Hello, adventurers!
Clarissa, lead dev of Enigma Heart, here. Yesterday, we crossed 1,000 wishlists over on Steam! That means quite a lot to us. Each wishlist represents someone who saw something in this project that resonated with them, and felt it was worth keeping an eye on. That’s huge. Between that, and all of you who have followed the project and expressed interest here on Itch, it means there’s some serious interest in this little game of ours. We thank you! 💜️
When I began work on Enigma Heart back in 2024, it was just a rough prototype: a between-projects experiment, really, to see if I could take a cult-favorite formula (from basically my favorite game of all time), flesh it out, modernize it, and add themes and a story that meant something to me. Obviously, something clicked along the way and it became much more than an experiment. And while there’s certainly a ways to go, the fact that 1,000+ people are excited about it now is pretty awesome.
Where We Are Now
Enigma Heart is mostly feature-complete: the combat feels good, there are only a handful of skills and enemies that still need to be implemented… the core systems are all there. The game is fully playable up to the end of the first act of the story, and I think it’s a pretty satisfying arc to get Zalia’s adventure started off on. Now, the focus is mostly on polish, testing, and preparing to work on the content necessary for the remaining acts of the game.
What’s Next
Enigma Heart is about to enter a testing phase where the game will be opened up to a handful of friends and fans who’ve expressed interest on our social media channel. Some of them are Zelda II superfans like me, and others are just excited about the game and what it’s shaping up to be, and want to be a part of bringing it to life.
We’re also keenly focused on making sure the game not only runs perfectly on Steam Deck, but feels like it belongs and was designed for it. (And just speaking for myself… it totally does. 😃️)
We’ll be sharing more news as development continues. This will be the first of what I hope are many updates as the game comes together into something really special.
Meet the Team
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Clarissa – That’s me. 😊️ I’m the programmer and writer-director of Enigma Heart. I also help out with pixel art whenever I can, although my art can’t hold a candle to that of… |
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Emily – Enigma Heart‘s art director and lead pixel artist. I’m constantly amazed at her style and vision, and she, more than anybody, has shaped the game’s visual identity. She’s even helped storyboard a few critical cutscenes on occasions when my own mind’s eye decided to go on vacation for the day. |
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Martijn – Enigma Heart‘s composer. If you’ve listened to a certain fictional band called Nerk, or you’re a fan of DOS games and retrogaming nostalgia in general, you probably already know of him. The soundtrack he’s created for the game is phenomenal, blending Zelda-inspired NES vibes with DOS game nostalgia and other eclectic musical influences in ways I didn’t think possible. |
Stay in Touch
The best way to support us right now is to:
- ✅ Wishlist Enigma Heart on Steam if you’re able to. Steam pays attention to wishlist numbers when deciding what to show players, so any activity helps!
- 🎮️ Follow us on Itch.io!
- 📣 Share Enigma Heart with friends who might enjoy it too
- 📺️ Stay tuned for future updates here, on Steam, or on Mastodon and Bluesky
Thank you for being here, whether you’re new or you’ve been here since the start of the project. It really does make a difference!
~Clarissa 🩷