A Look Back at Launch, and What's Next for Grimveil
It's been a wild week. Grimveil has now been live on Steam long enough for me to take a step back, look at what went right, what went wrong, and what I've learned from the experience. I've gotten a lot of feedback and most of it has been very helpful in exposing a lot of shortcomings of the game. I hope everyone knows I see all of this feedback and I'm working as hard as I can to polish this game and make it as enjoyable as I can for you.The Release
The release was too early, I see that now in hindsight, but I think it was inevitable being my first steam release. There were so many things about this process that I didn't know and never could have known without going through it. I wasn't prepared for everything that happened; the massive inflow of new accounts, the various platform differences from PC to PC, the many different resolutions people play on, etc. I don't really know what I expected to happen when I pressed the button to release on steam. I knew it would get me some more players, I knew some of them would hate my game. I did not expect hundreds to try logging in almost immediately...which caused some latency issues that I believe are all fixed now. I estimate the server should be able to handle 500 concurrent players and possibly even more.
Six updates in six days.
I've come out with 6 updates since the steam release. I believe I've fixed almost all of the major complaints I've received and added some really cool new features along the way. I don't think I can keep up this sort of update pacing long term but I'm doing everything I can to make it right because I know first impressions are everything. I know that most of the people that tried my game and didn't like it will never give it a second chance, but I wish they would because I promise it's a completely different experience from the initial release. Going forward I expect to normalize at a more reasonable update pacing of probably 1 per week at first and then maybe even slowing down to 1 per month as things get larger and more complex.
Those who stuck with me
I sincerely thank everyone that is still here and still helping me improve the game. The biggest goal I've had for this game is to make something enjoyable and truly the biggest reward is just watching people enjoy it. If you're enjoying Grimveil, please consider leaving a review on Steam. Reviews make an enormous difference for a small game like this and help other players discover it. Even a short review means a lot to me. Truly all I can do is thank anyone who has even tried the game, it's a big honor and I hope I can turn things around for the better!