Hey folks – time to come in here with a quick update on how things have gone over the last few months...
I’ll be open to admitting that since our last update, the last few months have been the most challenging for the team here.
Note: Before diving too far into this, I will eventually write a post-mortem article to help other developers who may find themselves in this position. I just need to be very careful with my words. But please feel free to share this story, and if you're a developer fearing the same issues, please reach out to me!
Shu and I have spent the last 12-18 months getting the game ready for Mobile and Switch release, opting to bring this in house rather than outsourcing. We wanted the best possible product, and that includes our custom built cross-save system for players. We were proud of what we’d done, and excited to finally release on Switch at the start of April.
The first week went really well, and our marketing and release plans seemed to be very smooth! However, at the end of our first week, we received notice that Vault of the Void had been reclassified from the ratings board as a “M” rated game, for Blood, Violence and Gore.
The problem with this was, that the game was removed from the store immediately, without warning, and the process of restoration was… long. I can’t go into the internal processes sadly, but the results stand as:
Removed from the store in the second week of April
Restored to the store last week (second week of June)
The worst part was, we were powerless to the process. There was no way we could call, email or communicate to get things moving faster. The internal process made us powerless, and forced us to a sit and wait situation. This lead to a massive loss of all marketing budget, momentum and visibility on the New Release charts.
My thoughts are pretty transparent about the "M" rating to start with, but I won’t go into that on this post.
At the end of the day, it was a massive gut punch after working so hard on the project. We both felt horrible and powerless, and quite frankly, defeated. The good news is, things are back on the store now, and hopefully we can start to gather more momentum again, although the effects of the process are very evident when looking at the sales numbers.
The byproduct of this was, sadly, that the last 2 months of development time has been caught up in this. We’ve pivoted back to the new expansion class now, and progress has been great. We’ll start development diaries very soon to start showing progress.
The Fallout
One of things that isn’t easy to address, is the financial impact this had. I’ve been public in the past about my hopes to release the new class for free to Steam players, and a small DLC cost for Mobile. Our hopes were that the Nintendo sales would help carry that out to be a possibility, but sadly, due to everything outlined above, that isn’t the case anymore. The impact this has had, plus the games current lifecycle, means that the new class will probably need to come tied to a small DLC cost. Our hopes here are that it can carry things on so we can do more classes (and games!) in the future as well.
That news isn't great to type – and I hope people can understand. We’re committed to continuing work on Vault, we love the game and the playerbase. We want to continue this journey, but sadly that has to include a small DLC to help support the team here.
Thank you everyone for your patience as we navigated this difficult time.
All for now.
- Josh
Edit: Wow -- I can't thank everyone enough for the love and support shown to this post. It's overwhelming how special the community is around this game, and how much you all genuinely care.
A lot of comments about a Developer Supporter Pack, I just wanted to link the one we have active right now! We will look into the option of another however, prehaps cashing in our new M for Mature rating haha :D
From Shu, Dabor and I, a massive thank you! We can't wait to showcase more of the new class!!