Hello there everyone, Alexander Poysky here.
It's been a long time, admittedly TOO long.
I've seen MANY of you complain lately about whether or not we've abandoned Pixel Piracy, and I wanted to de-bunk that and adress the issue head-on.
First off, Pixel Piracy was a one-man gig. Vitali Kirpu programmed it for 11 months ON HIS OWN in what little spare time he had. He had a day job making games for a larger studio and we took this on as a labor of love, not as some money squeezing corporation. So, to those who think we've taken the money and split, let me reassure you that that's not the case, we're still just as active as before, just on a new project we haven't announced yet.
Here's where A LOT of the the issues come from. You think we are STILL a one man team! There are currently 10 people at quadro delta, plus myself and vitali. Some are programmers, some are artists. ALL are talented.
We have transitioned from a very, very minor, humble studio, to a mid-range studio who's focus is on QUALITY above all else.
We hacked Pixel Piracy together in a way that caused a few problems, but I will never hold Vitali to blame for that. He did a magnificent job with the scant resources we had, with the little spare time he had, and Mikko and Jesus have been doing a fine job on the title.
WHY are there fewer updates lately? Here's where I'm having a bit of trouble stright up answering due to LOADS of red tape. Let's just say that Pixel Piracy is about to undergo a pretty masive change, one that will adress all standing issues, and augment the game a lot. Let's publically call it Pixel Piracy REDUX, Enhanced Edition, HUGE free DLC or what have you.
MIKKO up until now has been working on major bug patching and minor content, but we feel the game, and YOU deserve much more. An entire re-working of the game which will serve as a base from which to launch a much more polished edition. One we WILL NOT charge again for, one we WILL NOT add as a paid DLC, and one we WILL NOT increase our price for.
Why? Because we built this studio on a simple foundation. Making games we love playing for others. The execution, let's admit it, was flawed. Piracy had bugs, we were rushed to release, and we made some novice errors.
I'm not going to bellyache about how it was anyone else's fault other than my own. So if you have any grief, take it with me.
Why can't I go further in detail about Pixel Piracy Enhanced? Because there is something MUCH, much larger at hand. Let me try and explain without crossing any Non Disclosure agreements (plural, as in multiple fronts are being tackled at once.). Mikko is one person, a single programmer. What if instead of ONE person there were groups of people prepping it, polishing it, BETTERING it. What if we couldn't publically DISCLOSE that information and had to find a way to avoid community backlash without being able to TELL you.
It's a rough spot but it's an honest one. Something very large is coming, in january we WILL be able to talk more about it. For now, I'll go into STUDIO details with you.
We are working on new gameS. Plural. We are NOT hacking away this time. We are a studio that has made enough money to take things calmly and have been VERY critical with our past work (if you can't criticise yourself in life you are bound to get burned.). Let me come out and say it, Pixel Piracy is a hacky, buggy mess under the hood, and it's being fixed.
The advent of this overhauled Pixel Piracy DLC has left us withthe capability of working on new games in the meantime. Vitali, Mikko and I are working on the game we are TEASING currently. One that is being done with time, money, focus, NO restraints, NO hacky bullshit, and with a full multiplayer online server based suite from the ground up.
PRIOR to that coming out, there will be a SECOND title launching in JANUARY of 2015 which has been made exclusively by our other three employees, Tuomo, Jaakko, and Nino, and produced by myself. We are structured in such a way as to not hinder projects by giving each team a single producer (me) and having the teams work autonomously from each other, WITHIN the same studio.
Up until now, Mikko has been working alone on Pixel Piracy and it got to the point where without an entire restructure the game simply was a WALL to get over any time you wanted to add a single piece of content. Think of it in the following manner. When you have a thick mass of cables and you just need ONE pulled out, unjumbling the entire mess to get to that ONE cable takes time. Easiest solution? Buy a new set of cables, place them side by side with plastic coveralls and individually adress them. It's a pain in the ass, but has to be done, and that's what's up for the PP: Enhanced edition.
Mikko is now working with Vitali on the new game that we'll deem "Omega", with the other team working on "Alpha". BOTH will be pushed to early access. WE DO NOT do this for money, but as a way to get more in touch with the fan base. Part of what made Pixel Piracy such a rich experience was YOUR direct input, and I wouldn't dream of going down any other route.
To sumarize
NO we didn't abandon Pixel Piracy, but we can't publically talk about what's going on.
An ENHANCED EDITION of Pixel Piracy is coming, but won't cost you a dime, as we are extremely against that kind of practice.
THE ENHANCED EDITION will NOT cost more.
Mikko and Vitali are hard at work with me on a sprawling, server based multiplayer game set in the Pixel Universe, code named OMEGA
Jaakko, Tuomo and Nino are working with me on project ALPHA, a SINGLE player game which will be announced in January.
ANY AND ALL HATE towards the studio shall be directed towards me. If this ship sinks, it's on my shoulders. It will be my fault, exclusively. I take full responsibility for the actions of everyone here, and I'll be damned if we let any one think we've abandoned what to me was a second lease on life.
I was a poor, sad soul who had nothing to live for before this. I'm not about to cut and run when Pixel Piracy has put my mother through heart surgery, my father through a new prosthetic knee after 15 years of misery, or my brother and sister in college.
I simply don't have the time I used to to micromanage forums and go in here, that's what our community manager is for, but I'll be available more often from now on.
My personal skype is alexpoysky
my email is [email protected]
my twitter is @alexpoysky
and our personal irc chat line is http://forum.quadrodelta.com/index.php?/chat/
PLEASE direct your concerns to me, I am incredibly sorry if my lack of communication has misconstrued the facts of what is actually going on behind the scenes.
Alexander Poysky