Hello everyone! It has been a while.
I hope you like our new Steam capsule arts, I decided to change it preemptively before the new capsule policies send our visibility deep into the abyss, haha.
Summary
A lot happened since the last dev update that we posted here, and I wanted to just keep you guys updated and aware of what has been going on with Gamble Tower's development.
What happened to Early Access? What about Closed Beta?
Previously I released a "small" video where I talked about some release dates for both the game (Early Access at the time) and the closed beta, this video is now of course largely inaccurate as our game is no longer going to be available under Early Access and the Closed Beta has been delayed to a TBD date for now.
Closed Beta
But why it didn't happen?
The closed beta has been delayed due to a lot of things happening on our personal lives currently, for instance, I had to spend almost the entire month of June and July moving to another town - Finding a place, signing contracts, fixing-up our previous apartment and things like that.
Essentially, life happened, and I apologize profusely for announcing yet another release date that we couldn't meet. - It won't happen again.
I explained a little bit more thoroughly on our Discord, but from now on we won't announce any release dates until what has been announced is already 99% finished.
I think it's a good policy to apply, right?
Will it happen?
Yes, we are reorganizing ourselves to be able to actually hold our Closed Beta as soon as possible, content-wise the game is already very close to what we want to have in CB.
I would say that the CB is around 70% done, but I can't announce a date until we finish the remaining 29% to reach the previously said 99%. (Complicated numbers, eh?)
No more Early Access?
No, we decided to not release Gamble Tower under the Early Access anymore.
Why?
Actually, the original plan (on the starting development months) was to release it as a full game, the idea to put it as an EA title came from the fact that we had a very tight deadline that we had to rigorously follow at the time: To release it on 15th of May of 2020
Since we weren't going to be able to finish the ENTIRE game in less than six months, we changed it into Early Access.
What? Why did that deadline exist?
Long story short: I was working as a freelancer, and my contract theoretically would end on May 2020, which would leave me and my fiancee completely buckless, no money for bills, rent, etc. - Therefore we had until then to finish and release the game.
Gamble Tower actually emerged as a fun side project, that turned into an actual product because of the fact that we HAD to get money somehow. And that was the only way I thought that we could do that back then.
This entire idea of trying to get money with the first indie game of course was COMPLETELY flawed and naive for a variety of reasons, but again, we don't exactly think straight when we go indie, eh?
What now?
As you might expect, I ended up getting other revenue sources and decided to spend more time making Gamble Tower a better experience and just a better game in general, without the need to rush it.
Currently we (me and my fiancee) are doing well financially, however due to that we don't have as much time as we had back then, so following strict deadlines, release dates and (if we were to release Gamble Tower in Early Access) roadmaps is out of question right now.
So...?
Okay, so now that you understand all of this... complicated development hell nonsense.
It's easier to understand that I just prefer to release Gamble Tower as a complete and fun title from the start, so that we can focus on just bugfixing and polishing after release, instead of having to follow roadmaps and deadlines without being able to.
Wheeen?
Soon, my friends.
I hope we are able to release the closed beta soon, and provide the full Gamble Tower experience later this year.
See you all soon!