Ahoy!
I don't currently communicate much via the Steam page. That will certainly change once a public release of the game is made. Until then, join our discord if you want to know what is going on with the closed beta / development of the game. I did want to post one update here now since our last update here is out of date.
Currently, the game is about to have its demo released on itch.io. Once I've accomplished that, I will begin to work on additional levels which will be released into the closed beta once each level reaches a state in which I am actually ready for it to be beta tested. Those closed beta releases will be used to hunt down any and all bugs, as well as tweak balancing. I feel though, that with the first level I've found a sort of process for balancing that I think will be easy to apply, resulting in few tweaks being needed with each release.
When will the full release / early access be? At the moment, I am not sure, but to give you an idea of the plan, we want to release almost immediately after a Steam Next Fest. The next one takes place in October, so if we are about ready for an early access release by then, then that will likely take place in November. If not, then we are likely not looking at a release until February. I should have a better idea of the timeline once I release the second level and see how long it takes. The goal will be to have at least 4 standard levels at early access release, which will likely amount to many 10s of hours of content in quests and unlockables. Each level will have a different theme, so far the plan is:
Bayou - Scary / Occult / Haunted / Undead / Edlritch
Space - Spaceships / Aliens / Space Debris
Cute - I told Moth, because she kept trying to sneak cute sprites into each level, that we'd make a cute themed level so that she could get it out of her system lol. I am not sure what this will entail yet.
In addition to needing to be almost ready for early access release at the time of a Steam Next Fest, we also need to be in a fairly good marketing position. This means a decent wishlist count, decent social media followings, etc. I hate that that is a requirement, and I mean at some point if it just isn't going well, I guess we will accept defeat and just release, and continue marketing afterwards. The reason it is important though is because a game's launch is the biggest opportunity it has for free organic marketing, and ending up high on the Steam Next Fest charts as well as the upcoming releases charts is a feat that can set us up to be able to continue being able to afford to release content for this game, as well as create more ambitious games in the future. We've much bigger dreams than Lord O' Pirates, but being able to achieve anything larger in scale will likely require us to first find success in something of equal or smaller scale. You can help us with our journey though by sharing our social media content, telling your friends, and wishlisting Lord O' Pirates!
Peace,
One Flow Man