- Steam's new Pricing System & Potential Future Updates - 30 March 2026
Hey everyone,Steam has recently released an update that calculates the converted cost of games based on 'purchasing power'. I decided to try out this new system for The Donnerwald Experiment and The Murder Hotel. Most regions outside the US will now see a price drop, while those that should technically have an increase in price (like Swiss Francs) will stay the same as they were before.The new prices might take a while until they get updated on the store page.About The Donnerwald Experiment's future: I can't say anything yet, as my goal right now is to finish The Murder Hotel's secret route in April and then wonder how to financially survive.Personally I just want to remake the whole game with all the things I've learnt, from the artstyle to the writing to the gameplay system.Could you imagine The Donnerwald Experiment in TMH's artstyle?Thank you for your time. I apologise for not havin…
- [Prequel] The Murder Hotel is releasing in 3 days - 1 September 2025
Hey, everyone!As you may know, I've spent the past three years working on The Murder Hotel.Technically, this game is a prequel to The Donnerwald Experiment because it features the same antagonists and recounts events leading up TDE.And besides that, it's a detective adventure/visual novel featuring the prominent Dream Demon Gastfenger as the main villain.Yes. The creepy scissorman got his own game before Johanna got her fourth chapter. Life is simply unfair.Back when Gastfenger was second in command, he spent most of his time abusing his warp ability to create absurd murder stories that the main character needs to solve.But that's not where the connections end. Here are two more teasers:In TDE's second chapter, you witnessed the 67th "Who's the Copycat?" show.And in Murder Hotel, you'll experience the 66th.Speaking of copycat ...The last prominent Dream Demon that I want to showcase is…
- The Future of The Donnerwald Experiment - 18 May 2025
Hey, everyone! It's been a while since my last update on The Donnerwald Experiment (TDE). As you might have guessed, I've been busy working on The Murder Hotel (TMH), which is slowly getting closer to its release date this summer. I can actually finish games if I want to. What is this update about? At LFG Con in Hof (Germany) where I exhibited TMH, I brought some TDE flyers with me. I didn't show the public any gameplay of TDE since I hadn't registered it, but during breaks, I had the chance to talk with fellow game developers about it and they tried out the game on my Steam Deck. The comments were actually quite positive, which was surprising to me since I have a negative connection to my previous work. All the negative comments from publishers and my overall sense of guilt overwhelm me whenever I think about it, so it was strange to me that people like TDE. Then it kind of clicked wit…
- 1.2.12 Release - 16 November 2022
This is the last update before I work on Chapter 4. -Fixed Bonus Chapter showing the Dream Maschine as broken. -Reduced Motion Blur amount when Alentura is chasing in her unstable form. Sir Hennryk: -Nerfed Axe Throw from Sir Hennryk to cost 2 Stamina now and only deal 2 damage at base. It can still deal critical damage on headshots. (It was wayyyy to broken) Ralf: -Reworked Bite Attack: It now costs 3 Alp to use. It steals 3 Max HP from the enemy, deals remaining alp as bonus damage and heals Ralf by the dealt amount. -Motivate: Is no longer a quick skill, no longer costs 2 Alp, always heals 2 Stamina and makes the target immune to being charmed. Gives Ralf 1 Alp. -Healwave: Is no longer a quick skill, but now additionally grants immunity to being frozen. Gives Ralf 1 Alp. Jasmine Isecar: -Berserk only gives +1 Phy Attack instead of +2. Erika -Gets a new skill: Spare Flask - Heals an a…
- 1.2.11 Release - 15 October 2022
Gameplay: -Luka's "Angel's Kiss" ability can now be used multiple times, but applies a cooldown debuff on the target character (3 turns). -Luka's Gri Groove now also heals by 2 (in additional to healing the skeleton by 5). -Sir Hennryk's "Axe Attack" now regenerates 1 Alp per hit (previously removed in another patch). -Jasmine's Ice Berserk skill now shows a proper ice flower instead of the Braveheart animation. -Alentura now gives 69 XP after being defeated. Music: -Changed the twins music to Valse Unga. The old soundtrack will be used as their battle theme in a later chapter. Battles: -Moved the camera down by 1 unit. Now there's less empty space in the middle of the view. -The extra space below is now filled with an info tab that shows what the buffs do. Bugfixes: -Fixed the water cave not playing music at early night and midnight. -Added arrows to the Gastfenger chase szene to indic…
- 1.2.10 Release - 17 July 2022
Gameplay: -Jasmine can now use her new toy in Chapter 3. Requires her going on a nightly date with William. -Red Potions: Different ingredients now give +2 HP instead of just +1. -Shooting Marx' Railgun no longer costs SP. -Sir Hennryk: Axe throw now deals critical damage (+2) when it hits the head first. Bugfixes: -Fixed some typos. -Fixed that some buffs did not get correctly applied (I called "return" during a for loop, shame on me). Mostly noticeable for potions. -Fixed Defiant Stickbugs Laser Attack only hitting 1 character. -Fixed Johanna getting Alp after defeating Nimarus (legacy code, she can't use it anyway).
