Hello everyone.
For many of you this is probably a highly anticipated news post, but I’d say my team’s anticipation was a bit higher because the game release is primarily a big celebration for the developer, not the player. However, it should be noted that if the product is not to the players’ liking, the celebration won’t last long. Either way, once the game is released, we can all let out a sigh of relief and relax for a moment. It brings me joy to realize that will happen during the New Year holidays.
The release date hasn’t been set in stone yet but most likely it’ll be the end of November. The closest approximate release date for us is 18.11.2021. It’s due to Steam rules, there’s no chance the game will come out sooner than that. Most likely, we’ll release it a little bit later.
VC 2 will be released as an Early Access game. We’ve said a lot of times that if we can’t implement in time everything we’ve planned, it’s best we release the game like this. Well, guess we’ll see how our community reacts to this decision.
We plan to release the full episode in the next big update. However, we may split that update in two parts.
Main changes in comparison with the first episode:
- In terms of visuals, the number of renders per one scene has increased. It boosts the visual representation of the game as well as dynamics of scenes. No one likes reading tons of text when the picture on the screen remains the same.
- Game interface has undergone big changes, both in terms of visuals and code.
- We hired an animator to our team; the number of animations and their quality has been significantly improved. A few test animations were also added to the first episode of the game.
- We’ve also hired one more writer who helped us better refine the main story line.
- The new combat system. It’s become deeper with some tactical element to it; but it still needs balancing, small new «features» and creatures to fight. Some mechanics were delayed, such as perks system and enhancements.
Why’d it took us so long to make this update…
This is our fault, though I’d say it’s mostly my fault, the one who writes this post. This happened because of many mistakes made during management and irrational allocation of resources and time of my team.
Before the release of the first episode, I didn’t really believe in success. We tried to advertise the game on another platform, and no one was really interested in it. Once we released it on Steam and people there liked it, the success kind of clouded my mind. I thought that with money we can finally do everything I’ve wanted. I thought it was time to expand, get better and so on.
I think that I just said the same story of roughly 99 % of teams out there who’re busy making games (and not just them). However, everything’s not as easy as it seems at first sight. Like I said before, a lot of time has been wasted in vain.
Of course, the game development process has also been affected by a well-known disease, but it wasn’t that critical. Overall, we lost one month because of it.
However, where there are cons, there are always pros. I’ve already described two pros earlier. We’ve found two new people for our team and so far, they’ve been a great help to us. The pain of getting bigger is a common phenomenon. And who knows, we might make the same mistake again in the future. That’s just how human mind works.
Either way, I humbly apologize for this delay personally and on behalf of our whole team.
Regarding the early access.
So far, we’ve been able to implement around 70-80 % of planned content. There’s one big event at the beginning of the game which we’ll keep working on after the release and trust me, there’s plenty work there; It has many small side events. The main story isn’t 100 % finished yet, but we’re getting there. We’d like to add as many mini events as possible, but we need to remember that we’re limited in time, besides I’d rather not turn the game into a series of small events.
That’s it for now, the game release will happen soon. Those who’re interested, give it a try. Even though I’d like to see money from sales, I suggest you wait for the final version of the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1797300/Voids_Calling_ep_2/?beta=1