This is the perfect moment to dive into this unique experience along the river.

https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/steamstore/app/1813860/NAIAD/

If you enjoyed NAIAD, please consider leaving a review.
Your support makes a huge difference. ♥

Thanks for playing and being part of this lovely journey!
Elwin

It has been incredibly moving for me to read such beautiful words about my first game. Here are just a few of them:

— "An experience as serene as it is thrilling, a game that embraces the soul."
— "Naiad reminded me of the beauty of simplicity and the importance of connecting with nature."
— "Every detail of the game is full of life. I felt like part of the river."
— "I can see the love, care, and dedication in every element of this game, and I value it so much."
— "Spectacularly pleasing to the eye, the flow is seamless, and I adore the animals."
— "The graphics, music, and gameplay are so beautiful they made me want to cry."
— "Without a doubt, one of the best games of recent years, destined to be a new classic in the indie scene."
— "An unforgettable experience full of subtle nuances to discover in every playthrough."
— "It’s incredible that all this was made by just one person. 10/10."

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Every review helps me grow, improve, and bring this game in which I have poured all my heart, to more players.

I’ve been hard at work to improve the experience, focusing on the feedback received:

• Frog behavior: They’re even cuter now and will follow you wherever you go!
  
• Guitar puzzle: Now includes additional hints to solve it.
  
• Other minor fixes and improvements based on feedback.
  
  
  Something Special is Coming...
  In just a few days, Naiad will celebrate something very special. I can’t reveal much (yet), but I recommend staying tuned.
  
  The next announcement will be something you won’t want to miss!
  
  
  Share Your Adventure.
  Haven’t left your review yet? This is the perfect time to do so! Whether it’s a simple sentence or a full paragraph, your voice matters, and I’d love to read it.
  
  - What did you love most?
  - Any special anecdotes?
  - How did the game make you feel?
  
  By sharing your thoughts, you inspire others to discover this unique game.
  It’s one of the best ways to support Naiad!
  
  
  Thank you for being part of this journey!
  I’ll be back with more news soon... ^^
  
  Sincerely,
  Elwin
  

While Steam official validations are still pending and may take a long time I would like to open this discussion thread sharing some notes.

NAIAD should run pretty good and smoothly on the Steam portable device!

Prior to the release, I have been working hard to ensure that NAIAD provides a great experience on the Steam Deck (as well as on Nintendo Switch). I can’t wait for you to dive into this relaxing adventure on your portable device.

Me and some friends have been playing on SteamDeck with no problems.:

• The game supports the native resolution and all screen texts should have a good legibility.
  
• The game supports native controller and shows buttons glyphs on UI.
  
• The gane runs at 60fps and is optimized to save battery.
  
• No configuration needed.
  
  
  Please!...
  Feel free to share your experience playing NAIAD on Steam Deck in the comments, so other users can read and get the latest updates about this..
  
  Thank you for your continued support, and happy adventuring! ^^

The most common fixes were related to achievements and collectibles:

• Ep5: Missing Poem 1.
  
• "Fish Master", "Duck Master" achievements.
  
• "Oceanid" achievement.
  
• "Guardian of the River" platinum achievement.
  
• Some glitched fauna: Bear, Crocodile, Fox, etc.
  
• Fishes not following Naiad in Ep11-4 due to a pathfinding bug.
  
  —
  
  I have also made some design improvements and added new options:
  
  
• Ep6.2 - Windmill / Gate: I’ve improved this puzzle so it’s now easier to understand what needs to be done to open the gate.
  
• New "Sharpen" accessibility option in the settings: This lets you adjust the level of visual sharpening/chromatic aberration (post-processing effects). You can choose between 3 levels: [off/half/normal], in case these effects cause any issues.
  
• Frogs now won’t follow Naiad when transitioning to the next level, providing visual feedback that they should remain in their area, unlike the fishes.
  
  —
  
  There was an unusual bug reported by a player who couldn’t play the game at all due to no input response from the player character at the start of the game.
  
  
• This was caused by a missing xInput library on Windows 7. Thanks to the player’s cooperation, sharing log files and recorded videos, I was able to quickly fix the issue! I really appreciate their involvement and patience!.
  