- 1.2.09 - 8 May 2022
-Fixed a rare softlock if you remove Jasmine from your party during the treasure hunt quest and encounter Sir Hennryk.
- 1.2.8 Release - 24 April 2022
-Redroom: Defeating Nimarus and talking to Alentura no longer shows the End of Demo message. -Redroom: Johanna no longer sits on the chair when it's already occupied by another Johanna. -Fixed Hennryks Tree Attack (as an enemy) only hitting one person. -Fixed Bernhard's Cardboard allowing enemies to ignore Berny and attack the backline. -Fixed some line spacing to the messages when a buff is applied.
- 1.2.6 Patchnotes - 7 April 2022
-Second Pact ability is now selectable between Chapter 3 Day1 and Day2. -Bonus Chapter is now available again. -Kaltstein's water lever during the chase is no longer skippable -Train Attack is no longer a bit buggy with its timing. -William is now longer at the beach in Chapter 3 (until evening, 4th slot). -Alpurika Flowers should no longer respawn after saving.
- 1.2.5 Patchnotes - 22 March 2022
-Second Pact ability is now selectable between Chapter 3 Day1 and Day2. -Bonus Chapter between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 is now available again.
- 1.2.4 - 20 March 2022
-Ghostcrabs and other enemies that can skip their turn now display a "Does Nothing" message again. -Fixed Marx not showing the heart animation after the dance. -Fixed Bernhard joining you depening on Jasmine's friendship level in Chapter3. -Fixed Alentura being able to target herself with the claw attack. -Fixed Softlock when trying to use the Portal when you have a special guest with you.
- 1.2.3 - 20 March 2022
-Added finished icons for Frozen Debuff, Wrench Upgrade, Earthquake Upgrade, Gri-Groove Skill -Timeline: Fixed Jasmine not having enough friendship points. -Fixed many text passages up to Kaltstein Chapter 3.
- Chapter 3 Release! - 15 March 2022
Hey everyone! It may have cost me a huge amount of work, time and money, but I can now proudly present you the next Chapter of the Donnerwald Experiment series! Initially planned to be released for Halloween 2021, I took my time to further adjust it as I felt there wasn't enough content yet. Some things are still "placeholder" like Nikita's skill icons, which I plan to replace over the following weeks and months. This time, I unlocked the Chapter Selection feature. While I advise to play the game from the start again, as there are many smaller and bigger changes, I can understand that not everyone wants to see the same stuff over and over again. So this time you can simply simulate your choices from the previous Chapters and directly start at Chapter 2 or 3. Here's the changelog: Note: I see a lot of games updating to be more compatible with Steam Deck. I will work on this for TDE once…
- Chapter 3 Info - 21 February 2022
Hey everyone, it's time to throw out a small update. Overall, I only made around 50% of what I initially planned for Chapter 3 as I'm writing this. The good news is that the first half of this upcomming chapter is already filled with content, two (or three) awesome boss battles with unique music and many new cutscenes and decisions to make. Also, many QoL features already made it into the current version, be it a peek at the new beach area, the Woy rework and a playable Erika. I'm sure you had enough with waiting for actual new content, so I decide to release what I'd call "Chapter 3 part 1" around the 15th march. Part 2 will probably merged together with Chapter 4 and I fear it will take equally as long to make, if not longer since I'll have another little surprise announcement coming up on this date. Anyway, I want to thank you all for your continued support and for enjoying the journ…
- 1.1.7 - 1 February 2022
