Lock & Key Progress Update - April 2024

Hey there, magical friends! How are you? It’s Rachel here with another update on Lock and Key: A Magical Girl Mystery!

We’ve spent this month continuing our revamp alongside script revisions, resulting in both a newly polished third act and more great art! While a majority of said art is unfortunately spoiler-filled (it is a mystery, after all,) we do have a brand new Nightshade to round out our fully updated cast! Say hello to the new, improved, and definitely super cool rookie in all her edgy glory:

Folks, we love her.

In addition to the above, we’re also making some major moves under the hood to help ensure a smooth path to release. I can’t say too much about it right now, but we’ll have more to share soon! It’s an exciting new path for development that I think you’re all going to enjoy.

As revisions progress, I’ve found myself thinking a great deal about the core concepts that inspired Lock and Key. One of the big ones was a desire to write a yuri story about an established couple who had already been together for a long time before the story began. Given that Sherri and Kealey are a married couple by the time we meet them, I’d say that mission was pretty well accomplished. Love stories are wonderful, and few things can get me invested in a narrative quite like a strong feeling of love at its core regardless of genre. The Cohens have been together for over a decade, but their relationship still has this youthful spark of lovestruck energy that never fully goes away. It’s that spark, combined with all the years spent building up their love on top of that foundation, that gives them the strength they’ll need to overcome the increasingly terrifying position they’re going to find themselves in over the course of the game. My primary source of inspiration for that perspective is, of course, my own long-term relationship with my partner of 11 years, but I do think that it’s possible to understand that perspective without needing to have a relationship like that in your life. It’d be a pretty inaccessible game otherwise, don’t you think?

The “spark” I mentioned can come in many different forms, and any form of it can give you strength. Some people take that strength from a partner, but others take it from a friend, a family member, etc. As long as you have a bond with another person that has strong roots within your soul, you can find that spark. It’s a beautiful thing, and one that I love writing about. Sherri and Kealey found that spark in each other, and they’ve never lost sight of it. That’s enough for them to take on the harsh realities of adult life. And to triumph over evil, of course! Well, as long as you make the right choices, that is…

Anyway, thank you for your continued support and interest in Lock and Key: A Magical Girl Mystery! By next month we should be ready to reveal a pretty major development shift that’ll enhance our game even more. I’ve also got some more thoughts about development and inspiration that I’d like to share with all of you, so I hope you enjoy that as well. Look forward to it!

Love always,

Rachel