The Ferryman began as a larger visual novel project, with multiple characters, a more expansive story and a greater degree of player freedom. As I approached the challenge of building such a vast game, I decided to opt for something much simpler and less ambitious, which continuing to develop systems that could be used for larger projects in the future. I have built a rather solid foundation for developing visual novel-style games that I hope to build upon going forwards.

At the heart of the codebase is Ink, the scripting language created by Inkle. It is a powerful tool for creating branching stories and integrating them into Unity games. I first used it in my narrative work on Knights in Tight Spaces, and I found it to be such a fantastic tool that it inspired me to experiment with it more in my own work. Ink was perhaps the single greatest inspiration for me to start building visual novels.