Hello, Steam.
Yesterday there were some changes on Crosstalk's store page. Originally, it opened by describing Crosstalk as a sandbox in which you could build PCB cities. However, as I was creating the visual effects for it last week and the week prior, I didn't like what I was seeing. It didn't match the vision that I had for something that you'd call a "cool-looking circuit board city." Trying various effects, like volumetric fog, got the looks of it closer to the vision, but it cost frame time. The electrical side of it is working, component placement and routing work, and the component library is populated, but the visuals don't cut it.
There is also something to be said about the nature of the feature. I don't feel that engaged when working on it. It is something purely in the presentation layer, which is what players come into contact with using their eyes, which I think plays a part. I much more enjoyed working on, say, the FPGA integration feature.
Given this, I decided to not release the city-builder as the very first Early Access feature. It will instead come later down the line, once I get the visuals right. I still have the image of what I want it to look like in my head and want to reflect that in what my actual eyes perceive when I work on it, but it will have to be later. I don't want to force it out the way it is because it feels like a bunch of components in the midst of a void. The PCB surface is nearly completely flat, which doesn't happen in cities. The component density is not that high when viewed from the first-person perspective of a small person standing on top of the PCB and looking into the distance. At that scale, you can see the flatness all around.
That is to say, I don't want to release it in a bad state. There are other features that Crosstalk brings, which make it more useful, relative to a city-builder.
The party multiplayer mode and social features remain, so people could work on designs together.
Thank you for your understanding,
*DanglingPtr