  —
  
  I have taken note of all your feedback. But unfortunately, I haven’t been able to address all of the suggested changes yet. Some suggestions require more development time and testing thoroughly to ensure nothing else gets broken. I will continue working on future updates with all of this in mind:
  
  
• Sun-Rays spots: Always show the growing sequence (even after completing the game).
  
• Input remapping and support for non-QWERTY keyboards.
  
• Guitar puzzle improvement.
  
• Input: Tank controls.
  
• And more to come...!
  
  
  —
  
  
  Thanks for all your positive and helpful reviews!
  
  I have read all the reviews, paying special attention to suggestions for improvement.
  It really means a lot!
  
  It's really exciting to see that some players have already completed the game with all achievements. That's simply amazing!
  
  All your positive reviews, comments and feedback support me a lot to keep working on creating games.
  
  THANK YOU! <3
  Elwin
  
  

• Explore vibrant and captivating landscapes to uncover their secrets.
• Meet adorable animal friends and help them find their way.
• Solve small puzzles by creatively interacting with the environment and overcome obstacles to progress.
• Protect nature by singing to make plants and flowers bloom.
• Enjoy flowing with the little water nymph in an adventure of growth and self-discovery, all the way to the sea.
• Dive into a heartfelt story of meditation, with beautiful metaphors about the water cycle, life, and the importance of nature.

• Take advantage of the launch offer and get the game with a special discount.
• The Original Soundtrack of the game is also available now! Over 1.5 hours of music and nearly 100 different pieces.
• Get the Complete Bundle, including the game and the Original Soundtrack.

It’s been over a year since my last update here, and first of all, I wanted to apologize for my absence.

During all this time, I’ve been fully focused on the continuous development of the game, putting all my effort into improving and completing the experience in NAIAD. This has involved making some decisions, like stepping back from social media a bit (which, honestly, has been somewhat confusing and overwhelming lately).

Meanwhile, a few people expressed that the project had been canceled and that the game wasn't progressing. Despite my messages clarifying that this wasn’t the case, others might have assumed the worst. On the other hand, I’ve received many supportive messages/emails showing interest in NAIAD and in the developer behind it. I can't thank you enough! These words mean the world to me.

NAIAD has not only NOT been canceled, in fact, it has progressed more than ever. I haven’t stopped working, always making sure to put my very best into this game.

• A lot of new content has been added.
  
• New areas to explore.
  
• Hidden secrets to discover.
  
• The visual appearance has been further improved.
  
• NAIAD can now learn new skills, such as breaking rocks by singing, and more!
  
• Many levels have been redesigned and completed to include more things to do.
  
• More behaviors for the humans and animals.
  
• Many more humans have been added, including small puzzles to solve.
  
• UI redesign and improvement.
  
• The overall experience has been reviewed, finishing up the integration of certain mechanics and features.
  
• Many bugs and issues have been fixed. Thank you for all your feedback!
  
• The optimization process has required months of adjustments and modifications to ensure that NAIAD runs as smoothly and comfortably as possible.
  
• Also I've been working hard to bring the game to all platforms.

• In addition to the game, the original soundtrack will be released, with over an hour and a half of music.
  
• NAIAD will be available in 9 languages.
  
• A layer of vibration and haptics has been added to the experience, with special support for DualSense on PC (Windows).
  
• Interesting Steam features have been added, such as achievements and presence.
  
• And many more improvements and surprises...!
  
  
  As a friendly reminder, if you haven't added NAIAD to your wishlist yet, and don't want to miss anything, now is the perfect time to do so! ♥
  
  
  Thank you so much for your lovely support and patience while NAIAD is coming.
  
  Best regards,
  Elwin.

It's very exciting for me to announce that Naiad is part of the TinyTeams event with a DEMO during these days! Visit the event page here: tinyteamsfestival2023

Don't miss the chance to follow the event, enjoy offers, play exclusive demos and watch the streaming of many interesting games.

{LINK REMOVED}NAIAD DEMO is now available to download and PLAY!



Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to write about your experience and sensations playing Naiad.

