Hi everyone,
I promised you more big news this week, and those of you on our mailing list will already have seen this particular announcement: we have recently launched an alpha build of the game!
One of the top questions we've gotten since we announced the game was "are you doing a beta?" We didn't want to go the full Early Access route as, with narrative being such a strong core for The Church in the Darkness, we knew that we wanted to keep a good piece of the game shrouded for the full release. But with so many requests to play something sooner, we also wanted to give people who had been following the game for a while a chance to try out our gameplay a little early. This will also give us some critical feedback and help us determine what most needs to be worked on for the full release.
We also realized that shipping this year was going to be really hard while also trying to get all the features and story to the level we wanted. Talking things over with our new partners at Fellow Traveller, we decided it was best to ship the full game early next year. Though you'll have to wait a little longer for the complete experience, we hope shipping the alpha gives players who have been waiting patiently something to play now.
In the alpha you can try out the gameplay and explore most of Freedom Town, but a good chunk of the narrative content and all of the game’s different endings have been held back for the final release. That said, there’s tons of story to find and explore in here, and it will give you a chance to polish up your skills.
If you'd like to learn more about how you can get to the alpha, we've set up a page on our website with all the details.
http://paranoidproductions.com/church/alpha.html
And yes, if you get the alpha, you will also get a Steam key for when we ship early next year. I really enjoy the community we've started here, and have no doubt we will be right here in a big way for our full launch.
- Richard
