Free Spiritfarer updates will add new characters and locations throughout the year

The delightful yet melancholy afterlife sim Spiritfarer will get three substantial updates throughout the year, all completely free.

Developer Thunder Lotus games announced its plans for additional Spiritfarer content today with a rough development roadmap. The new content will start this spring with an update starring a new spirit named Lily. This update will also flesh out the story of main character Stella (Lily is, after all, Stella's younger sister) and make some quality of life improvements including UI tweaks and the addition of co-op fishing.

The Beverly update will follow this summer, with the titular spirit arriving alongside a new station called the archive room, which comes with a new set of collectibles. Beverly is Stella's old neighbor, so expect more story content in this update as well. 

Finally, two more spirits will polish things off this fall: Jackie and Daria, a caretaker and patient respectively, will show up just in time for a new event. The roadmap shows that there's a whole new island and new boat options in this update, too. 

Spiritfarer was one of our favorite games of 2020, as our own Heather Wald explained in her piece on the rewarding, heartfelt sim: "The way I feel so strongly about Astrid and every other spirit I meet is a testament to how effectively Spiritfarer portrays its characters. With so much attention to detail, every spirit has their own distinct personality, and as a result, it's all too easy to develop a fondness for them." 

Here are 20 new indie games to keep on your radar in 2021.