We are here once again to show some cool freaking Burden Street Station stuff! But not only that – we also have pretty big news for you today, so read carefully. First of all, let's continue this neat little tradition from the last devlog and watch a fresh new trailer that will also uncover one of the biggest… or maybe the biggest mystery of humankind – Burden Street Station RELEASE DATE!!

For the lazy and/or impatient folks that skipped the trailer right to this part, mark MAY 21st in your calendars, you rascals!!! That's right, we're less than a month away from the release, so buckle up.

Okay, now that the big news is out of the way, let's check some of the updates that will be waiting for you in the full release: candle rework, brand new insight system, new personalities, characters, locations and more

Alright, let's focus on the new stuff for now. Thanks to your feedback, it was clear that the most controversial part of the demo was the candle mechanic. Based on that, IODINE decided to rework it to refocus its gameplay potential into something more meaningful. Presenting the updated candle – now when you speak with people the candle is filling up instead of burning down!!!

Okay, okay, we're just messing with you, it's not the only change. Now when you speak with people, you're building up insight. Once the bar is filled, you can burn all that insight to peek into what sort of responses would work in the dialogue, and which ones wouldn't.

However, note that using insight burns you out. The more you burn out the slower the candle bar fills. To remove the debuff, you can use the resting spot and untangle your thoughts, just like before!

And voila, the new and shiny candle mechanic is at your service! Now it's less of a health bar and more like an optional guiding hand that can help if you're stuck.

Speaking of new and shiny, let's shed some light on the new content from the full release! We will be showing some story-related characters and locations ahead, so if you don't want to see even minor spoilers, feel free to skip to the next section of the devlog. 

The spiraling story of Burden Street will take you across the various corners of LoTown, Pipelines and Hitown. LoTown is already open for exploration in the demo, but other locations will be unraveled in this very devlog.

Welcome to the epitome of generational sadness wrapped in layers upon layers of cold industrial landscapes. 

The name of this place basically speaks for itself. Swarms of metallic houses cover most of the area, forming a widespread network of settlements. Rare shreds of color are buried underneath tons of steel used in the pipeline systems.

The farm is the brightest spot of the area which does its own twisted turn on the general mood of the location. The toxic green color that dominates here is used by nature only when it wants to tell you NOT to approach something.

Do you think art can bloom, even in such a hostile environment? To find out, you should definitely visit a certain talented painter that lives in Pipelines. Don't worry, Ruth will treat you well, you can find his shack deeper in the area.

Hitown is technocapitalism """heaven""" which is a different sort of sad than the Pipelines, but still on the spectrum for sure.

Skyscrapers, multi-building blocks, city art pieces and piers, there is plenty to see here... when you're not wasting your life at your office desk that is. 

Yeah, the working hours here are going through the roof and the amount of coffee consumed by the locals is probably enough to construct a separate Coffee biome.

So, if you feel opportunistic, but also not averse to self-sabotage, come get your free spirit broken by suits of Hitown!!

But enough about sadness! After all, we’re here not only to soak up the information, but also to talk back a bunch. And for that you have plenty of personalities to choose from. The release version will allow you to change between 15+ body parts each with their own agenda, but to tease you we'll show a couple of new ones here. 

As you can see, in the process of solving the case of the missing God, the librarian (controlled by the player) will absorb a diverse group of emotions, which can take pretty unexpected forms, especially if you choose to customize them!

Oh, and since we’ve mentioned customization, another new feature from IODINE is that you can now purchase color options for your traits using ideas as an alternative to the standard progression. So even if your personality doesn’t get used as often as you’d like, you can still make it pop with a different color anytime… as long as you’ve got enough currency, of course >:)

Alright, hopefully this new content leak will feed you with enough updates to survive until the full game release. Burden Street Station came a long way and it wouldn't be possible without your support, so we wanted to thank everyone who helped the game in any way! 

Here's a little showcase of the progress done during the development process to illustrate the point:

Thank you for stopping by! We hope this devlog was both entertaining and informative and that your excitement for the game is higher than ever.

If so, you can enjoy yet another tradition that we're continuing…

Just like the first time, we have prepared some works from our talented community, please enjoy! And if you would like to see more content from the authors, feel free to check out their socials, handles are placed right under the works.

We thank the creators mentioned above as well as other people that are sharing their themed pieces on socials – your work is inspiring and we're glad that you're a part of the community!

Okay, let's wrap this up! We're really fired up for the release and can't wait for you to try out the new content. We have also prepared some more fun stuff to share with you, that we'll reveal closer to the release date. To make sure you're not missing anything, you can join the Discord[discord.gg] and follow CR[x.com] or IODINE[x.com] on X. That's it for now, stay tuned

Until next time,

IODINE & CRITICAL REFLEX

We are (so) back with Burden Street Station updates, neatly compiled in a devlog for your convenience. And this one is tied to our participation at Convergence Showcase, where we showed a brand new trailer. And in case you’ve missed it live, now’s the second best time to check it out!

Also, we have prepared a new demo update with some of the most requested features that we yoinked right out of the feedback form. So, if you have any strong opinions on the game, we urge you to share your insights. But more on the new form later, for now let’s get down to business!

Presenting fast travel, chat log, customization, and moreeee

Let's kick things off with a huge quality-of-life change — fast travel! Locations now have special bus stops that allow player to traverse the distance from one place to another in a blink of an eye.

And for kings and queens with topographical disorientation we have also introduced the map!

That's right — no more wandering back and forth in search of the right place. You’re welcome!

Next on the list is a Notepad rework! We have thoroughly analyzed your feedback and figured that this system needs a refresh, since it wasn't clear enough.

Now, instead of showing off previous wrong answers, the notepad represents a chat log, where you can read lines of dialogue between you and the other yapper!
And you can always open it in a full view to refresh the convo in your memory.

“But how would I know which options I have already tried?” — look no further, imaginary player we just made up! Used personalities will now be crossed out right in the selection menu. 

Another pretty neat change: you can now skip repeated dialogue after the failed answer! You are still expected to read most of the dialogues thoroughly though…

Okay, now to really important stuff — we have added customization!

Now every personality has its own experience bar (accessible via the journal). Once it’s filled, the personality gets a new unique color to put on. Every successful personality use in the dialogue progresses the bar. Nice and easy!

Finally, bimbo bee-eater can become a reality.

And the last significant update we wanted to share is that you can now experience Burden Street Station with a controller. So kick back, grab a gamepad of your choice, and enjoy the new content — the updated demo is already out!!!

And as a special treat for the portable gaming enjoyers – Burden Street Station is now also adapted for Steamdeck! So feel free to collect your moments wherever you are.

That's it for the new content for now! The changes are already live, so feel free to hop in and (re)experience this small but exciting portion of the game for yourself. And while you’re at it, please consider filling in the feedback form[docs.google.com]. We really appreciate your insights, so keep them coming!

We also wanted to give a quick shout-out to the creators who support Burden Street Station with their works. Here are some of the great fan art entries that we’d like to credit. Please, enjoy the view and check out the talented authors — you can find handles underneath the works.

We plan to support the community further down the line, so if you want to participate, share your fan works and tag IODINE (@iodine_x64) and СRITICAL REFLEX (@critical_reflex) on Twitter!

That’s it for now, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates

Until next time, 

IODINE & CRITICAL REFLEX