Terrible puns aside, Windward has reached a major milestone today, officially leaving Early Access and hitting version 1.0! ARR!!
Getting to this day has certainly been one interesting experience... From the day Windward was conceptualized as more of a jest at GDC 2012 when I walked up to a certain legendary game designer and asked him a mischievous question to today, it certainly hasn't been a straight run by any means. Some of you may be aware that Windward was actually started in 2012, only to be put on hold due to various reasons. Between the success of a small side project of mine (NGUI) and me joining Unity Technologies for a year I had no time left for poor ol' Windward. Back then it seemed that the game was going to become just another one of my started but unfinished projects that would sit on the back burner and haunt the deep blue depths of my dreams until the end of days...
Well, thankfully that quite obviously didn't come to pass! On the 1st of August in 2014 I simply woke up and decided that it was time to start finishing the things I left undone, and I sat down and looked at Windward's code again. I could continue where I left off... but the 2012 version of the game felt too static to me; too rigid... I wanted something more -- something epic and procedurally generated. I also had to completely redo networking part of it anyway, so scrap it I did.
It only took a few months to redo the game and turn it into a moderately fun playable state, and so Windward launched on Steam Early Access in October last year. The feedback I got from early players reinforced my idea that I was on the right track this time, but also that I still had a lot of work ahead of me. I originally thought that Windward would only need 1 to 2 months in Early Access, if you can believe it. Well, that quite obviously turned out to be very wrong, as here we are 6 months later! Lesson learned... don't make any plans until you get players involved and hear their feedback!
Speaking of feedback -- the feedback I got during Early Access have all been truly invaluable in the game's development. Had I not gotten the comments, suggestions, bug reports and in general just other players to play with throughout the beta process, Windward would be but a shadow of the game it is today.
And so from me to all the beta players: Thank You! You guys are awesome. Enjoy the game, and please continue to offer your feedback!
See you on the high seas,
- Michael "ArenMook" Lyashenko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhASte-REy4