Posted February 18, 2016
Why decide to join games in development on GOG?
“We've spent 2.5 years creating the experience so far, but we feel that after 2.5 years with our game, we need some outside eyes to wrap up production. The entire game is done, and all content we wish to release in the full game is already there, but we'd like to get feedback and catch bugs before we release for real.
Given so much has been made already, it is important to note that this is not a small prototype or demo, but a 7-9 hour long experience that we will be releasing in episodes every few weeks, and is already fully optimized, visually near final, and fully featured.
In an exploration game like this, what we have struggled with during production is to find the balance between making the game too hardcore or too vague, and making it too obvious. That is something we are especially looking for feedback on. We also look to find out what it is that people like the most, and we will then strengthen those aspects further.”
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
“We plan for being in Early Access for around 90 days, provided no serious issues pop up. Early Access for us is a way to test if our already finished designs, content, and programming holds up. During Early Access the entire game will be mostly finished already, and we will be focusing on fine-tuning and improving the existing game, not building it as we go. We thus hope for a short but intense EA phase.”
What do you plan to change during development?
“The final couple of levels and the end-game sequence will be held off until the full release, and will thus not be part of the EA releases. Beyond that no major new features or changes are expected to be part of only the full version.”
What is the current state of your game?
“Since this is a singleplayer game, we will be taking an episodic approach during EA, with each new episode releasing every few weeks if all goes well.
Release 1: The first three levels of the game. Worth about 1-2 hours worth of game, with lots of hidden secrets to figure out while waiting for the next release.
Release 2: +Levels 4, 5 and 6. Adding another 2 hours of gameplay. And any content from previous releases of course.
Release 3: +Levels 7 and 8, adding another 2 hours.
Release 4: +Level 9. Adding another 1 hour.
Release 5: Not 100% sure we'd do a fifth release, but if we'd do then that would be level 10. If not level 10 and 11 + the end game sequence will be held off until the full release.
In any of its releases the game:
Is fully optimized. Performance is close to final.
Has fully functional menus, options menus, saving/loading and so forth.
Has final art content, it looks as it is meant to look.
Localization will happen during EA thus some language support will be missing.
Will have some bugs and issues left and right. Save game compatibility and stability cannot be guaranteed but will try as good as we can to keep it compatible.
In general is fully playable and featured, but simply doesn't have all level content and has some bugs/balancing issues left and right.
The game has partial VR support right now. Some things to note:
Was tested only with Oculus DK2, but the consumer Oculus and Vive are supported (but again never actually tried).
Is pretty performance heavy and you likely won't hit the target framerate. We are at 60-70 FPS on a Geforce 780 Ti in indoor levels with low quality settings.
No VR menu support right now
VR is an experimental feature in general and our focus will be on finishing the game itself. VR support might not mature entirely and might remain experimental.
Will the price change on release day?
“During Early Access the price is 25% off from the eventual full-game price.”
How can the community participate in the development process?
“Besides the regular bug reports and issues, we are especially looking for feedback on some of our design decisions. We want to find out what people like the most about all the different things we've made. What we can strengthen or extend.
Our bug board is on Trello and can be commented and voted on. A link can be found on our website. Bugs can be reported using an in-game reporting tool.”
“We've spent 2.5 years creating the experience so far, but we feel that after 2.5 years with our game, we need some outside eyes to wrap up production. The entire game is done, and all content we wish to release in the full game is already there, but we'd like to get feedback and catch bugs before we release for real.
Given so much has been made already, it is important to note that this is not a small prototype or demo, but a 7-9 hour long experience that we will be releasing in episodes every few weeks, and is already fully optimized, visually near final, and fully featured.
In an exploration game like this, what we have struggled with during production is to find the balance between making the game too hardcore or too vague, and making it too obvious. That is something we are especially looking for feedback on. We also look to find out what it is that people like the most, and we will then strengthen those aspects further.”
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
“We plan for being in Early Access for around 90 days, provided no serious issues pop up. Early Access for us is a way to test if our already finished designs, content, and programming holds up. During Early Access the entire game will be mostly finished already, and we will be focusing on fine-tuning and improving the existing game, not building it as we go. We thus hope for a short but intense EA phase.”
What do you plan to change during development?
“The final couple of levels and the end-game sequence will be held off until the full release, and will thus not be part of the EA releases. Beyond that no major new features or changes are expected to be part of only the full version.”
What is the current state of your game?
“Since this is a singleplayer game, we will be taking an episodic approach during EA, with each new episode releasing every few weeks if all goes well.
Release 1: The first three levels of the game. Worth about 1-2 hours worth of game, with lots of hidden secrets to figure out while waiting for the next release.
Release 2: +Levels 4, 5 and 6. Adding another 2 hours of gameplay. And any content from previous releases of course.
Release 3: +Levels 7 and 8, adding another 2 hours.
Release 4: +Level 9. Adding another 1 hour.
Release 5: Not 100% sure we'd do a fifth release, but if we'd do then that would be level 10. If not level 10 and 11 + the end game sequence will be held off until the full release.
In any of its releases the game:
Is fully optimized. Performance is close to final.
Has fully functional menus, options menus, saving/loading and so forth.
Has final art content, it looks as it is meant to look.
Localization will happen during EA thus some language support will be missing.
Will have some bugs and issues left and right. Save game compatibility and stability cannot be guaranteed but will try as good as we can to keep it compatible.
In general is fully playable and featured, but simply doesn't have all level content and has some bugs/balancing issues left and right.
The game has partial VR support right now. Some things to note:
Was tested only with Oculus DK2, but the consumer Oculus and Vive are supported (but again never actually tried).
Is pretty performance heavy and you likely won't hit the target framerate. We are at 60-70 FPS on a Geforce 780 Ti in indoor levels with low quality settings.
No VR menu support right now
VR is an experimental feature in general and our focus will be on finishing the game itself. VR support might not mature entirely and might remain experimental.
Will the price change on release day?
“During Early Access the price is 25% off from the eventual full-game price.”
How can the community participate in the development process?
“Besides the regular bug reports and issues, we are especially looking for feedback on some of our design decisions. We want to find out what people like the most about all the different things we've made. What we can strengthen or extend.
Our bug board is on Trello and can be commented and voted on. A link can be found on our website. Bugs can be reported using an in-game reporting tool.”