Hi Prehistorians! We know it's been a while, so let's get into it. Moving our release window to Q2. So, first of all, we are very sorry to move the release window back again - we get it.
It's frustrating and we completely understand how disappointing it can feel, especially as we've now moved the game several times before. We understand this weakens trust and that is certainly not how we want to interact with our community.
This is our first commercial release as a studio and a lot of this is a learning experience for us. The honest truth is we are working really hard to get this right and as we said in our December update, we rebuilt some of the underlying systems after feedback from our demo. It has taken longer than we hoped to iron out some bugs, polish and test them. We also redesigned a couple of the encounters following testing feedback. At this stage of development there are a lot of moving goal posts and some of them have caught us completely off guard. Some of them - well, we should have seen coming and have given ourselves more time from the get-go - rather than moving the window back constantly and letting you guys down. When the specific date is locked in for us, we will announce it and you will be able to count on it.
So, what is next for Clawed before release? New Demo content and QOL updates are coming. While we had planned to leave the demo as is we changed our mind.
So, as we move closer to release, updates to the demo will resume. Our plan is to bring our new systems from the full game into the demo so that you guys can see the improvements, optimizations and changes we have made. Our first of our final demo updates rolled out today.
Along with performance optimizations, an overhauled opening Tram sequence, visual improvements and tweaks to progression in Main Street, the demo now features one of our mini games found in the main game - Carnivore Chaos. You can find the Carnivore Chaos shooting range in Main Street. The rules are simple - Shoot the Carnivores. Don't shoot the herbivores.
You get one point for a Carnivore and minus one for an Herbivore. We'd love to see your top scores! So, share them with us on Steam or Discord.
As this is not the detail filled update we had hoped to drop today, we thought we'd discuss one of the games main themes briefly: the duality of dinosaurs.
As we have touched on in previous posts, one of the great things about dinosaurs is that they can inspire both a sense of wonder and immense fear. As you progress through the Prehistoria, we want you to experience both sides of this idea - and following feedback from the demo and our own internal discussions, we leaned harder into both of these elements. A great example of this duality can be found in the park's Marine aquariums: Exploring one during the day can be beautiful, wonder inducing and a blast to see all the marine life swim past the glass as you make your way through.
However, entering one during the night is another story - walking through the glass tunnels surrounded by pitch-black water as a marine predator passes by your flashlight can leave hairs standing on your neck. It's a common theme in the game and something we feel some dinosaur games can miss. As we said in the past, dinosaurs are animals, not evil monsters. So, we have done our best to treat them as such in Clawed. Here some screen grabs from the full game (also known as apology pictures - we are truly sorry for the constant delays). We don't want to show too much as we believe exploring the park for yourself is half of the fun of Clawed. We know this is not the most insightful update today nor is it the one we all wanted. But we are very close to that discussion and really appreciate the support you have all shown us. We have received a lot of kindness and support - even following the delays - which means so much to us during a time like this. The next step is to drop another update at the end of this month.
Our next trailer will be our release date announcement.
The game is close - just not quite close enough to push the green button this quarter. It is not far. Thank you to everyone for all the support. If you have questions, please ask.
Feel free to join our community on discord too! It's a great place to chat! Veyra Island is almost ready to explore.
Please bear with us a little longer, we want this game to be polished and complete at launch. Appreciate you all Flatrock Team :)