Before getting into anything, please watch this announcement trailer:
Now in development:
— BadAlias 🌄 MANTRADOX UNTITLED IN DEVELOPMENT! (@badalias_) September 8, 2026
MANTRADOX UNTITLED.#trailertuesday #indiegame pic.twitter.com/w3jcgCPRKm
You can find the game's page on Steam right here!
There's more details on the game's page, so I won't be re-treading any of the information posted there. If you want ne game, info, check out my first devlog here!
So, here it is, a new game has been announced for development: Mantradox Untitled.
When I made Moon River, I never really announced its development, I just made a release video when it came out. Last time I made a development announcement, I was 18 years old, and it was for a bad game I never actually made.
Some old followers might remember my "Caustic" game project that I revealed forever ago. But over time I understood it to be a big mistake. The themes and concepts of the game were super shallow, and my attempts to subvert RPGs ended up making it ugly, and I was treading over the same exact steps that Earthbound and Undertale did 100x better.
So, in 2023, I delisted everything, and all that survives is a dead blog page and some stray social media posts. After I put that idea in the ground, I wanted to make a more serious and less cartoonish game. 2021 is when Mantradox was first conceived. I made a character sprite, the UI graphics, and a few rooms. But I quickly realized how daunting this game was going to be to make. So I decided to make a new, smaller baby-size game, which became Moon River.
After the release on Steam, a lot of people played Moon River and it got a lot of great reception! I peronally consider it a huge success. now that I have the experience of creating and releasing a full game, I felt like I was ready to make Mantradox real. So, I've opened it up and gotten it to work. I've polished up some select scenes and rooms for the trailer, to show what this game will actually look like. It's mostly no done though, it's only a skeleton at this stage. It's a bright and colorful JRPG adventure, with combat and items and stats and all that. Pretty much everything about this game is the opposite of what Moon River was.
I'm very excited to develop the rest of this game and to make it come alive as I'm imagining it. But it feels very risky and wrong for me to announce this after my first experience doing so... My original plan was to just wait until it was finished before announcing it, but things changed. So now, I feel like... "Can I finish this?" Caustic was announced when it was barely complete at all, and I ended reworking it so much that nothing ever progressed and I quit out of dissatisfaction. I dearly do not want this to happen to Mantradox, you know? Unlike the cancelled game, I actually have full confidence with this one, and I've grown a lot. But still, in the back of my mind, I have doubts in my ability to complete this. But it's something I have to do.
Right now, I'm still working a mostly full-time day job. I've advanced through the company a bit, and I feel very appreciated, but it's a lot of work and responsibility to handle, which means less time. I would love to just quit my job and do this full-time but that can't work. But I will still push through and make this game happen. My ultimate dreeam iss to create or help create video games for a living. The industry is trash, so I'd rather go solo or end up in a small indie group. This is my chance to create the life I want to live, my ultimate dream. If Mantradox, my first paid game, can be a success, then I know I have what it takes to leave my day job and commit my life fully into this stuff to support me. If Mantradox can pay my bills, then my dream is within reach. It all depends on if I can finish this game, and if it's good.