Hail Witanfans, time for another progress report! We have a few things happening all at once so we'll try to get you all caught up here!
Thunderclap
Our Thunderclap campaign tipped tonight and sent our story out to 50,000+ followers on social media! We're really grateful to everyone who took the time to click support and share our campaign, you guys are awesome! Hopefully the extra coverage will bring in some funding in our last hours on IndieGoGo too so that's a bonus!
IndieGoGo
2 days remain on IndieGoGo and we're camped at 2% funded. We will keep all the funds raised but we're only breaking even since we invested that much into the promoting and marketing of our IndieGoGo efforts. We really need someone with some pull in the gaming industry, media, youtuber, or reviewer, to say "Go, back them up!" but either we haven't been seen by anyone with that kind of reach OR they saw and just haven't elected to help. We'll keep promoting until the end bitter or sweet, stranger things have happened!
If you'd like to pledge you can find our campaign HERE
Maintenance Update
In happier news, we’ll be rolling out a maintenance update/patch here on Steam in December to bring the current EA version up to date. It won’t be Build 17 because we lost our AI programmer for the Dreamworld and Dreamworld AI still needs to be done (our lead programmer is on it now!) but it’s a large patch with lots of fixes, improvements, and hopefully some more of the new UI bits. If you already purchased a Steam key, or pledged on IndieGoGo at $5 or higher you will get the update free of course. The price will not be increased until after Build 17 that means you can still grab the game at the Early Access special price!
We’re aiming for December 15th so keep an eye out for release news and I'll add a changelog to the comments section below when it's compiled!
Steam Awards
Witanlore has been nominated for the "No Apologies" Steam award! If you would like to participate you can vote on our store page, we'd sure really appreciate a vote! We unabashedly #LoveWitanlore and we know you do to so, click that button and let's see Witanlore get a nod from Steam! ːsteamhappyː
Witanlores Army
Join the movement! On Twitter some die hard Witanfans have started rolling out the hashtag #WitanloresArmy and we're joining in too! You can post this on Twitter or FB, even Instagram to show that you are part of the movement to support the game! If you pledge to IndieGoGo and tweet @DruidGameworks that you are part of #WitanloresArmy you will be entered to win a free #WitanloresArmy Hoodie featuring the Witanlore Rune Tree Logo!
If you just want to grab some Witanlore Logo Swag to keep you warm this winter we have new designs up in our teespring shop too! Including the Witanlore Logo Zip, a portion of our profits go toward Polar Bear Conservation!
https://teespring.com/stores/witanlore-dreamtime-shop
The Future of Witanlore
I know with the end of IndieGoGo looming and the chances of funding dwindling with every hour it can seem like our prospects of finishing Witanlore: Dreamtime have gone from dire to dead, but we're not ready to give up just yet. We've failed to fund before, granted that was back when we had some savings...and some income, but all hope is not lost. We are doggedly persistent if nothing else!
Without funding we will likely lose additional team members, those who remain are determined to stick it out as long as they can though. We have a lot of content in the pipeline at various stages of completion so we're going to give it our best effort. Some folks have suggested we run a campaign on fig or Patreon. We'll look into both, and we have some other ideas for how to bring in more funds, perhaps using our vast collection of lore notes to write a series of books or stories to gain more of a fan following.
Some days it's rough, we don't know if a couple of our guys will have homes in a month, or how we'll get Santa to the house this year for the kids, we're struggling and honestly, it feels at times like no one cares about this project. But there are those of you out there (I see you stop shouting at the screen) who have supported us, embraced our vision, played the game, and know how special Witanlore is. We carry on for you, Witanfans. This story isn't over by a longshot, don't give up.
Until next time, Witanfam! Take Care!
Cole