First off...
Thanks to anyone and everyone who helped us to make our Demo Launch and Next Fest a success! A few quick numbers...
Days since Demo Launch: 8
Number of players who have claimed the IM Demo: 774
Number of new wishlists since Demo Launch: 203
These numbers are all in all, better than we had expected, and we are SO happy to see people interested in our quirky little game.
The takeaways...
In addition to the new players, Next Fest resulted in us gaining some FANTASTIC insight and feedback on the demo. Some key takeaways...
There is still an issue with players getting stuck on some prop geometry. This is obviously a bug and will need more tweaking and testing before the game is fully ready for release, even in Early Access.,
Combat can feel sluggish and unrewarding, especially with poor investigator/weapon combinations.,
Lack in variety while exploring makes gameplay feel repetitive.,
Luckily, some of these issues we had already earmarked as potential pain points for the game, and as such we have some ideas on how to address them.
Moving Forward...
We have decided to push back our initially planned release of the Early Access version of the game, likely by about 2 weeks, in order to implement some feature changes based on the Next Fest feedback. We will likely also release a new demo with the new features prior to an EA release.
At the same time, the creative team is currently working on writing the new missions and storylines that will be included in the Early Access release.
Bottom line, we are still on track for a EA release later this year, however as players continue to get their hands on our work, and as we continue to get feedback, we may push back further. To us, it is more important to create a game that people love playing and want to interact with than it is to release early.