Hello everyone,
I hope you are as excited for Arcadian Days' Release on 16th of September as I am ! We can't wait to take the first steps in Bucuria together with you!
The demo has had over 1,200 players since release and the feedback received has been extremely valuable! The current build for Early Access will be quite different from the Demo therefore we believe the demo doesn't quite represent the game as well therefore it will be taken down on Monday, 11th of August, however I might release a new one very soon!
Valuable feedback from the demo included :
Performance, performance, performance - we are very glad that the visuals and art design in Arcadian Days has been overwhelmingly positively received, however this can be quite demanding on a lot of systems. Performance and optimization will be something that will be constantly looked into and I am confident Arcadian Days should run quite well on a lot of systems even during Early Access. Of course, Unreal Engine 5 is quite an unruly engine so the optimization and performance will be constantly looked into. I want Arcadian Days to be one of the best looking indie games out there so whilst it will still be quite a demanding game, we will be constantly working with the community to ensure smooth performance throughout.
Vague objectives and a sense of feeling lost - By design, Arcadian Days is not a game that will hold your hand, and the main gameplay loop is solving the quests by paying attention to the world, conversations and using your intuition and insight. Based on feedback from the demo, quests have been designed in such a way that the player should never feel lost or frustrated. There are no hard quests in the game and progression past the tutorial will not be blocked in any way. There will always be multiple ways to solve a quests and progress that should be intuitive and fun! This will also be constantly monitored throughout Early Access to ensure we can strike a perfect balance between freeing and frustrating.
Uncertain story and sense of progression - It was quite hard to place in the demo efficiently, but there is a story to Arcadian Days for players to piece together, so in the main game we will have a thorough opening hour to serve as a tutorial and introduction to the world. We want everything in the game to feel immersive and organic, therefore progression is communicated through communication with your parents and the way the world changes as you progress in the game and solve quests. This will be most emphasized in the hub area of Arcadian Days.
If you haven't already, please do play the demo and share your feedback, I read through everything and want to make sure our community is heard.
We look forward to seeing you all in Bucuria on 16th of September!
- Cal, Game Director