Good evening everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know that as of a few minutes ago, Cross of Auria is officially free to download the entire base game on the Steam Store! For those of you who have already purchased the game, I will be including something with the 5.0 update for you exclusively - the details of which I'm not entirely sure yet. When that exclusive content becomes available for download, you'll the details posted in the corresponding patch notes and it will probably be in huge letters and in the title.
Anyway, if you're wondering why I decided to make the base game free to download... well, it's simple really. I originally was going to do the game as a series with episodes, with each game being about 6 hours of play time and costing $0.99 to buy. After much research, I finally came up with a way to expand the back-end limitations of the engine so I no longer have to worry about things like amount of enemies, amount of battlegroups, items, events, etc. Basically, there was a hard cap of things I could make, but now there's not. Between my cap being lifted and me already passing where the original story ended, I want to put the game in as many hands as would be willing to play it. That's what is most important to me. I want you all to play and enjoy what I've made.
For those of you who have supported me so far by purchasing the game when it still had a price tag, you will not be forgotten. I have made this poll for you & others to decide what you should get: https://www.youtube.com/post/UgzPSFxLHyRjAtiPj-Z4AaABCQ
A quick note about the 5.0 development before I go -
It's coming along just fine. I'm going to begin deploying the first builds in the next week or two once the back systems are completely finalized. Once a forced new save file will no longer be necessary (relative to other 5.0 files), I'll make the process to getting on this version of the game clear. Once this version catches up to the current public version, it will take the place of the current public version. Keep in mind that if you do not opt into the 5.0 version now, you will still have to replace your save file with a 5.0 new game later. Better to do it sooner so that your progress between now and public launch isn't lost!
Happy gaming everyone. Goodnight :)