First of all, huge thanks to everyone who wishlisted, followed or shared the game. After IGN released our new trailer, we got almost 50k wishlists in just a month, bringing the total to 55k at the moment. I'll share more details about this at the end of this announcement.
Development Progress
The game is slowly shaping up. We did an art pass, improving the look of the environment, adding grass, stones, and many other details to make sure the atmosphere is on point. But this brought optimization issues with all those new elements in the world, and I had to spend some time figuring out how to optimize it further.
Additionally, I set up some of the settings menus with plenty of options in the graphical settings, where lowering the settings should make the game playable even on fairly slow computers. Since I was working on the settings, I connected the audio and a few more gameplay settings as well.
After our first playtest, I gathered a list of things that needed improving and have now started working on that. I won't go through all of them, but here are some examples:
Made horse controls smoother
Added interaction instruction text
Dialogue system improvements (silly things like where characters look by default and how look instructions affect their behaviour)
Other dialogue changes, like clicking to interact with NPCs instead of holding the button, etc.
Bug fixes
I won't keep going here, but stuff like this. There's still plenty to be done.
Also started re-creating the first scene where you arrive at Hobbs's Roadside Inn near the gate.
Final Promo Art
As you might have noticed, we replaced our promo art with a new and final version!
This was also made by my artist Goran, who created all the characters, some models, and also works on the game's environment, among other things. He worked with me on my previous games Gladiator Guild Manager and Scheming Through The Zombie Apocalypse. He's a 2D artist, but I asked him to learn 3D so he could join me on this project as well, and I can say I'm super happy with his progress and how he translated his cartoony style into 3D while also trying to make it look serious and horror-ish. This promo art was also a new challenge for him, since it's a different style from what he's used to. I'm very happy with how it turned out, though, and I'd love to hear what you think as well.
Development "Roadmap"
As development is unpredictable, and I'm figuring out what the game is while I'm making it, I usually don't share much of a roadmap. But here's the general idea of the plan:
In 45-60 days, I'm aiming to have a new beta version (you can subscribe to the mailing list here). It should last around one hour and include the arrival and the first day at the gatehouse. Then I'd do a few more playtesting iterations until both the playtesters and I are very happy with the state of the game. Soon after we'd release a public demo and start working on completing the full game. So we're probably looking at Q1 2027 if I'm completely honest. I was hoping to get it done before 2027, but with all the testing, iterations, and localization, it could easily take longer than I originally planned. And I want to make sure that once the game is out, it's in great shape, and your feedback during those testing sessions will help us achieve that.
About The Trailer And Wishlists
I want to give a HUGE thanks to everybody who shared our trailer! Starting with the awesome folks at IGN (Their GameTrailers too), then soon after other channels shared it as well, like Indie Games Hub. This was followed by many reels from creators like Indie Game Joe and petitjusgames, who did an amazing job editing my trailer better than I did, halving its duration to show the most exciting parts and getting over 5M views on Instagram alone, and more on other platforms.
If you're a content creator reading this, check out how petitjusgames edited the trailer by improving the hook at the start by shortening it and adding interesting sound effect. Then editing the dialogue text so it's visible in the vertical version, and shortening the slower parts. I made a similarly edited versions available in my Press Kit to make it easier for anyone who wants to share it.
Huge thanks to everybody who helped and wishlisted the game. I'm very excited to share the new demo as soon as it's ready (mailing list here). And if you want to keep a closer eye on the game or chat with me, I invite you to join our little Discord server.
Cheers!
-Darko
Raw Tale Games