Hi everyone! Today, Nothing Beyond This Point hit 1000 wishlists on Steam! That's huge - especially for me, as it greatly helps with motivation and getting a wider reach. I thought I'd take this opportunity to provide a development update.
In short:
- Out of 16 areas, 10 are currently complete. For reference, at demo launch a few month ago, there were 7.
- For the next months, I'll work on getting the game "content complete". Meaning you can play it start to finish.
- The rest of the time will be spent playtesting, balancing, fixing bugs/crashes, and promoting the game.
- Release date is still set to be early 2026. If you wishlist the game, you'll be notified the day of!
- I've determined that the price will be 5$ (5 EUR, 4.29 GDP, 7.50 AUD). Don't be fooled by its low price, it's still a fairly content-heavy and decently long game, but I want it to be accessible.
- If you haven't already, follow me on Bluesky, join my Discord, and wishlist the game!
Let's get into a bit more detail.
Development Progress
Nothing Beyond This Point is a Metroidvania, despite the fact that's not a side-scroller or platformer, and the fact that there's barely no walls. This makes an area-based development approach the best in my opinion: build one area at a time, connect them when done, and occasionally go back to fix or improve previous areas.
Now, the demo contained 3.5 complete areas - the Runes, Engine Junction, and Perpetual Decay, plus half of the Opening at the start. That should give you an idea how long/big each area is. Currently, 12 of the areas are laid out and filled up, and 2 of those are still missing bosses. When I'll continue at this pace, the game will be "content complete", with all areas and bosses and endings, end 2025. Hopefully.
Hm, there's supposed to be a timeline here... I shouldn't have made it black.
But then I won't be done. Going back and rebalancing and testing everything is also important - development progress isn't linear! The last areas will take significantly longer to make, as I'll need to make sure they're up to the latest in-game requirements. Bugs pop up constantly and take some time to fix without breaking something somewhere else. In addition, I need to get people excited, so recording footage and making posts everywhere is also quite time-consuming.
Everyone can be one-upped...
As for the cool stuff, 6 bosses (out of 12) are built, and their music is bangin'. (To prove it, here's a sample of the OST! It's one of the better songs if you ask me.). The bosses are key points of the game, most giving crucial abilities to progress in one way or another. I can't give you double-jump, so I had to get... creative.
What could this possibly be?
...anyway. I'm designing areas to make sense within the context of the Void. Navigation is a key point of the game, so each area needs to work carefully and guide you towards main objectives, without making it too obvious, and still allowing you to wander off and pursue something else. This is also where the Metroidvania abilities come into play, as they open new paths in rather unique ways. Here's an example of how much thought goes into just the area layout.
What's the point if you don't over-engineer everything!
With the current pace and how much there's still left to do, keeping the release date somewhere early 2026 still seems achievable. If that changes, I'll let you know. If you wishlist the game, you'll get a notification when you can finally play it!
Price Point
My previous game, Full Gear, was initially priced at 10$. This made sense at the time, but I found later that for the quality/length of the game, it was still a bit high. Since the announcement of this game, I've permanently halved Full Gear's price to 5$, and I want to keep that price for NBTP too.
Now - Nothing Beyond This Point is much higher quality in pretty much every way (graphics, animations, effects, length, design, music, etc), but I still don't feel comfortable asking more for it. If it releases early 2026, I'll have worked on it for 1.5 years, which just isn't that long of a development cycle for videogames. Games take long to make, but it's a lot easier when you uhhh. don't have backgrounds.
So. There'll be a 5$ price tag for Nothing Beyond This Point. I haven't decided on discounts yet, but come on, 5 bucks is dirt cheap for a game you'll love for at least 6 hours. Even if it tries to kill you. So be sure to grab it when it comes out.
If you want to support me further, I'll also release the soundtrack - currently well over an hour long and still increasing! - for 1$ separately.
Rounding things off
Maybe it doesn't seem much to you, but a thousand people interested in my solo-developed game is a lot. I'm seriously grateful for it. I'll keep working, polishing, doing the best I can. The wishlists and positive reactions really help keeping me going - after all, what's the point of making a game if nobody enjoys it?
Signing off. Good luck out there, and thank you all so much!
- Dieuwt
