Sorry for the lack of updates everyone! I’ve been incredibly busy, and I felt like my time was better spent on the game rather than writing updates at this point (especially as I don’t really want to spoil anything more than I already have XD). But I have returned to deliver a final round-up for 2020 and explain what’s going on, as well as deliver some (hopefully) exciting news about getting 8-Bit Adventures 2 onto console!
It’s a big update, so let’s start off by getting the easy stuff out of the way!
Steam Autumn Sale
There’s just 11 hours left (sorry I’m so late!), but you can get 8-Bit Adventures at 60% off! That means you can own it for just $4 USD! You can also get the fantastic Remastered Soundtrack 30% off ($3.50 USD), or the Game + Soundtrack bundle 45% off (that’s only $6.60 USD)!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/370300/8Bit_Adventures_The_Forgotten_Journey_Remastered_Edition/
Additionally, my most recent game Tales Across Time is also participating in the sale, making an already cheap game even cheaper! You can now get it 20% off - that's just $2.39 USD!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/461710/Tales_Across_Time/
As I've said before, these discounts won't get any lower in the future, so now's the time to buy if you're interested in checking these games out!
How Do I Jump Podcast Interview
I also wanted to shout out the How Do I Jump Podcast who interviewed me back in September! If you're excited for 8-Bit Adventures 2, or just love RPGs, please check it out here: https://www.spreaker.com/user/how_do_i_jump/8-bit-adventures-final
We talk a lot about 8-Bit Adventures 2 and RPG design, but I also get to ramble on about Final Fantasy and Legend of Dragoon! Talking with Peter about this stuff was a ton of fun, so I hope you all enjoy it =D
Vote for 8-Bit Adventures 2 in the IndieDB Top 100!
IndieDB is currently holding their annual Top 100 Indie Games of 2020 competition, and if you’re able, I’d sincerely appreciate it if you’d consider voting for 8-Bit Adventures 2 =)
The competition is designed to “make sure great games get the attention they deserve, without being buried under a mountain of asset-flips and achievement grabs” and in an increasingly oversaturated market I think that’s a fantastic idea!
8-Bit Adventures 2 actually made into the Top 100 last year thanks to your votes and it gave us some extra exposure and visibility. So if you have a moment and would like to support the game, I’d be ecstatic if you could head over to the 8-Bit Adventures 2 IndieDB page and click Vote Now before December 11th!
https://www.indiedb.com/games/8-bit-adventures-2
You can also win some PC games like Chivalry, Total War Warhammer, Subnautica, and many more just by voting. So whether you vote for 8-Bit Adventures 2 or someone else’s game, I’d definitely recommend getting involved!
Changing Plans, Releasing the Game, and Consoles
Okay, so with all that out of the way, let’s talk about what everyone really wants to know.
If you’ve been following 8-Bit Adventures 2 over the course of this year, you’re fully aware that things haven’t gone as planned. This has been a very busy year, and lots of things have taken a toll on development. That includes some not so nice things like the death of a close family member at the start of the year, the whole 2020 pandemic situation, a team member contracting COVID (he’s okay now, thankfully!), and so on.
But it’s also included some really wonderful and exciting things – specifically a bunch of online opportunities which 8-Bit Adventures 2 never would’ve had under normal circumstances. We released a brand new demo in the Steam Summer Festival, participated in Gamescom where I debuted the game’s final trailer on IGN (and was interviewed by German gaming website Gamestar), 8-Bit Adventures 2 got selected to take part in the Tokyo Game Show, and we’re participating in IWOCon in the near future (an indie focused digital convention that you can actually explore like a game)!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlDLMlHeGMM
Before this year, I’d never been able to participate in any kind of events (as I live in Australia, so the cost of travel and set up made this sort of thing impossible). And what I learnt is that events like this take a *tremendous* amount of work – far more than I ever expected!
I went from creating a polished demo in May/June (along with preparing for the event, setting up a Discord, etc.) to preparing multiple videos and a demo update for Gamescom in July/August (which also required dozens and dozens of lengthy emails to organise things), to handling Tokyo Game Show in September (and my first brush with translating promotional material for 8-Bit Adventures 2).
