Hey all,
It's nearly Halloween 2016! I've gone way past my completion estimate of Summer 2016 at this point, but the end is in sight for Halloween Forever progressing toward final. I still have some work to do but I'm working hard to have the game wrapped up this month. I keep talking to people directly and on Twitch about release schedule stuff but it's time to just make some of these dates public. If all goes well here's what we are looking at:
10/14: Bosses and levels should be content complete by now. This might spill into the weekend. I'll still need to get achievements and a few other characters hooked in at this point. Secondary goal to the 10/14 date is to have a version ready we can send off to reviewers with some time left before release.
10/19: Everything should be mostly finished. Going to try giving myself some time between then and launch for polish and testing.
10/26: Target release day! Just in time for Halloween. This could go live sooner if it turns out we're ready to go early.
On top of dates, Eric Lewis / Indie Luchador is going to be giving me a hand with PR efforts during and after release. This will help me getting the word out a ton.
I wanted to give everybody a heads up over a future price change too. Looking back at my original scope plan for Halloween Forever in Early Access, I'm realizing that I've exceeded that by a bit. For one thing, there are going to be 10 bosses in the final version, not 5. Also the unlockable characters add some fun and variety to replay. So here's the details:
- Halloween Forever will stay 2.99 as long as it's in Early Access.
- When it leaves EA, the price will go up to 4.99 (minus a launch discount)
- If you already have the game, you're all set!
- Timing remains unseen, but I do want to continue adding additional fun stuff to Halloween Forever post launch. The way I make updates will be a little different since it won't be EA anymore. Less sweeping big things and more filling in gaps, adding interest. I have ideas for how I can add in some good new secrets and level branches without disrupting the core flow. Also new character unlocks are very measured and easy to scope in.
I'm daydreaming of a nice Halloween 2017 update but that's so long away from now...
I'm going to work on getting all of the messaging consistent on the Steam pages coming up. Any questions, don't hesitate to reach out. Thanks to everybody who has been checking through the build and communicating bugs and issues back to me. I'm hoping to have an intermediate build or two out in between dates to start addressing things people have been reporting.
Stay creepy!