Wow, what an amazing week it's been!
Thank you so much to everyone playing Sludgineers, posting reviews, streaming and making content, submitting bug reports, feedback and all the super cool ideas - we really appreciate all of it ❤️
The reception has been amazing for our small 2 person team from New Zealand, reaching over 55,000 Unit Sales in just the first week of launch, and over 1,000 Very Positive Reviews!
We've delivered two key patch updates, covering late game grind, performance, critical bugs and further balance improvements, with a third patch on it's way very soon to fix an array of miscellaneous bugs, with some improvements and additions based on suggestions from the community.
So what's next?
To be honest, we feel we can improve the end game fun and replay-ability, it was lacking and we acknowledge that - so it will be the focus first. In processing everyone's feedback and with some initial design discussions, we are currently considering new 'Challenge / Modifier Mode' type mechanics.
We haven't locked down all the details, in fact we've only had a few short conversations in-between all the patch updates, but the loose overview would be something like this; After finishing the final level (no spoilers) you get New Challenges / Modifiers to complete per level - making levels Different & More Varied, in return for Higher & More Interesting Rewards.
Part of the formula for us in considering future updates is how 'content heavy' they are. Things like new levels, new pollution types and tools, new biomes etc are very content heavy, and so will take a lot longer to produce. Our strategy is to try to get updates out within a reasonable time frame initially, then slowly scale them up into the more meaningful content heavy updates in the future.
The caveat here is, this is all currently theory, and we will be continuing to listen to the community and adjust accordingly to give you what you want, in a way that we think is also best for the game.
Our design board is filling up with some great ideas submitted by you, there's definitely a few in particular I think would be great additions to the game.
Ultimately, once Patch #3 is released, then we will have time to breathe, catch up as a team and have more in-depth design discussions to plan the future of Sludgineers.
Thank you again for playing and for all the support, it means a lot! ❤️
Andy & Aaron