Hey, guys, here we are again with our monthly update. This one's special, because it's the last pre-release one!
We're very excited to share what we've been doing, so let's begin right away!
We listened to YOU
The first part of The Hand of Glory received great reviews both by the press and by players all over the world (you backers included)! Not only the feedback we've collected was fulfilling, but it also helped us improving the second part. Here's the major changes you will find:
- Balanced difficulty: many of you suggested that the game would be better without too many hints by the main characters. We listened and removed some of those hints in part 2, or we changed them making them less explicit. Keep in mind we want THOG to be accessible to any kind of player, but you'll definitely need to use your brain!
- Animations: we don't want to brag, but let's say it: THOG is full of animations and videos. Despite this, some reviews claimed there were few of them and we just couldn't ignore it. We decided to try to animate everything (yeah, everything) our main characters will do, improving the quality at the same time. Did we succeed? You'll find out soon!
- Alice: We were pleasantly surprised by the comments regarding Alice and the relationship between her and Lars. Some of you asked for more space for her, and you know what? We did it. You will use kinesics again, of course, but not only. We really dig playing with Alice, we hope you'll like her game sections too!
- Death scenes: One of the criticism we received was about the death scenes in the game. We admit it, maybe we exaggerated a little as far as difficulty goes. This doesn't mean we regret having death scenes in THOG, as we feel they are necessary for the kind of atmosphere that we want to obtain. For Part 2 we will have new, truculent ways of dying, they'll just be easier to beat;
- Easter eggs: we had thousand of crazy ideas for Easter eggs, but we weren't sure if you guys would appreciate them. Now we know you all love them as much as we do, therefore we added new, funny moments in the game. Some of them are just random acts of stupidity by Lars (he can't avoid them), some of them are real secrets hidden in the game (how many have you found everything in Part 1? Let us know)!
Our work in the last month
As you can imagine, things have been dramatically frenetic during the last few weeks. Here's what we've been up to:
-Voice over: one of the toughest challenges of our lives, considering the amount of texts we have in THOG. Despite this, we wanted to bring you a quality, professional dubbing. Matthew Curtis (Lars) and Maya Tuttle (Alice) are obviously back, but we're happy about the complete cast we had the opportunity to work with. We can't wait for you to meet them all!
-Backers: during our Kickstarter campaign, some of you purchased the longed-for “Part of the cast” pledge, which gave you the chance to be a part of the game. We were able to give each and every one of them a role in the story. Mind that, not a simple appearance: every backer will have a role, helping Lars some way or another (or trying to stop him, even)! The work with these backers was just great, and we had tons of fun while doing it;
-Scenes, characters and stuff: we always had a rule, while developing THOG: no boundaries. This is one of the reasons we had a few delays, but we think it eventually paid back. We want the game to be rich, full of characters, animations, special shots, and so on. As a result, we continued adding stuff to the game until the very end (and we'll probably keep adding something after the release). Here's a new scene for you, enjoy!
Release plans
We're so close to the release of the game we already can't sleep at night! Here's our official plan for the months to come:
- Official release date: December 2, 2020 (yeah, we have one last slight delay, be patient please);
- Backer release: as soon as the dubbing is completely tested, probably one week before the official release;
- Backer with beta access release: you will be contacted within the next few days with a code to join the beta. Keep an eye on your email!
- German subtitles: Q1 2021. We're very sorry about this particular delay, but understand that we don't want to rush our translators. We want your experience to be as professional as possible;
- Physical rewards: Q1 2021;
- Switch release: TBA, but we're working on it!
Around the corner
It's a strange sensation, almost like being on the edge of a cliff, but we're almost there. This has been a great journey, full of joy, surprises (we'll never forget the end of the Kickstarter campaign), but also struggles and challenges. Let's be clear: we couldn't make it without you guys. Without all of you who supported us, tolerated our delays and believed in The Hand of Glory.
As always, we need to close this newsletter by asking you one last push, some things you could do to help us even more:
1- Follow us on all the social networks (except Tik Tok, we're too old for that);
2- Share our game everywhere you can (social groups, forums, your rich neighbor, be inventive)!
3- PLEASE, leave a brief review on Steam! You have no idea how much help it is for us to survive in the market!
And that's it. As always, thank you for reading and for supporting.
Stay safe, everyone!
