Feed for Meredith Gran
NPR has curated a list of the Best Games of 2026 (so far) and has kindly included Perfect Tides: Station to Station. Mara is part of the cast artwork for this year’s AdventureX expo . I won’t be attending this year due to giving birth Very Soon, but I’m honored to be featured in spirit. Artwork by Graham Annable , which is a double delight for me. Digging through old laptop files, I found a bit of…
Well, we’re deep into summer! That happened a little too quick for my liking. Some PT-related housekeeping: Narrascope Keynote You can now watch the VOD of my Narrascope keynote and Q&A. Sales Both Perfect Tides and Perfect Tides: Station to Station are currently 20% off during the Steam summer sale. You can get them bundled for even less. Perfect Tides: Station to Station is also discounted in…
I delivered the Saturday keynote at NarraScope on June 13th. It was a really nice time. There’s something rare and clarifying about speaking to a live audience, getting their reactions in real time, and being able to physically emphasize my points. I talked about the importance of writing as the basis, rather than a modular component, of narrative games. I showed a bit of my early notes and…
It’s been an exciting couple of weeks! I wanted to round up a few relevant links to Perfect Tides: Station to Station announcements, reviews and such. Reviews Kotaku - This 2026 Masterpiece Brilliantly Accomplishes Something Few Games Even Attempt Shacknews - Perfect Tides: Station to Station: Figuring It Out Literary Hub - Is This the Most Literary Video Game of All Time? So Many Games - Perfect…
It’s practically here. You can now pre-order Perfect Tides: Station to Station at a 15% discount for Switch in both the US and EU eShops. During the pre-sale, I’m also discounting both Perfect Tides games by 15% on Steam. You can get 1 and 2 individually or discounted as bundle . It’s a thrill that this day is finally coming, and I hope it’s the first of many. I’m very eager for more people to try…
A common critique I hear about the Perfect Tides games is that “ nothing happens”. This is strange to me, since by my eye, everything - too much, really - happens in these games. waiting for what? I write about love and death and passion because these are the basic and eternal concepts that interest me. For a subset of players, to refrain from viewing these themes through a sci-fi or fantasy lens…
About a year ago, we decided there’d be no more stairs. I carried her from floor to floor, in and out of cars, and onto sofas and chairs like a stiff-legged suitcase. I would’ve done it forever. Looking now at old photos, I’d forgotten all the changes. I never expected to have such an old dog. I never expected her to be old for so much of her life. She got used to the diminishment of her senses.…
Today marks the release of the very first localization project for Three Bees. The original Perfect Tides is now available in Russian . There has been much chatter about localization lately, and while I can only speak to my own experience, I believe it’s very personal to translate the writing of a single author, and should be treated the same way in games as it is in books. The truth is when it…
I’m home! Let’s see if I can zero in on the stuff I really wanna say. I was up for an award I was sure I wouldn’t win. I did not write an acceptance speech. Mike, on the other hand, was confident I would get it, or at least that I’d want my family’s support if I didn’t. He insisted we go together with Oscar and have a great time in San Francisco. The Good I saw so many dear friends, met so many…
You can get Perfect Tides: Station to Station for just $15.99 during the Women’s Day Sale, running from March 6th - 15th. This is the first time the game has been on sale, with a pretty nice discount at that! If you’ve been meaning to buy it, or want to pick it up for a friend, this is the best deal you’ll see for a while. You can check out the full event page here , with lots of other neat…
Perfect Tides was released 4 years ago last week on February 22nd, 2022. I didn’t quite get it together to write this post at the time, but it was nice to just think about it for a while, so here are some thoughts. I was expecting my first child right from the start of development. In those early pregnancy days, it was a race to make headway on the game before everything was thrown into chaos. On…
Perfect Tides: Station to Station is now available DRM-free on Itch for PC and Mac. You can also purchase it as a bundle with the first Perfect Tides game. There has been plenty of new press since my last update! Since the list is starting to get long, I’ve started consolidating it into a single page . But here’s a list of the latest ones: Reviews Buried Treasure - Perfect Tides: Station To…
Perfect Tides: Station to Station has been out for 1 week today. To my surprise, it has taken a long time to recover physically from the long sprint before release day. Maybe I’d forgotten just how hard this is. Or I’m a little older and sleepier. Or this game was just that much bigger and harder to finish. Let’s call it a little of each. At any rate, this has made it difficult for me to properly…
In case you missed it, Perfect Tides: Station to Station is OUT NOW , and so far the reviews have been stellar. It’s time for another press roundup! Reviews The Verge - This coming-of-age adventure game made me feel a little too seen Movies Games and Tech (90) - Review: Perfect Tides: Station To Station minimap (90) - Reading, Writing, and Living: A Review of Perfect Tides: Station to Station…
You can get it here on Steam . And you can view the launch trailer here: The initial press has been very positive! Here’s a roundup of some of the reviews and impressions we’ve seen so far: AV Club (A-) - Perfect Tides: Station to Station explores seasons of love, hate, depression, and ennui EGW - Perfect Tides: Station To Station Is A Nostalgic Look At Millennial Youth Punished Backlog (93) -…
