It’s been three years since we released Strangeland—how time flies! But in a way, it feels like a lifetime ago, and even longer since the death of my grandparents, the painful grain of sand that, with my friends’ help, we were able to turn into this pearl.
We’ve heard from dozens of players about how the game helped them work through their own grief or despair, or gave them a grim laugh at its dark humor. It means a lot to know our little game had such an impact. Like our first creation Primordia, it has staying power: this past year we sold the most copies of any year yet. It goes to show how much it matters to have devoted and supporting fans like you all.
One of those fans is Eduardo, the amazing translator who brought Primordia to Spanish speakers, and he’s nearing completion of his Strangeland translation. That translation, and the periodic bugfixes that James and I do, will probably be the last update for the game, but you never know... life is full of surprises (like Primordia getting optioned for a cinematic adaptation). All I know is, I’m very happy with the story and characters of these two games, their alien worlds, and their theme of what it means to human. If nothing more comes of them, it will be enough.
Our next game, Fallen Gods is in the polishing phase now. We’re taking our time with it—over 10 years of development, a long incubation even for Wormwood Studios!—because we want to make sure it’s the game our players deserve. But hopefully 2024 will be the year of its release. Until the next milestone, adieu!
- Mark Y.
Happy Halloween!
We are pleased to announce that Strangeland is 30% off for the Steam Scream Sale! When a man’s own mind is a haunted house, he becomes a stranger to himself and sees in every mirror a monster staring back.
Like our first adventure Primordia, Strangeland is an homage to the classic point-and-clicks of the 1990s, a deeply personal story, and our effort to provide players with a rich, smooth gameplay experience.
Strangeland is a psychological horror game that explores despair and isolation, but it is ultimately a game about hope, love, and generosity, which is more important now than ever. We approached our development in that same spirit: hope that it finds a connection with you; love for our players and for the genre; and an effort to be generous in the polish, extra content, and ongoing support we put in the game.
With that in mind, if you play the game find that connection, we would love to hear it. We hope Strangeland is a treat, but if you hit any nasty tricks, technical snags, puzzle frustrations, or other issues, please let us know either in the forums on by email (mark@wormwoodstudios.com), and we will try to help you out as soon as possible.
Happy Halloween to all!
Strangeland is now TRANSLATED in Korean!!
We are honored and grateful to announce the release of a Korean translation for Strangeland, courtesy of volunteer translator Hyewon. To opt into the translation go to your Steam Library, right-click on Strangeland, and select Properties. Within Properties, set the language to Korean.
This translation has presented extraordinary challenges. On a technical level, the engine in which the game is made, Adventure Game Studio does not easily support non-Roman-alphabet languages, and it required a great deal of work by our coder, James Spanos, to make the translation function. On a linguistic level, Strangeland's complicated wordplay and interwoven references required not only deft translation but thoughtful localization. Hyewon worked closely with the writer/designer Mark Yohalem to find a way to convey the text's original meaning in Korean.
This translation would not exist without Korean streamer Kimdoe, who featured Strangeland on a webpage entitled "I want this game to be translated in Korean." Hyewon found Strangeland through that website, and answered Kimdoe's call. After many months of tireless work and testing from [smolder], James, and Mark, the translation is at last complete.
If you encounter any bugs or errors, please let us know in the Steam forum, or you can email us at mark@wormwoodstudios.com.
It is our hope that this translation becomes a bridge between Strangeland and a new group of players. And we are immensely thankful to [smolder] for building that bridge.
French Translation of Strangeland
We are delighted to announce the release of a French translation of Strangeland! This volunteer translation represents the careful, wonderful work of Flavien Gaillard (who also translated Primordia) and a dedicated team of testers. Strangeland owes a great deal to French philosophy, literature, comics, and film, and it has received great support from the French gaming press (such as Canard PC) and French players. All of that makes us especially glad to make the game more accessible to a Francophone audience.
The translation covers any text that appears on the screen (such as menus, subtitles, signs, etc.), but the voice over remains in English. For those who speak English, you will no doubt notice that there have been various adjustments made to the text so that puzzles and wordplay make sense in French.
We hope you enjoy playing Strangeland as much as we have enjoyed sharing it with you. If you need any technical support, or catch any bugs with the translation, please let us know in the forum.
Fondly,
Wormwood Studios
Strangeland Is One Year Old and 30% Off!
One year ago today, we released our second adventure game, Strangeland! Its creation was an amazing, many-years-long journey that the three of us (Mark, James, and Vic) took together, and over the past year, it has been fantastic to welcome tens of thousands of players onto the next leg of that journey.
Our first year has seen a number of successes and significant milestones:
Winning Aggie Awards, AGS Awards, AGOTY Awards, as well as many other prizes and nominations.
Almost 450 user reviewers, and great user engagement throughout.
Great coverage in print (e.g., the gaming magazine Level, which awarded us a perfect 100) and online (e.g., The Onion AV, Vice, etc.).
Steam Deck, Linux, and MacOS ports.
And we have some amazing stuff in store for next year, including:
Nintendo Switch port.
French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean translations (hopefully!).
Continued user support in the trademark Wormwood Studios fashion.
It has been an honor for us to share this game with you, despite (and perhaps also because of) the agony of its creation. We hope it continues to make a deep connection with players, and bring its bittersweet joy to tens of thousands more.
With love, Wormwood Studios
Strangeland Update [WIN/LINUX/MACOS]
-Fixed some issues on the German and Turkish translations. -Fixed a general issue regarding changing translations.
-Minor update
Fixed various stuff on the Turkish translation, everything else is unchanged!
Strangeland Wins Four Adventure Game Studios Awards!
We were honored to see Strangeland take home four Adventure Game Studios Awards today:
Best Character Art Best Puzzles Best Voice Over Best Programming
Moreover, our programmer/triumvir James Spanos was rightly honored with a Lifetime Achievement award. James not only single-handedly coded Primordia, Strangeland, and Until I Have You, he also helped code The Cat Lady and Mage's Initiation, and either ported or polished almost all of the games in the Wadjet Eye catalogue.
The last two awards are especially great given how rarely the programming of adventure games gets recognized, even though it is an indispensable part of an engaging player experience.
If you'd like to read about some of the award-winning coding feats James Spanos pulled off for Strangeland, check out his dev diary on the subject.
If you want to read about award-winning character art, you can read Victor Pflug's portion of our interview in Monstrum.
If you'd like to read more about the philosophy beyond our award-winning puzzles, you can read my (Mark's) dev diary on "The Power of Puzzles."
Finally, if you want to see a behind-the-scenes look at the award-winning cast of voice actors, led by Abe Goldfarb and directed by Dave Gilbert, check out this YouTube playlist.
We're truly grateful for these awards, but as always, the thing that matters most is knowing that they are the product of player's expressing their support for the game, and we are always mindful of the many ways players have given that support -- sometimes vocally with Steam reviews, sometimes tangibly with fan crafts, and sometimes silently simply by playing our game. We love you.
Turkish translation - Update
-Various lines fixed on the Turkish translation!
Strangeland - Small translation update
-Fixed an issue with an exit in the Turkish translation!
