Hi all, we wanted to give a quick update on the current status of, They Speak To Us.
The original goal for our playtest was run for the course of a week. Then release our full demo – following a late release in June. We have made the decision, we will be pushing everything back. With that being stated, these changes will allow us more time to create better gameplay and a smoother all around experience. Playing a new game riddled with bugs is not a great experience for players and we are capable of delivering a better overall experience to players with some additional development time. There are too many games that get pushed out the door too quickly, and we wanted to make sure not to be a part of the problem. So without further ado, here’s the new roadmap.
Playtest:
Originally, the playtest was going to be a shorter burst of a beta to allow us to find bugs, connect with you all, and stress test any network issues we ran into. Seeing as one of the core mechanics for our game is the gravgun (based on the physics gun) it’s recently been a bit buggy in a network environment. We have decided, due to the lag experienced with internal testing with the gravgun and procedural generation having some latency issues to extend beta. We are aiming to run 1 to 3 betas before the demo now. We also opened back up playtest registration! We will keep it up as long as possible to get as much feedback as we can. We would ask if you and your friends want to try the beta to please, join our discord. It’s the easiest way to show glitches, ping us for suggestions, or overall find people if you need an additional person in your group. Our new playtest date will be out at the end of June – our original release date. The very important note is we are not taking any content out we would have originally had. This we believe will help the overall health of the game.
In addition to pushing everything back, that gives our Level Designer(Ben) more time to create rooms, new levels, and fix some additional issues. Our new goal is to release 3 to 4 really good core maps.
Below we have some examples of the Haunted Mansion and The Office. We will update you all on the third map very soon. The Office is currently only two weeks into development so it will continue to improve.
Here are some current screenshots. These are the current rooms still in development.
Demo:
The demo will run approximately two weeks to a month before release, and will act as a soft launch. The plan we have between the playtest and the demo will be introducing new features, bug fixes, and quality of life changes. The important thing to note is during the demo we will be changing core features less than in the beta. If you want your voice heard make sure to play during the beta!
New Release Date:
Our new release date we are aiming for is September. (Who doesn’t love a new spooky game to kick off in Fall season?) We are heavily aiming for the beginning of September, we will continue to keep you all updated through the betas and demo. Thank you all for your support, we look forward to your feedback and playing side by side with you.
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