Hello!
As we entered Q3 earlier this month, a few of you may have been expecting an update on the game's status and news on the release date.
Shutter Story's launch date has been pushed to the first month of 2027. This is not because of any delays in development, but purely because of the bloodbath of game releases that is September and October this year, which was our intended release window.
As you may have heard, GTA VI's launch in November has caused chaos for every other game releasing around the same time. And it is not GTA, but these other high profile games that are the reason for the delay. Sept-Oct is shaping up to be one of the most crowded release windows in recent memory. With a lot of games releasing at the same time (including a few horror ones) press and streamer coverage becomes exceedingly hard to secure - especially on an indie budget. The first few days and weeks in the spotlight post launch are the most important. Algorithms can bury games right on launch. Not to mention, there's only so much time to play all these new releases!
Here's an article that digs into it from the press's perspective - https://kotaku.com/look-you-cant-all-avoid-gta-6-by-hiding-in-october-and-september-2000703984
Shutter Story is shaping up to be something special, and it would be a shame if it were buried under all the chaos and noise and never got its time in the spotlight. For this reason, I've made the difficult decision to delay it to (very) early 2027.
The good (in fact great) news is - development is still on track to be mostly wrapped up by October. These extra 3-4 months give me the time to really polish, test and improve many parts of the game so that it launches in the best shape possible. It also gives me the time to add neat little tricks, secrets and polish to the photos in the game. I'm excited to spend the extra months making sure everything runs and feels perfect. Here's a preview of how some of that extra time allows me to polish the game -
The house has been getting a makeover!
Now on to the other good news! I have secured some additional funding beyond the Kickstarter, and one of the most exciting results of this is the second stretch goal we missed out on - motion captured cutscenes!
The main story cutscenes will be mocapped, enhancing the game's cinematic feel and its most emotional and intense moments. This funding has also allowed me to ensure multiple rounds of QA testing, and to hire a community manager, and also a sound engineer to really polish the game's sound effects and ambience.
Additionally, I will be releasing a new, updated demo in October that includes all the improvements and polish so far - voice overs, mocap, updated visuals, improved photo gameplay and more! Excited for you all to try it out.
I realize this may not be the news you were hoping to hear, but I truly think it's the best decision for the game. And again, thank you for all the support so far, and I can't wait to share the full experience early next year!
- Armaan
Edit: For further clarity, these decisions are not taken lightly, but after extensive market and competitor analysis. The screenshot below shows a part of our analysis for the release date window (there are 2 more pages of this sheet not included here)
