After what was almost eight years of development on this game, I can't believe I'm writing about our first week post-release.
It's been a whirlwind, guys. It's outrageous to wake up every morning, check Steam, and see that thousands of you are playing the game at once. For years, the player base has been limited to the few original Kickstarter and crowdfunding backers who'd found us early on. Many of you have only just discovered MADNESS: Project Nexus through Steam's marketing, Newgrounds, or our live action trailer. Others have sat patiently for years, awaiting the day that we finally found the nerve to say "Okay, I think this game is done."
Leading up to launch, we were working the most obscene hours we'd ever known. At the beginning of September, we thought we'd make the workload light: 10-hour days, 5-hour weekends. A week in, and that wasn't going to cut it. We kicked things up to 12-hour days, 8-hour weekends. Still not enough. With launch day approaching rapidly, we pushed it to 16-hours a day for 11 straight days, and to handle the post-launch bug reports, we kept that same schedule for a week more after that.
But that's what it takes. To make this project pristine, to keep our promises: that's the cost. Jumping from 50 beta testers to thousands upon thousands of live players means otherwise unknown issues suddenly pop out from the shadows. We haven't stopped addressing and fixing these issues, and after nearly eight years of working on this game, we hope you'll trust that we don't intend to.
Thank you to the Testing Corps beta tester team for helping us crack bugs since day one, but especially now, when time is of the essence. This project could not exist without you.
Thank you to those that found us and backed our little concept of a project back in 2014, or pre-ordered the game without ever being sure that it could be made. We hope your wait was worth it.
Thank you to the Madness fan community, as well as to gamers giving this world their very first try. We hope you'll stick around a while.
Thank you for believing in this game. Thank you for giving us a chance.
-Swain, 1/2 of Team Madness