In a week from now, we will celebrate the first anniversary of ːmaliceː Gremlins, Inc. ːmaliceː on Steam: the game was released on March 11, 2016 and since then we never really stopped updating and expanding the product: we've added team mode, spectator mode, re-worked tutorial and additional single-player challenges, user mods via Steam Workshop and in-game items tradable via Steam Community Market – as well as new cards, new visuals, and new music (not to mention new sound effects!).
Some weeks it's been just a regular production cycle: create, add, build, test, fix, discuss, and create again. And some weeks it's been more of a challenge: once, our community manager woke up our network programmer at 3AM, shouting "SERVER DOWN! SERVER DOWN!". Another, the producer and the designer spent their weekend hunting down a couple of players who were abusing the drop system.
All through this year, there's been one major concern that we always kept in mind (and which was voiced by some players): what if – WHAT IF – our Singapore or Amsterdam servers get flooded, and nobody can play Gremlins, Inc. for a day or so? That would be ːfire_fire_fireːːmaliceːːcursecardːːcursedskullːːcursecardːːmaliceːːfire_fire_fireː!!
And so up high on our "things we must do before we can take a proper vacation" was the point that read: ːnotebookːusers must be able to play the game offline ːnotebookː.
Tonight we're happy to confirm that we're just a few days away from releasing this feature, which will come as a standalone application (free to every owner of Gremlins, Inc.):
- ːscoreː What is Gremlins vs Automatons? This is a standalone single-player version of Gremlins, Inc. which is playable offline, without any connection to any server whatsoever.
- ːscoreː Why is this a standalone product Because in order to make the game work offline, we had to re-write the whole logic of the game from scratch. So that right now, on the inside, it's a couple of very different products.
- ːscoreː Will Gremlins vs Automatons be sold separately? No. Gremlins vs Automatons will be released for free to every current and future owner of Gremlins, Inc. You will see it as a second product which will be added to your Steam library.
- ːscoreː Is there new content (compared to Gremlins, Inc.)? Yes: especially for this edition, our composer Anna wrote a brand new steampunk tune; and our artists Yaroslav and Andrey created probably the most elaborate main menu background ever, which includes taxis, police cars, trains, dirigibles, and whatnot.
- ːscoreː When is Gremlins vs Automatons arriving? In a few days. We're currently at the last stage of testing. We expect that the release might have some minor bugs which we will continue to fix going forward, but at the same time we would like to clean those up before the launch as much as we can.
- ːscoreː How do I get Gremlins vs Automatons? The product will be automatically added to your Steam library once we deploy it on the platform. You will see an announcement here on Steam, plus we will update the main visuals of the page to reflect the second product being included for everyone.
If you have any further questions, we're happy to answer them in this forum thread, and we look forward to improving everyone's player experience further with this new feature/product that is finally just around the corner! ːhypnoheartː