Hey everyone, Rich here, today is a pretty huge day for us. Beta for Gunsmith is finally upon us.
We will go live with this version around 8pm LONDON UK time or ( GMT )
I’ll drop the trailer here; it is on the Steam page anyway but here as well if you want to see it.
If anyone missed the more in depth video on what is coming that is also here;
I don't usually get the time to spend a considerable amount of time writing up my thoughts as im a full time dev and a dad of 2 young kids but we've actually for once been ahead of schedule so I thought id take some time to chat and share my experiences working on Gunsmith over the last few years.
It’s taken four years of development to get here and a lot of hard work and learning. I wanted to take some time out to do a write up for those interested to read what it was like to get to this point and what we’ve learned over the years.
When we first started off working on the project we were fairly new to UE4 however we were excited because we could see how powerful and easy it was to get to grips with the engine.
We all had a super long journey of self teaching and experimenting, learning to make 3D models, learning to write blueprints, learning to make a game from scratch even.
We knew that we wanted to make a factory game based around the arms trade and we thought if we combined that with some fun crafting we would have a pretty good game on our hands. What we didn't realise is how many people would actually really like the idea.
With this idea came our biggest strength and our biggest weakness. A great idea, however with a scope far surpassing that of 2 people. We were just super hyped and ambitious at the time and I thought screw it let's go for and we will work that out later.
Well it turns out that making a 3D factory game with over 500 items that all need their own graphics recipes and balances is kinda time consuming. Just to name a few things.
But the enthusiasm for your first original game is a huge driver especially when people are enjoying it and the feedback is positive.
The journey to get to the BETA has been absolutely crazy and the amount of things we have added is actually quite incredible for a team of our size and I'm super proud.
Some of the biggest lessons we’ve learned, shock, planning what you are going to do is actually much faster in the long run rather than just running with an idea. Some of you might notice on our other games that we have been developing generally much faster and that's because we are vastly more experienced in the planning and execution process.
Gunsmith has definitely taken longer than I would have expected it to take. About halfway through its life cycle we were starting to feel the pinch of a game that was not growing as fast as it should have been or was starting to lose momentum.
This put us in a situational crisis where I personally had to make tough calls. Do we plough ahead with Gunsmith and potentially this situation does not get better and we are in a really risky place, or do we try and get more games onto the market to support our team as a whole.
Ultimately we went with option 2 which paid off and has allowed us to continue development on Gunsmith.
I do want to probably make a video explaining my views on Early Access games, having more than one title in development etc in more depth at some point but in short. With my experience speaking from a developer that has grown a company from nothing to multiple titles.
This notion of having to finish a game totally 100% or die on your sword has got to go. I urge any developers who are in a financial rock and hard place. Do not wait for your game to randomly turn its fortunes around as you could run out of time if you can't achieve this and then the dream is over.
If that happens you will never finish the game. There's an argument to say that if we went full tilt on the game it could have gotten more popular but we were feeling that was a super high risk roll of the dice.
Gunsmith fell into a situation where it made us enough money to get on our feet, stay comfortable for a few of those early months, however then the burn rate of the money started to catch up as every month is not super profitable. I can't complain at all, it’s been a blessing to have a game provide us with this much long tail but it just didn't have the early explosion we needed to finance a title of this magnitude.
All of this was a massive learning curve for us. Especially when you consider we started at “let's make this cool factory game” and then years later im discussing diversification of titles and long tails of development etc.
I would actually have loved more than anything to just have been able to finish Gunsmith and wrap it up. But it just didn't play out like that and you sometimes have to play the hand you're given. I’ve never been a quitter, and people close to me will tell you, I can be down but i'm not out, not unless it’s literally impossible and I have zero options. I will try my hardest to not fail. Sometimes we get a lot of the classics. Abandoned game omg !!11. Not here. As ive always said, my company will deliver on the promises we make unless there is an impossible situation.
We would never cut and run and until I'm no longer in charge ( dead ) that won't happen. I think it's happening far too much in the industry now even when some of us make millions it’s still a cut and run. Anyway, I digress.
So we did what we had to and although its taken longer than I would have liked we are finally getting there. Its been a slow burner but we are super proud of where the game is now and we hope all of you that have stuck with us in the long haul will enjoy what is coming in the Beta and what's to come in the run up to the full 1.0 launch.
I will say a super huge thanks to everyone that has supported us to this point. Without you all we would have no reason to continue so a massive thank you. You know who you all are. Also a big thanks to the SCT team. We are a tiny team of 5 now but we are absolutely rocking it and with everyday that passes we get better and better at making high quality titles on a low budget.
After this Beta goes live we will be going to get an update ready for our other game JUNKPUNK, its also a factory game so if you like what you see maybe hop on over there and play that.
JUNKPUNK ON STEAM HERE
and if you like city builders we are also building a funny city builder as a side project here;
Blockville ON STEAM HERE
Don't worry theres no more games in the works until Gunsmith is finished. But i can't wait to share more of my game designs with the world and im really excited for the future.
Lastly I will say, we always need your help in telling people about our games and dropping us reviews so shameless plug time… If you’re still here, tell a friend, tell a Youtuber or drop a review. It would really help us out.
Thanks as always.
Rich