Bonjour Mesdames et Messieurs. We have a message for all of you who braved the streets of Paris since Liberté entered Early Access.
As you know, we're very close with our community and always try to understand and meet your needs. That’s why we have decided to open the gates of Early Access and invite many of you to the community-driven development process to have a direct approach to task management in line with people's needs.
For a team of five, meeting your expectations takes a lot of time and work. Most of our actions and improvements to the game come from your feedback, and we are glad to say that this input is much appreciated and primarily valuable.
Now, we would like to shed some light on where our focus is and what changes we are introducing.
Note: We have updated this announcement to better portray the changes we are introducing. TL:DR, our focus until the official premiere is on polishing the game and expanding the narrative. The online co-op development is put on hold until the release; we plan to focus on it after the 1.0 version. There are no changes to the local co-op. As usual, we will be working with our community to polish the game.
Focus on the story: more dynamic narrative, new dialogues, lore collectibles
One of the key areas that we plan to develop in these final moments before leaving Early Access is to expand and polish the storytelling aspect of Liberté. Our writer - Kajetan - is planning to expand all the arcs and deliver a great finale for you to experience. We are planning to release the planned roadmap in a matter of days, but here's a sneak peek:
- A more dynamic narrative. Due to some big changes in the way the narrative works, we are able to have scenes starring more characters, add more linear events, and open gates to side stories.
- Expanded lore. The next patch updates will bring a lot of new content, including lore-related collectibles.
- Hundreds of new dialogues. That's right. We are adding lots of new stuff, with the plot finally revealing the truth behind Lady Bliss and what's the endgame for the revolution.
We honestly can't wait to see it live!
Online Co-op update: further development on hold until the release of version 1.0 & available on another Steam branch
We curiously observed different statistics on where Liberté brings the most fun. Data showed us not only your preferences gameplay-wise but also what parts of the games are most appreciated and which require some polishing (how do you like the new dodge, btw?). So, only 6% of all revolutionists tried our online co-op feature. While we appreciate the interest, we see many difficulties in providing constant support for that mode. Multiplayer bugs are twice as difficult to reproduce and way harder to fix without sacrificing our performance toward expanding Liberté's content and ensuring the road to the final release goes smoothly.
As a result, we have decided to put the development of the online co-op until the release of the 1.0 version.
Let's make it clear that we're not abandoning this idea of online co-op. Our solution is to leave the online function in a separate build, allowing players to switch to a different branch in the Steam properties. That way, if you want, you can still have fun with online co-op. This change will go live the day we ship the patch planned for January. We wanted to give you a heads-up so that the change won't happen overnight.
We want to put our efforts into something significantly more important, which will impact the game's final state. Our dream is to make Liberté one of the best roguelite games, and we believe it will happen with your support.
Our early plans for getting back to this idea are somewhere between Patch 1.1 and 1.2 after the final release. Leaving Early Access is on the horizon, and depending on how the launch goes and how many people will ask for this particular mode, we plan to revisit the idea of developing the online co-op further.
As always, you're the fire to our revolution
On a final note, we are humbled and overwhelmed by your positive vibes, whether on the Discord channel, Steam Review, and Community Center or offline events like Gamescom or PAX West. No sugar coating here - your support fuels the creation of every line of code, dialogue, and asset. We want to thank you for your continuous support and for helping us make Liberté a cool game!
Talk to you soon!
SuperStatic Studio
Daniel & Kajetan
Would you like to ask our devs for something specific? Please comment below and join our Discord Server for even more discussion!
See you soon!
P.S. As a token of gratitude for your everlasting support and feedback, we want to share with you a sneak peek of the new story areas that we are working hard on and that you will be able to visit in the January patch.
