After the release of the new patch, we’ve received a lot of feedback for better and worse. We have taken this to heart and have spent this week mainly on meetings about the game’s direction, the feedback so far, some changes, and what the plan forward is.
Many community members have raised concerns about the direction the game is taking, the development going back and forth, and how the community itself has affected the game to a great length. Taking this into consideration, we have internally sat down and discussed everything that has come to light. What we planned for Astride 2-3 years ago is not what is being portrayed at the moment. By focusing too much on the feedback, we have distanced ourselves from the core vision we had.
There has been too much focus on the multiplayer aspect of the game considering Astride was supposed to mainly be a single-player experience with the possibility of visiting a couple of friends. In the year 2024, multiplayer will be temporarily set aside (it will not be removed) and we will put all of our main focus on the single-player experience.
Along the way of development and constantly considering feedback, we have lost track of the vision we once had of Astride. The core game loop has been set aside and this is such an important part of any game. Much of this ties in with the daily work-in-progress posts on our Discord server that have opened the doors for a lot of feedback that has taken most of our focus. Therefore, we have decided to tone down the amount of work that we share with you on that platform. It’s saddening to announce this, as we know a lot of the community members have been looking forward to the daily posts of development, but it has turned into a hindrance for the development and has become more of a chore for the developers to constantly have something visual to show.
We want to reiterate the work-in-progress channel and use it to post features and development that are being added to the game. If the team needs feedback on features or assets that are being created, this can also be posted in the work-in-progress channel. For example, if we want feedback on animations, new horse breeds that are in the works, or other aspects of development that we’d like more feedback on. We think that this can enhance the overall quality of the game as we won’t be too focused on the minor details. The monthly devlogs will however continue as usual. The devlog for November will come next week at the latest.
But we can gladly announce that we have refined and improved the plot, story, and game loop that we want to create for Astride. This will be the main focus for 2024 and we are excited to share our plans with you.
At the start of the game, the player will be introduced to their aunt who is a renowned horse breeder and trainer. The aunt owns multiple facilities and just acquired a new one located in Eldheim. She doesn’t have the resources to manage the facility, so she gets in touch with you, the player, about moving to her newly acquired facility and working for her. You are already an experienced equestrian and will get the chance to bring your own horse with you. Einar is one of the employees that she hired before you arrive. Your responsibility will be to care for the few horses that are already stationed at the facility and deal with client requests.
The core gameplay loop will be in the form of days where the player will care for the horses, work on the before-mentioned client requests (it could be a horse in training, scouting for a perfect sale horse, or finding studs to create a foal from the wishes of the client), train and/or compete with your own horse that you were able to take with you to the facility.
As for generating player income, the aunt will pay the player a certain weekly wage for upkeep, feed, and other essentials of running the facility. The player will be able to choose and take on different contracts presented by the aunt with different needs that will be rewarded with a paycheck depending on how satisfied the client is with the result. Players can also generate income from competitions with their own horses, selling offspring they have bred forth, and even selling horses that the player bought and trained to increase their value.
There will still be a story aspect to Astride, but it will (at least for now) be scaled down to not be one, big main story, but rather quests that take the players through the story of Eldheim’s origins, the villagers living there, and other mysterious events that may occur. The player won’t be seen as a “hero”, but as someone who is a part of the town and infrastructure.
This is a lot of information in one go, but once we have got all of our plans down (December and parts of January will be spent on planning the next year), we will finally release a public roadmap to share with all of you. There won’t be any set dates, but rough estimates of when features can be finished and what features are being prioritized. We want to give you a look into our plans for the year without creating too many expectations, so we feel that a toned-down roadmap is the way to go.
Thank you for reading through this entire announcement. It is a lot of information to grasp in one go, but we will try our best to answer any concerns or questions regarding this. We also want to thank everyone for the support in creating Astride and for pouring your hearts into the project as much as we do.