Hello everyone, I hope you're all doing well. I have an important announcement:
Z. Year One will no longer be available for purchase on Steam very soon (the delisting process is underway).
- This does NOT mean you will lose access. It will stay in your Steam inventory forever (unless you manually remove it).
- This does NOT mean the game is being sunset. However, a technical issue preventing players from logging in did force this decision sooner than I had originally planned (though not by much as I've been planning to do this for quite some time--see below).
- Likewise, the Community hub will persist so that you can still view old threads.
Login Issues and Solution
PlayFab--the backend service we use to manage player accounts and card inventories--made a recent change to their systems that has seemingly made the version Z. uses incompatible. This apparently prevents logging in, so you will likely see an error code if you try to do so. It's very frustrating, and even though literally only a couple of people play the game each month, it still sucks for anyone who wanted to dust this game off and fight some Fallen.
The solution we've been given is to update the PlayFab SDK used by the Z. app, but as there is no active programmer on this project, this issue may persist for a few months.
However, a small, final update to the game is planned for next year, and will aim to fix this issue as well as swap some obsolete card images and make some other fine-tuning adjustments.
What's Next for Z.?
Why was I planning on delisting Z. even before this? Basically, while I'm proud of what was achieved with this game (way back in 2016/2017), it no longer meets my own standards for what Z. can be or the games I'd like to design going forward.
The long-awaited tabletop version has evolved many times beyond the Steam version, and is honestly just much more fun, so I'd like to give everyone the chance to play the definitive version of Z. while still leaving this original version accessible to all Kickstarter backers and anyone who purchased on Steam.
Currently, the goal is to develop the final tabletop version of Z. for either Tabletopia or Tabletop Simulator. This version will ideally coincide with the fulfillment of the tabletop version, which I hope to have an update on in the first half of next year.
Sorry I don't have a more exciting update after all this time, but hopefully my next update will be a more eventful one.
Let me know if you have any questions. I'm always around. :)
--Sebastian