As many know, the release of our Steam game was scheduled for November 16th. It is now November 16th, but still it’s impossible to install the game in Steam, and you’re probably tormented by the question - what the hell? Perhaps, in order not to torment you with expectations, we will give an answer to it.
Initially, we planned that the release of the game will take place on November 16th. This date was not chosen by chance, since some of the content was not ready at the time of the announcement. We expected that before this date we would have time to bring all the missing content into the game and correct errors during beta testing. However, we did not take into account some factors that may affect the release date. It was the Steam factor.
The fact is that before publishing the game has to pass some testing from Steam (we are talking directly about the game's client). Normally, this check takes 2-3 days, but in some cases the check can take up to 5 days. Since our client was fully operational, there were no microtransactions and external servers in the game, we expected that the game check would not be delayed. When the 5th day of testing went, it became obvious that everything would not be so simple. After 5 days we received a response and a list of errors that need to be corrected. The peculiarity of the check lies in the fact that the estimated release date also shifted by another 5 days.
When checking a client, there are common and critical errors. Common errors, which are optional to fix and do not affect the possibility of release. Critical errors are errors that do not allow the game to appear in Steam until they are fixed.
The common mistakes were, in particular, the fact that the client was universal for Linux, Windows and MacOS, and not separately. In addition, incomplete English localization was noted and the absence of a pause when calling the Steam overlay.
There were only two critical errors. The first is the presence of the Patreon button in the game, which leads to our page on the Patreon. The second is the inaccuracy in the description of early access, made when translating into English.
Realizing that the re-test will last another 5 days, we focused on correcting critical errors as soon as possible. And even if we had to shed some tears to remove the patreon button, since Patreon is the only source of funding for the development of this game, we did manage. After that, the client was sent for re-verification.
This time the result of the check did not make us wait and came only on the third day. It would seem - we fixed two critical errors and did not create a single new one! After all, this should mean that the game is allowed to release, right? Wrong. The error associated with incomplete English localization, suddenly from the common became into critical. And, as follows from what was described earlier, this postpones the release of the game for another 5 days. Now the nearest possible date is listed as November 21, 2018. However, it is worth bearing in mind that the translation is not yet complete, and, therefore, we cannot promise that the game will be released by this date.
So far, we have changed the release date to November 22. But this date may not be final, if Steam suddenly finds any more errors, or translates olded errors from common into the critical section.