points in the story to prevent boredom when you're going through the game again.
Many of you go far above the recommended number (100+ times, really???), but 4 is what I'm aiming for. There are 4 mall variants, for example. So I included 4 variants at each Culture Festival booths, in the hopes that people would get to get a slightly different experience each time, while sticking to a similar vibe.
But yeah, people just played all of them in a row and probably bored themselves to death. I've come to realize that when I introduce options like this, people will explore all of them at once. I'm not sure why, maybe you all just love the game and need to see every word. But I personally think it really messes with the pacing and makes the game worse.
So, my plan is to keep the four variants, but have them be stuck to earlier choices. For example, let's say you had the choice to talk to either Samantha, Jordan, Luke, or Aurora a few updates ago. Ultimately, you decided to talk to Samantha. The game will remember your choice and give you the Samantha hang out later on. I believe this is a good way to increase reactivity to your choices while also preventing the player from harming their own experience.
Yes Samantha, we get it, you're cool.
Okay, that's about it! Feel free to share your thoughts below if you have any suggestions or questions. Bye!