Hey future Longvinter player, our playtesters, community members,
This is the last Devlog before the Early Access launch on February 24, 2022, and in addition to the launch trailer, I’d like to write down some thoughts and let you all know what’s going on.
Myself and Nilsson are excited and happy that we’ve got to the point that we can finally release the game next week. I have to say there has only been a handful of occasions in my life where I’ve felt as nervous as I feel right now.
I know there will be bugs, some even game-breaking. There will be problems with the servers, and some features may feel empty right now, at least for some players. I know this, and I wish it wasn’t going to be like that. This is my dream game after all, but releasing NOW is the only way for us to keep developing the game, for a couple of reasons.
We’re a team of two. We’ve both worked full-time on this game, have been for a year, and will continue for as long as there are players playing (fingers crossed there will be). This means that we’ve been working for 0$/hour for a year. We have rent to pay, servers that need to be up 24/7, and quite frankly, I’d like to have somewhat of a normal life for a change. I don’t know about Nilsson, but I can sense that he’d like that too 😃
Then there is the fact that we’re making a multiplayer game, a multiplayer game with possibly +50 players on a server at one time. We can’t test the game features with just the two of us. We need a community of players to stress test the servers to find out where the limits are. We can’t just blindly add features and hope that they work on live servers. This is why Early Access exists.
Also, I don’t feel like it is a wise move to work on a game for 3 years to then find out if it works or not. It’s not wise in a business sense, in a time management sense, it’s not wise be it anything you build yourself and haven’t done before, in any sense, and if you’re an indie dev doing that, chances are that you’re screwed and you could have spent that time creating something of actual value to someone other than yourself.
So this left us with a choice between two options: 1. We quit working on the game, go work for someone else until we have enough money again; or option 2. We release now.
There was a third option: working with a publisher, but that’s kinda the same as option 1, only we wouldn’t stop making the game. We got a decent amount of offers, but none of them ever went anywhere. Some of the people we talked with were nice and kind, and at least for me, gave a boost in motivation when I needed it, but most of them felt off in some way. Maybe it was prejudice on my part, but I never felt like a publisher could do anything for us, not for the price they were asking for at least, and some of them just ruined any chance of future collaboration with their lack of proper communication.
One could argue that maybe we bit off a little more than we could chew, and to that, I’d say: if you don’t like the way we chew, leave the room and return once we are done eating.
If you fear that you might not get your money’s worth, please, do not buy the game yet. Read the recent reviews once in a while and ask for an opinion from someone you trust, someone that has played the game.
If you see potential, and you want to participate in the development of the game, to direct us in the right direction, to tell us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong, and you have the means to support us, then we would be forever grateful that you allowed us to make the game we always wanted to make, and we will do everything in our power to make you a game that will provide you with hours of joyful experiences.
I hope to see you in-game next week,
– @Teo