We have now been on Steam Early Access for about two months, and we've gotten a number of valuable pieces of feedback that have given us a solid idea of what is possible and necessary to bring the game to a final release. We have been meeting extensively and organizing to make sure that we have a solid plan. I wanted to share with everyone what we're loosely expecting and, by extension, what you should expect from the remainder of Early Access!
When will the game be out of Early Access?
We're currently estimating that the game has 3-5 months of Early Access remaining. The holidays are a bad time to release indie games, so even if we were finished with development, it would likely be a good idea to wait until January/February. This is our current target for the "final" Reflections.
How long will the game be?
The current game is roughly in the ballpark of 1 hour long. We're pushing to make the final version of the game roughly 3 hours in length for a single playthrough, with the same expectation of diverse replay options as before.
Is the update schedule going to change?
Yes. We're looking to drill into some substantial new features and content, so we are going to need a little more time for each update. The game has gotten a lot of updates but has been missing deeper polish, so we're going to be taking more time between versions. We're expecting to switch to a 4-6 week turnaround for major content updates moving forward.
What are the upcoming features/Additions?
- Totally redone conversation system, allowing for the player to selection dialogue options and engage in conversation.
- Adding a level in the dorm room in college.
- Integrating an apartment section as a key portion of Act 2, with the option to pick your preferred apartment type.
- Splitting Act 3 into Act 3 and Act 4, allowing for another segment of play prior to the final conclusion.
- Heavy treatment of the story, including rewriting all of the lines and adding in sub-plots regarding your character's family.
- Intrigue and conflict plot lines involving both your partner and crush.
- Improving the grab mechanic so that it is more reliable and doesn't pop objects out of view as often.
- Voicing and animating characters. We're still determining how full this will be, but will certainly include emotes and "call outs" during significant conversations.
- Improvement of the follow AI and animal AI behavior in Act 2. They are currently way too prone to error.
- Full autosave system, allowing players to stop mid-session and resume where they left off.
- Better "zapping" system, which brings more objects and interactions from act 1 to act 2, and beyond.
- A pet character is in development.
- Ongoing improvement of gameplay interactions and feedback in all levels
- Integrating proper sound effects for every object and interactable in-game, as well as better ambient sound effects.
- Ability to run with objects, as well as investigating an elegant way to allow players to open doors while carrying objects. We're trying to figure out a way to do this that isn't terribly intrusive or convoluted, while still keeping things simple.
- Full hospital ending sequence in Act 4 that characterizes your life and plays through an interactive ending sequence.
Obviously, this is a sizable list, which is the reason for the extension in development time. We appreciate your patience and feel confident that Reflections will start improving quickly.
Thank You
We can't thank you enough for purchasing Reflections in Early Access. Your feedback and support have been invaluable to us, and have genuinely helped improve the game to date. This game has always been somewhat experimental, and some answers to hard questions have been provided by both your feedback and our ability to collect data and watch your playthroughs online.
Early Access is a strange beast, particularly for a narrative exploration game. Our goal is to build a game that can connect with a large number of people in a way that not many games have, and we appreciate you helping us get closer to that every day.
We look forward to showing you our next version soon!