These are some of the improvements and news:

I finally managed to spend some time to extend and improve the controls on PC, which I hope will allow more people to play more comfortably and easily.

- With the new mouse support it is now possible to manage both the menu interface and options, as well as the character control.
- Options have been added to switch the keys between two predefined modes (right-handed and left-handed), so you can use the arrow keys or the 'WASD' keys.
- The controls screen shows a visual graphic for each control in use, automatically.
- The handling of the character has been adjusted to be more agile, without losing the dragging effect of swimming in the water.
- When using the keyboard to move the character, a small arrow appears as a guide to help the player better understand the direction.

Taking advantage of all the necessary changes to make mouse interaction with the interface possible, I have also been improving and extending features in the menu screens with new, prettier, more intuitive and optimized elements. All this with the aim of making the game as smooth as possible.

- New screens with elements to discover during the adventure.
- Graphics that are painted when changing screen.
- A new and better type of buttons.
- Interface that warns before finishing each level to allow the player to go back and explore more before going down the river.

One of the keys of Naiad is the interaction with the friends that you find in the wildlife and nature. Since the initial concept of the game, there have been many ideas that I would love to include in the game. From additional animals to find to fun puzzles. Some of the new features are:

- New additional animals such as jellyfish, octopus and squid that are fun to swim with, and more!.
- Certain animals found on the shore, such as rabbits, can now climb onto medium-sized wooden logs floating in the water and thus be transported in a kind of "mini-boat".
- Interaction with frogs has been improved to make it easier for them to follow you.
- More animations when certain animals land on a place, such as butterflies on flowers, frogs on water lilies, ...

- Did you know that Naiad contains over 60 different pieces of music? All of them have been revised to match Naiad's singing during the game.
- In addition to the music that can be heard in each of the levels, there are some special melodies to discover and learn to sing.



Kind regards,
Elwin

Many wonderful things have happened during this time! Thanks to some nice opportunities, thanks to all your wonderful appreciation and your great support with lovely feedback and comments, the game will be able to include many new improvements and content.


New animals have been added to discover and interact with. There were already many adorable friends in the water (fish, frogs, ducklings, ...) and on the ground near the river (bunnies, deer, sheep, ...).

In addition to some butterflies, bees, dragonflies, ..., there are now also birds flying by the air, such beautiful hummingbirds, hawk, flamingos, and more!

It's a really nice flowing moment when you get close to them, swimming as they fly.


I have been iteratively extending this top-down layered river world. From the far deep waters to the sky closer to the player's eyes, there is a lot of new stuff.

Explore taller branches to find even more secrets, such as this curious and tiny mouse. Play here to solve little puzzles.

Now in the "map" view, there is a new side panel with little images of the fauna that has been discovered in each area.

I'm trying to keep the game from being a list of things to complete or a race to the end, avoiding typical rewards or collective elements as much as possible, that could stop the player from flowing at their own pace. I hope you will find these kinds of stuff friendly.

Throughout the 16 episodes that shape Naiad journey, the sections across the river have been further extended with more content and areas to discover.

Some levels or parts have been completely redesigned, with visual improvements, small challenges, new fauna and flora, colorful biomes to enrich the view.


Along the river more human-related elements were created. Gradually, Naiad will have to face more obstacles, and the presence of those who, in their self-interest, have forgotten the importance of caring for nature.

I have been working on an alternative storyline and ending, which have already been integrated into the game.

The legend tells of an extinct language, which hides the secrets of nature itself.

Inspired by the river, these strange and indecipherable glyphs hold a meaning known only by the clouds. On your journey, explore even more distant and secret areas, and with luck you will uncover a hidden story.


I am doing my best creating this game using only my own resources. It is a lot of work for one person, but I think this is one of the things I appreciate the most about indie games.

I hope to be able to self-publish Naiad on PC and consoles towards the end of 2023.


Kind regards,
Elwin

Hello! I'm very happy to announce that you can now play Naiad demo!
Naiad will be on Steam Next Fest from June 13th to 20th!

I hope you enjoy playing it!

Please, click on 'Download demo' on the Naiad Steam page:
https://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/steamstore/app/1813860/NAIAD/

Best,
Elwin