One year, huh? Wow... I don't know what to say really, but I'll keep it short.
What began as a tiny personal passion project, bloomed into something a lot of you seem to have enjoyed. I've neglected the still on-going series of retrospective dev diaries a bit, but not for a lack of trying. It's just a lot to process still. All while me (and a few others this time around) are knee deep into development on the next thing.
Still - REVEREND was released a year ago today. It had been two hectic weeks before release, with parts of some levels being redone from scratch, and making sure everything worked to the best of our abilities. We are still more fans of games than developers of them, so excuse our poor mistakes and when we experiment. But back then I was terrified when the first reviews dropped in. What would the first reception of this debut game from a non-developer be?
It turned out to be pretty darn positive. I won't lie. The relief made me cry. The exhaustion and nerves had got to me during the last couple of hours before the game went live. I stayed up for as long as I could; answering questions during various streams, gathering feedback, taking notes, etc.
A majority of you have been incredibly kind. Some even reached out, saying that REVEREND inspired them to make their own game. That is without a doubt the best compliment anyone creative can get. From the bottom of my heart - thank you all, even those skeptical and critical that still left a positive review, with some very fair and highly valued feedback for the future.
We do what we do out of passion and love for video games. I sincerely hope you stick around to see what comes next. Cause we are cooking up something really cool, if I may say so myself.
- E
P.S. - Here's an previously unreleased and still unlisted video, for those of you who do read these, that shows one of the absolute earliest versions of how REVEREND was supposed to begin. Outlaws SFX, some Shadow Warrior textures, and DOOM and DUKE 3D sky boxes be damned! Thought it might be fun for some of you to see: