Welcome to our first post of our new Dev Blog series! The plan so far is to release one post a week from our dev blog. These posts will cover a variety of topics such as game progress, technology highlights, lore snippets and more! If there’s anything that you would like to see covered in future posts, feel free to pop a post in the Discussions, or join our Only By Midnight Discord!
Since this is our first Dev Blog post for Ctrl Alt Deal, I feel that it's the perfect time to give a brief history of the project to understand how we got to where we are today.
The idea of Ctrl Alt Deal, initially called negot•AI•te, started to take shape in the second half of 2021. Our first title, Curved Space, had released that summer on PC and console, and we were working on conceptualizing our next project. Our team of directors took a solid base idea of "what if strategic deckbuilding, but relationships" and came up with an expanded pitch for the Canada Media Fund.
With prototype funding secured, we set up our team and began experimenting with mechanics and design to create our core game loop. A literal paper prototype turned into a board-game-style development process using Tabletop Simulator. From there we developed a vertical slice that showed us we really had a game here. The CMF awarded us production funding in 2023, and we showed our prototype for the first time at GDX that summer. Interacting with the public, seeing how excited they were by our unique gameplay and captivating art, told us we were on to something special.
With production funding in hand and feedback from GDX ringing in our ears, it was full steam ahead. In early 2024, we announced our game on Steam before heading to GDC to represent our company to fans and publishers. In June, we launched our first public demo to coincide with our appearance in the OTK Games Expo. The summer is racing past as we get ready for the fall convention season and continue to develop content and art for Ctrl Alt Deal!