Hey! The roadmap! We didn't forget!
So, our current plan is to release the next major unit of content in 6 months. This is not a hard deadline. Currently, the schedule seems pretty packed to hit this date, so we may move it further out if we are not in a good state by then. The absolute latest we expect to have it out is 8 months if everything goes wrong. We may also be done a little bit quicker if things go over well.
What will that content be, you ask? There will be two primary areas added to the game.
Wait, isn't that just the hub from the demo? Why yes! But with many new connected areas.
The first one will be New Zabra, the non-combat hub. It is the city in which the game takes place. You will be re-visiting throughout the game as it is where the story advances and where missions will be acquired. The hub will not be finalized in this release since it will be updated with additional NPCs and quests throughout the progression of the story. Currently, you will be able to explore the central area as well as Mozah's modest accommodations, and you will be able to explore some expositionary dialogue as well as receive the next mission, included in the same release.
This new area will introduce an entirely new faction and explore what their way of life is like.
The second location will be the abandoned railway tunnels below New Zabra. The city is comprised of many districts built on top of one another, and the lowest ones have been abandoned due to the dwindling population. The public transportation tunnels which connected those now barren areas have been taken over by a strange group of off-worlders. Mozah will need to infiltrate it in order to complete a mission of subterfuge and sabotage.
This content release will be the first time you see level art not created by me, Dizzie. I have collaborated with the other developer, Arachne, on the hub, and the railway tunnels are a collaboration between Arachne and Foxen, a part-time environment artist which we used our Patreon income to hire. I hope you like the variety in the new environments!
Citizens of the Empire! Welcome... To... The... Arena!
In the meantime, we are releasing Arena Mode, so that you have something to chew on while you wait for the new content! This mode is not infinite, but currently it's so dang hard that I doubt anyone will get to the end of it. It is currently a gauntlet, meaning you cannot heal at any point and must simply survive as many rounds as possible. We are thinking of adding healing every X number of rounds, and increasing the total number of rounds. Please leave your feedback! This is a very early version and we are looking to improve it a lot. We find it very fun already, as it's a great opportunity to test out all the combat mechanics.
Initially we wanted to take a month off to work to recover from the mad crunch and create side-content such as challenge maps and more in-depth tutorials. Unfortunately, the game has barely sold enough to allow us to live as two people below a single minimum wage for the next year and a half, so it looks like we're going to have to compact our schedule, crunch even harder and cut as much content as possible to be able to release without hemorrhaging all of our money. I am currently guesstimating that enough additional sales will trickle in over the course of the year to make that into two and a half years, which would be enough time to complete the project, although it will remain an absolutely insane volume of work at that pace. We work every day from the moment we wake up to when we go to sleep, and we take one weekend a month, just about. I think I'd like to write more deeply on that + the harassment we've been facing in the near future, but I won't bore you with the details for now. I still haven't decided how I feel about it! All I know is that we set out on this project because we really love the medium of videogames and we wanted to tell this story, and that hasn't changed yet, so you best believe that we are still in the race. Also, I hate that even saying any of this will probably provoke some kind of hateful reaction from someone in the forums, that's mostly been the take-away for me these past few days. ;D
So, I guess, stay tuned for more details! We'll be posting updates semi-frequently. If you want the absolute latest, most cutting edge news, visit us on the Discord. We are almost always available to answer your questions.
(The patch notes for the arena update will be available as a separate news post so that they can be tied to the build!)
See you, Galactic Gauchos,
-Team Fortune