I’ve also tried to respond to every single comment about the game that I’ve been able to find, so that’s taken some doing (especially since Youtube kept marking my replies to the several hundred comments on the IGN videos as spam, so I had to rewrite them all three times XD). And that doesn’t even include the six or so other events that 8-Bit Adventures 2 didn’t get into (but all of which required a lot of time to submit – for example, putting together submission videos or writing pages and pages about your game).
There’s also been a ton of behind-the-scenes work and communication on things that I can’t share yet - but hopefully will be able to at some point ;)
To be clear, none of that’s me complaining – I am BEYOND grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given this year! The fact that over 100,000 people saw the IGN videos and social media posts combined genuinely blows my mind – especially since almost every response I’ve seen to the trailer and demo has been highly positive =D It’s all just to say that this year has seen me taking on a lot of new jobs/challenges, and consequently a massive amount of time was spent on taking advantage of these promotional opportunities rather than actually developing and finishing the game.
On the one hand, I’m incredibly frustrated with myself for not being finished yet. Truth be told, I’ve been afraid of writing this, as I sincerely hate letting everyone down – especially those of you who have been so incredibly patient with me these past 5 years since 8-Bit Adventures 1 came out. To all of you, I am deeply sorry.
But on the other hand, there is a silver lining. Thousands more people know about 8-Bit Adventures 2 now and are interested in the game, and that’s going to lead to a much more successful launch. Additionally, I received a massive number of comments and messages from people requesting a console release. Switch was definitely the most popular, but Playstation and Xbox had plenty of interest too!
Consoles had always been a long-term hope of mine, but I figured that stuff would have to wait until after the PC version was released. Thing is, after getting all of that extra attention, I’ve started to rethink that approach. As a small developer with a few games under my belt, I know that if you get any chance to make your game a success (through reaching games media, Steam algorithms, etc.), you only get one - and that chance comes at release. Obviously there are some games like Among Us which get a second go around, but you definitely can’t count on that. So having 8-Bit Adventures 2 available on consoles *as well as* PC on day one would mean that everyone interested in the game can immediately pick it up and play it. I’d also say it increases the likelihood of reviews and media coverage quite significantly.
As such, I’ve been speaking to a porting company, who have developed specific software for transitioning games developed in RPG Maker MV from PC to console and have very reasonable turn-around times. Additionally, the way they approach the conversion means QA testing and bug fixing for the ports shouldn’t be nearly as big a challenge as it otherwise would be.
So my goal is now to release 8-Bit Adventures 2 in 2021 on both Console and PC, on the same day.
To be clear, this isn’t an announcement of specific consoles (I’m not able to do that yet); rather, a statement that this is my goal and I’m working on making it a reality at the moment.
Now I know that the things I listed above are all really business reasons about why this approach is better. If you just want to play 8-Bit Adventures 2 on PC, there’s not really a benefit for you to this change, and that really sucks – I know =/ I’ve felt a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. I sincerely don’t want to disappoint anyone, but after spending 5 years of my life on 8-Bit Adventures 2, I also want to reach the maximum number of players and make it the biggest success I possibly can. Especially since that’s the only way I’m going to be able to continue making games in future =P
The responses I’ve had from players and fans this year has convinced me that 8-Bit Adventures 2 has the potential to be a success, and I’m *SO* grateful for that. All I can ask is that you all please give me the extra time needed to finish the game once and for all, as well as get it on as many platforms (and to as many people) as possible.
And if you want to get in touch and let me know your thoughts, please feel free to do so! You can reach me on email, Twitter, Discord – wherever! Time zone troubles aside, I’m pretty much always around =)
Anyway, I sincerely apologise for any disappointment and trouble this might cause. As always, I’m honestly just trying my best. And you know, I’m actually pretty excited about this – we’re going bigger with this launch than I ever imagined! It’s crazy to think of how far we’ve come since the first game’s release in 2015…and I sincerely owe it all to you guys for your incredibly kind words and support, without which I wouldn’t have even made a sequel!
Thank you everyone =)
Regardless of current circumstances, I hope you all stay safe, healthy, and have the best possible December 2020 you can. Let's all put the year behind us and make 2021 something special!
~Josh