-------- 1.1.7 #Bugfixes -Fixed the New Game softlock bug (Item arrays were not properly set up after exiting a savefile and starting new game). -Fixed Spidoni's sleep attack making Johanna sleep in the robot and showing a glitched sprite. #Gadgets -Added the Earthquake Attack for Pact Route. It's a powerful multi-target ability using the hammer. Costs 6 Inspiration. -Reduced Spiked Boots cost to 4 Inspiration, changed marterials from 2 Gears to 1 Gear and 2 Stones. #Battle -Robato now has an immunity that prevents the following debuffs: Bleeding, Poisoned, Sleeping, Charmed, Starving. Icon art is a placeholder. -Jasmine's Brave Heart now also removes/prevents Charmed debuff (already does in 1.1.6 but tooltip was not updated). -Buffs no longer show a message when they could not be applied due to immunities (for example the game does no longer say Jasmine became scared when she has the B…
- 1.1.6 hotfix - 31 January 2022
-------- 1.1.6 Hotfix #Bugfixes -Fixed Robot Recharge using Mathf.Max instead of Mathf.Min (healed way too much) -Fixed Geisterküste enemies not respawning. -Fixed Nikita having a sleepover with Johanna not showing a friendship increase (visual only). -Fixed RedRoom being quitable via Chair when Nimarus or Alentura want to talk with you. -Fixed RedRoom being quitable via Chair when Doppelganger wants to teach you new skillz or how to defeat Nimarus. #Overworld -Added a new Erika Art on Day4. Also added an event on Day4 in Erika's room that can be triggered that either grants Friendship or Inspiration. #Menu -Crafting: The Totem requires Woy being unlocked instead of Alp now. Though it's not buildable as it requires a currently unobtainable ressource which will appear in Chapter 3. #Battle -Johanna no longer uses the ALP meter. Instead, she uses Woy to emulate those nightmare powers. Thi…
- 1.1.6 - 29 January 2022
#Art -Alentura's shadow faceset has less grey artifacts (it looks better). #Bugfixes -Celery text no longer claims that is bitter (it's still aromatic like the orange icon tells). -Fixed Jasmine joining twice on Day4 if you skipped the Treasure Hunt before. -Fixed Cutlass info telling the wrong action command. -Ghostcrabs now have a death animation -Fixed robot upgrades not consuming the materials required to build them #Overworld -Tom now sells Gear for 50 coins. He's finally useful. -Karl Marx no longer hates you (selling is no longer half buy price). #Menu -The following buffs now have a number in their Icon to show their strength: Well Feed, Bleeding, OnFire, Armor Break, Daydreaming #Battle Woy rebalanced and made less confusing: -Woy regenereates at 0.5 each round for each character in battle, and starts at 0(similar to Stamina/SP). -Using Woy now only places an euphoric buff that…
- 1.1.5 Patch - 10 December 2021
This is not the Chapter 3 patch. Instead, it fixes some crucical bugs reported by some fans, while adding a new area to explore (though it's a bit empty until Chapter 3). Happy gaming! Art -Fixed Johanna's faceset from doing Youtuber jumps. #Bugfixes -Fixed the RedRoom skip which allowed to skip all of Chapter 1 and jump into Chapter 2. -Fixed softlock when talking to Erika and brewing for the second time. -Fixed the "share breakfast" event not showing on day3. -Fixed the Gravity Device Scene from playing again after revisiting it in Pact-Route. -Fixed Johanna's Death animation from not showing if her HP drops to 0 due to debuffs. #Gameplay -Added Geisterküste as a region that can be visited in Chapter 2. It doesn't serve much purpose yet besides grinding extra XP, as it gets more relevant in Chapter 3. #Overworld -Updated the Dreamworld Gate visuals
- 1.1.4 - 17 August 2021
#Bugfixes -Fixed softlock when talking to Erika and brewing for the second time. -Fixed the "share breakfast" event not showing on day3. #Story -Swapped 2nd intro scene with the gameplay portion. #Battle -Jasmine, William, Erika, Johanna, Berny and Sir Hennryk have a new camera on their melee attacks -All damage popups are now more fancy and better visible!
- Big Gamdev Stream! - 9 August 2021
Hey everyone, I'm hosting a big gamedev stream today at 8pm berlin time. Join me while I'm showing TDE in it's current form, with the gamedev commentating about certain aspects and answering any questions in chat. https://www.twitch.tv/wegenbarth/ Have a nice monday! Best, Wegenbartho
