We have been in Early Access for over two years. It's been a wild ride. Wild but awesome, thanks to you guys. We initially planned of being in Early Access for only six months but the community took the game in directions we never anticipated. We now have an end game, Roguelike and Casual modes, randomized card variants, and much more. Not to mention a gargantuan number of bugs reported and fixed.
The game has reached the point at which we can say it has almost all the stuff we envisioned and so we can safely set the release date. We hinted at it before but now it's time to make it official: Book of Demons will exit early access on 13th of December. And yes, this year :archduck:
The run-up and the launch itself
As I type this post the release candidate build of the game is being finalized and deployed to the test branch. Those of you wishing to test the new cards and legendaries can check this thread for instructions on how to switch to the test branch.
The changes include sixteen new cards, each with magical and unique legendary variants, and a special thank you song performed by townsfolk after the Archdemons is defeated :archduck:
We will continue polishing and finalizing balance on the test branch until a few weeks before the launch date. Until launch, no new stuff is going to be added except bug fixes.
Meanwhile, on the public branch, we have some fun stuff planned to make the wait time fly but I will talk about that in another post :archduck:
What can you do?
As it turns out a lot. First of all, you can keep an eye out for 13th and play the game to see the new stuff. This in itself will mean a world to us.
Besides that, it would be awesome if you could spread the word. December is rather busy month when it comes to new releases and we will be in direct competition for players' and media attention with heavy hitter AAA titles. Although we will do all the standard stuff indie games do on launch and a bunch of non-standard things word of mouth is still king. So on 13th December tell your neighbor, tell your kids that Book of Demons is out!
Last but not least, if you haven't yet please consider writing a review on Steam. Reviews are the lifeblood for small indies and greatly help your friends discover games you consider worthy.
A slight post-launch price increase
This topic popped up in the community forums a few times with players urging us to increase the price of the game. We considered it and decided not to do it at least until we exit Early Access.
That time has come and we will increase the price by 5 dollars. The price of the game will change after this sale, on 9th November. We wanted to celebrate Polish Developer Sale but this sale is also the last such significant discount for a long time.
Why the price change now and not at launch? The reason is due to law to which Steam must adhere: there can be no sales for 30 days after the price change. We would like to have a sale for launch, of course, so we have decided to raise the price in advance so the "no discount" period would end in time for 13th December.
Post-launch roadmap
Of course, the launch is not the end of the road but rather the beginning. We have a slew of features we want to add to the game and stuff we have already done and while it didn't exactly make the final product we still deem worth sharing with you. Like our attempts at competitive multiplayer modes (with extra stress on "attempts", as it's not exactly multiplayer in a classical sense of the word). This, however, will come after the launch.
There is also the matter of Book of Demons being the first installment in a series of games. Some tentative work has already started on the next game and this will gain momentum after the launch. We have many cool ideas and depending on how the launch goes we will decide which get to be implemented and when.
As always,
Stay safe in the paper dungeons :archduck:
Konstanty