Quick update from the dev front. Some good stuff, but first the bitter pill. In short: the Switch version of Perfect Tides: Station to Station is going to release later than the PC/Mac version. Due to the nature of the AGS engine, and the longer approval process required by the Nintendo store, we would’ve needed to submit a graphically-complete build farther in advance than was ultimately…
…But not that tired. I supposed I’ve regulated. At this point there’s a crisis that endangers these past 4 years of bloody, tearful work every week. And every week I work it out and the thing comes together more. It has come together a lot. There are barely any seams left. The buzz so far is good. People who’ve played early builds are starting to whisper a little louder. Aura Triolo included…
Steam Next Fest is over, and the final push to complete Perfect Tides: Station to Station is underway. A few press highlights: John Walker at Kotaku writes: The Sequel To One Of The Best Narrative Games Of The Last Decade Just Got An Astonishing Demo My interview with Alan Wen at Creative Bloq: The most human game I’ve seen this year looks like it was made in MS Paint Just a heads up to people…
Perfect Tides: Station to Station is part of Steam Next Fest’s triannual demo roundup. If you have not played the demo and would like to, there is a brand new build with enhanced features from the previous release. You can add it to your library and wishlist it here . These months are moving at a breakneck pace, and the January release is so unbelievably close. I’ve had the help of some excellent…
There is a new trailer for Perfect Tides: Station to Station to coincide with the Six One Indie fall 2025 showcase . You can watch it here: The weeks are flying by, and only 4 months stand between the world and this game. I will write a more detailed dev log when I have time, but rest assured the game is all I think about and it is coming together nicely. Imagine I’m doing the phone-to-my-ear…
Do I have a moment to write a devlog? Yes, I’ll take it. Things are so very busy. I’m still traveling a lot for the summer, and miraculously (tragically) carving out work hours while gazing at beauty and savoring summer fruit. There is a low-level hum of stress and a DUE DATE hanging over my head at all times, but things have been worse. Did I mention the fruit is delicious? I’ve brought on quite…
My brother Joe Gran released a video game this week, his first as a solo developer. It takes about 15-20 minutes to play, and I recommend adding it to your day. dog of wisdom: the title screen Although we share a last name, people are often jumpscared to find out we’re siblings. It’s true that mine and Joe’s best-known 2010s stomping grounds didn’t directly overlap. But I’m always amused by…
I’m van camping in the mountains, week 2 of 3. My family does this every summer. But this year, I’m on deadline and I need to work. Everything at camp is work. Keeping the space clean, splitting the wood, wringing out laundry, monitoring the food and batteries and supplies. My dog is also sick, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it is to collect a urine sample on the road. (Treatment is underway…
As of June, Perfect Tides: Station to Station has a release date. We’ll see you sooner than you think! I’m back to work after Narrascope. Although I couldn’t attend the full 3 days, the showcase and talks I got to see were a lot of fun, and I’m eagerly awaiting the VODs of the ones I missed. I will post a link to my own talk when it goes up. Now that I understand how unique the show is, I’m very…
I’m happy to say that, as of the end of May, the massive game-long playtest of Perfect Tides: Station to Station has ended. This isn’t the last test the game will need, and there’s a lot of work ahead. But this is the one that tested every feature in the full narrative timeline of the game, and finishing this is a huge milestone. The brunt of the work from here on out is animation, with which I’m…
I’d love to sit down and write proper PAX report, but we’d all be waiting forever, so just a few things in brief: IGN covered PT:STS in their roundup of games at the PAX Rising Showcase. You can see their gameplay and commentary in this vid. It’s the first game featured, which feels very nice! The Punished Backlog , The Beat , and Kotaku had nice things to say about the game as well, along with…
Today I’m announcing that Perfect Tides: Station to Station is being developed for the Nintendo Switch, along with the planned PC , Mac and Linux releases. You can read the press release here or watch the announcement trailer below: As a developer I’m very excited for the prospect of more people being able to play this game. And, on a personal nostalgia-poisoned millennial level, it will be very…
Some updates in the media zone: PAX East has announced their selection for the PAX Rising showcase , and I’m happy to reveal that Perfect Tides: Station to Station is part of it! This means I’ll be in Boston on May 8-11 showing off the game. If you’re at PAX East , please come see how it’s going! I’m very eager to show off our progress. Perfect Tides was included in John Walker’s roundup of The…
I have not been updating the dev log. What I’ve been doing is drafting a post every 2 weeks or so containing some variation of “ I’m struggling”. I’m not struggling right now. With practice I’ve learned that, in the interest of both conveying and alleviating my pain, it’s best that I manage and document these things offline and try not to put them straight into words. For whose benefit? The online…
Haven’t chronicled Perfect Tides: Station to Station’s development in a while. Besides getting caught up in the holidays and travel, there have been periods of frantic optimism and despair, alternating weekly until pretty recently, when a realistic idea of what I’ve got began to emerge. These days I am calm and focused and enormously productive. The game is not expanding. The gaps have been…