It's opening day and we are happy to have you here! I just wanted to make a post covering what the current status of PoD is today, and to give you an idea how things will proceed during this Early Access period in order that you all can have the best idea of how or when you want to get involved.
THE PLAN
Right now, Pod is slated for 4 major gameplay updates that will occur over the next few months and a whole slew of small content/fixes/suggestion implementation updates that should occur every couple weeks or so. Now we all know that no plan survives battle in one piece, but should anything cause things to slide around we will be quick to let you know. Transparency and communication will be vital for us on this. Also know that there will be a priority set on NOT breaking saves but if its unavoidable, we will give you a heads up.
THE GAME
If you are new to the Pit or to Kerberos in general, you should know that this is a very big game being made by a relatively small team. There is a TON of content to added to this game JUST for the base game. Make no mistake, this game is on its way, its getting done, and its never going to be smaller, or cheaper, as it is today. ;) As the game reaches completion, its price will rise to its intended selling point so getting in early does have its perks. Also, of course, there will be a Dawg Soldier achievement for everyone who comes in early!
Another important thing to keep in mind is what kind of game this is going to be. Make no mistake, while it is clearly based on FPS mode, this is not a frantic run and gun with rooms filled with 700 monsters. This is going to still be a skill based rogue-alike where you have to keep track of ammo, food and you get to use dozens of crazy weapons and, eventually, decide on your own when to sneak and when to blast away. If you are looking for just a run and gun, then even I suggest this may not be the right game for you.
WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU
Now this part is optional but I'm also not going to lie. We do need your help. As I mentioned we are small, only 11 of us, and while that makes for an awesome hotbed of creativity, it also has some real drawbacks in terms of things like playtesting across multiple platforms. We have a nice diversity of machines in the office but nowhere near what you need for solid compatibility testing. Here in the office, we have only one really annoying, really random crash bug in the game. Which is great, relatively, but we need your bug reports, especially the crash ones, that are different from ours.
Also we really value your input. For those of you familiar with the original Pit, you have an idea of how mean this game is going to get and many of you have a pet peeve about how things are in that game. So now that we have a chance to get you in when mid level tuning and small additions can be made easily, we need you to chime into the suggestions section and state your thoughts and also weigh in on other peoples thoughts... IN A SUPPORTIVE AND RESPECTFUL MANNER. ;) In the end we will be keeping track of who's original suggestions made it into the game and I think the person with the most might be immortalized with an achievement title bearing their name.
We will be both here and on our own Kerberos Boards to answer questions and respond in a timely manner. In general you might get a quicker response on our own boards but either is good.
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
So once again, thank you all for your interest, thank you for your support if you choose to come in. And hold onto your space helmets, cause it's gonna be a wild ride and I am looking forward to playing online with you all after the first big update! ;)
--MECRON
CEO/Creative Director
Kerberos Productions