This is the third time now we've had to make a "rentry" post like this about delays, so I'm just going to get to the point about why we're not releasing in March, so that I can get back to work ASAP.

Simply put, the game just won't be done by then, or at least, it won't be done to an adequate level.

To be clear, we're not talking about "continuing development forever to make a perfect game"; there's a lot of content we've already decided not to do and even more we've got planned for post-release. This is entirely about the core game content not being done yet and needing time to bug-test it to get rid of the worst bugs.

So while all the cutscenes will be done by March's end, the True Final Boss will be done by March's end, the sound effects will be in, etc...


...there's four things that won't be done by March's end, and we'll need that extra month or so to get these things done.

Those things are;

We need time for bugtesting; this is the biggest time-sink and issue right now.

The NextFest demo for Steam made it very clear just how many bugs we thought we'd fixed or issues that were brought up that weren't found until this point, and yes, there will of course be bugs at launch as we can't fix everything, but some of these bugs were fairly significant (ex. Frouge had to redo the entire controller/gamepad code from the ground up).

We need time for the voice actors to get their voicework in.

This isn't the fault of the voice actors, to be clear; this is entirely on me for taking so long to get scriptwork done. In between map fixing, bug-testing myself, getting the game working on Steam, and a million other things, it's taken me much, much longer to get the script completed than I thought.

Voice actors have thier own lives too, of course, so they need time to record voicework, and we don't want to release the game with large chunks of it unvoiced.

We need time for the music mastering and the remaining music tracks.

Recently, our musician, Wishful Simping, was unfortunately hacked by the recent Discord hacks going around. He's had to spend the last week (and is still continuing to do so) re-organizing his life because they hit him pretty hard; they got ahold of his PayPal, got multiple new Discord accounts he made banned, and so on.

As a result, he's had to format his computer/wipe his financial and online account connections thoroughly, as well as re-install all of his software, preferences, etc. which, mixed in with his day job, has eaten up a lot of his time.

We need time for bug FIXING.

Once we get the complete build of the game done and the testers run through that, there'll likely be more bugs; as a result, those bugs will need to be actually fixed.

If you'd like to see a current list of the bugs testers and ourselves have found, you can see that here; https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1d9ZnGfEd01oWYgCRriPkiYAQIm3kirK3ehX9aXrf6rM/edit?usp=sharing

Yes, that is a whopping 168 bugs left to be fixed, and that's just from what people have found.

That's not counting bugs they'll find from;

  • Cutscenes
  • True Final Boss Fight
  • Stealth Section
  • Achievements
  • Endings

So in short, we've decided to put up the vague date of Spring 2022 for the release date, because we don't want to tell you it'll be done on a specific date when we ourselves honestly don't know how long it'll take to finish things off, get things tested, and deliver you all the game the right way, instead of a bug-filled, not-fully-completed game.

As always too, full refunds are still available for those backing on Patreon.

Also as always, I have to note that as with the last months, we've definitely continued to go down more and more each month and we've long since passed the point of "staying afloat" with finances, even after taking out that $30,000 loan (as that's all going to voicework), so there's zero way this is a "milking attempt". Probably the first month of sales on Steam alone is going to just be paying off our debts, at this point.

But even if it ruins us financially...
...we simply don't want to release the game with the voicework, soundtrack, true final boss, achievements system, and script incomplete.
Nor do we want to release it with a myriad of bugs that would harm quality of life/game quality.

You, the players, the backers, the lurkers, everyone, no one deserves to get such a game just dumped on them.

So, Spring 2022 it is. We'll be doing our best to get it out to you all finally, finally, finally.

Edit
Pub: 20 Feb 2022 19:48 UTC
Edit: 20 Feb 2022 20:19 UTC
Views: 552