For those of you who have been following the game for a long time, this latest drought of Steam news is probably a little disappointing but also par for the course. For those of you who are new, it's probably been extremely disappointing and disconcerting.
I'm Danny Judas, co-founder of Somewhere Else and the programmer and director of 1-900-CULT.
I've had an increasing trickling of people wondering, across various platforms, about the state of the game and whether or not it is still in active development.
I'd like to extend my sincerest apologies for the prolonged radio silence since March 10th of 2023. I'm sorry that it's been so long, and I'll also apologize in advance that this new announcement is going to be nothing but a confirmation of more of the same.
For those of you who see this announcement and are thinking of one or both of the most obvious and pertinent questions:
- 1-900-CULT is still very much in development.
- There is still no planned release date for a demo, let alone the full game.
With that out of the way, allow me to provide some context for what has been going on and how we got to this point.
Where Have We Been?
Something important to keep in mind about this project is that it is now and has been for a very long time a side project for everyone involved in its development. While 1-900-CULT originally started development (as a mod) while I was still living with my parents, I soon moved out, got a job, and got married. In the early days I would often stay up until the wee hours of the morning programming and creating art.
This meant that I was able to make substantial progress very quickly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yj9O-vhZXzc
Nowadays, I've moved on to full time work, I own a house, and am still happily married. I can't stay up late anymore, and I have very little free time. I frequently have to choose between spending time with friends and family, taking care of important and urgent chores, and working on personal projects. 1-900-CULT unfortunately no longer earns that priority spot in my life.
And, I'm not the only one for whom life has changed in this way. Everyone on the development team are adults, all of them have responsibilities, and none of them can afford to spend an excessive amount of time on the game -- especially if I can't be there to back them up.
Of course, that's not the end of it! We have still been working, slowly but surely. It doesn't look like it, but we have actually made incredibly substantial progress in nearly all areas since March.
In that time we have:
- Created an entire new enemy faction.
- Prototyped out the Stealth movement and detection systems.
- Developed an entire splitscreen co-op mode.
- Designed multiple new levels.
- Created the GUI for a brand new, in-depth campaign editor.
- Created a beautiful new score GUI.
- Completely overhauled the game's execution system.
- Completely overhauled the game's weapon system.
- ...And a nigh endless list of little changes and polish to key systems.
At this point, we only need a couple more days of work done on the campaign editor before I can finally say that every core system the game needs for content development is done!
Of course, therein lies the problem. finding the time for that sixteen hours of work translates to weeks, maybe even months of opportunistic, off and on work...
Why Haven't There Been More Trailers?
Probably my biggest shortcoming when it comes to this particular project is my personal perfectionism. That, and I have a really flip-flopping idea of what is acceptable to post as promotional material for this game.
At this point, I think I might as well come clean about the nature of those 2023 trailers.
They were really really rushed! We didn't have enough polished content to make trailers out of, in my opinion. January (one of our sound designers and the promo editor) and I worked extremely hard right up until the last minute to get something out on Hotline Miami 2's anniversary. That was the reveal trailer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9UnTFxur2E
There are clips of bonus levels, development playgrounds, and even mockups built specifically for the trailer. Everything works, yes. But at the time those trailers were cut together, there was quite literally nothing else in the game.
When it came time to create the next trailer, Don't Be Afraid of Dying, January and I only had one more presentable level to work with. So, we padded it out with footage from the original games and recycled clips from the reveal trailer. We thought it would be easier and that it would enable us to make a series of smaller, cookie cutter trailers focused on bringing people up to speed on things I had written about in the original steam group.
This was not the case. In fact, it was even more of a frustrating, disheartening crunch to wrangle together something new and interesting to illustrate the points we were making. That great shot of the Cultist getting torn in half by the gang dodger? Hastily slapped together specifically for the trailer. January did a wonderful job selling it, and CrazyJaydon's animation work is second to none. But, it also wasn't actually functional.
Our next feature trailers were to cover much more ambitious material. Characters and weapons. I decided that we absolutely needed to have new footage to go along with them. Unfortunately, new, presentable material did not and still has not materialized. The project's slow pace of development simply was not capable of producing the content January and I needed for me to be satisfied with the material that we were to create.
I've thought about writing an announcement like this many times in the year and a half of silence. Until now, I have always decided that the material I needed was just a few more weeks away and that this would not be necessary. There would be a new trailer that would wow everyone and make them forget about the months of waiting.
Now I am finally ready to acknowledge that as foolish and naive.
What's To Come?
1-900-CULT is not dead and I am not planning on cancelling it. If I ever do, there will be a definitive "this project is no more" announcement. The Steam page will come down, all of the material I've ever made for 1-900-CULT will be released for free use by the community, etc, etc. We will not leave you all wondering if we have given up. I think that is a cruel and unfortunately commonplace thing to do to an interested audience.
What I cannot promise, however, is anything new or substantial anytime soon. I am working on a way to expand my free time, but it's not guaranteed to pan out. Even if it does, 1-900-CULT will continue to be a side project. I'm sure you all can understand, 1-900-CULT is not a commercial project. It cannot pay my bills. But it has always been a tremendous source of comfort and enjoyment. I love working on it when I have the opportunity to!
Slow and steady is the only way to win this race.
So, here's the deal. Here's what we're going to do.
Things are going to go quiet here once again. I'm sorry. The team and I will work towards a playable release, a demo. It will be short, but substantive. As complete of a vertical slice as we can manage. When that is imminent, or even done, we will announce it with a trailer, and then release it soon after or at the same time.
I can't tell you when that will happen. There is a lot of work that has to be finished for it to even be possible. But we will work on it. Until then, we're not going to worry about big new content drops, trailers, etc.
For the time being, if you'd like to keep abreast of the small stuff -- little clips, images, etc. Feel free to follow us on twitter. I will continue to keep my ear to the ground on social media, itch.io, youtube, these forums, etc.
But, do me a favor. Don't wait with bated breath. Just keep us in the back of your mind. We'll let you know when it's finally time.
Thank you all so much for your patience and positive messages. You have no idea how much it means to us.
Regards,
Somewhere Else
