Update #38 – Extended Development and Financing

Hello all,

I have a very important update today to give to you all. We’re going to extend development to make the game as good as it can be, and to incorporate more of your suggestions. Read more below. It’s going to be a long read, but we’ve a lot to say.

We have been listening carefully to what you have said about our game and the most common message is:

“Yes, we like what we see. But there needs to be more!”

And let it be known that we couldn’t agree more. We never aimed to make Crest a small trifle. This is a quote from our Indiegogo campaign from summer, 2014:

“Our goal with our campaign was not for you to fund our whole production. […]the more sources of funding we can secure, the longer we can spend on producing Crest. Crest will be released, right now its just a question of how big it can become. “

We began development for Crest in September, 2013 and we designed the game from the beginning to be modular. The first year we worked half-time and took our money from our own pockets. And from September, 2014 to May, 2015 we’ve been lucky to have the funding mentioned above apart from the Indiegogo money (and some small work for hire). However, it was a limited budget since the beginning and we were perhaps too optimistic at first, we spent a long time on redesigning some of the systems from the prototype which meant we had to scrap a lot of content.

Crest Prototype, Summer, 2014

I think this was a necessary step with a game as experimental as Crest. We can’t just study other games and make a variant of that, we had to carefully construct each mechanic from the ground up to accommodate our game. But this meant that we spent the autumn for pre-production instead of production. Our initial deadline was to release the game in May, but we realised that it was naïve in January, and we pushed the launch as much as we could. Due to stretching the release to the limit we’ve spent the buffer in our budget and we can’t sustain ourselves in this state forever.

Happy Prototyping, October, 2014

So, we realised we either have to release the game in August this year (and disappoint ourselves and most of you, I imagine) or somehow extend the early access period for a few months. But our sales for early access so far has not been overwhelming, it’s not enough to extend the development further than the money we got from other sources took us.

So, what we’ve formulated is a system of funding that is monthly based. We plan out modules, and if we at the end of each month have accumulated enough funding we will be able to fund the next month. So we will give you the core of Crest we originally promised on our early access (apart from one feature) whatever happens sales-wise.

Current Internal Build, June, 2015

But if there is supposed to be more of Crest we will need your help. Now, we don’t ask you to buy the game again. We ask you to spread the game in your channels as much as you are able. We have also talked about adding DLC to the steam page such as art book, soundtrack and the like. These would in essence be support packages where we give something in return.

Apart from that we’ve brainstormed about about physical goods such as hand drawn drawings and/or paintings (watercolour) depicting scenes and characters from Crest.

Watercolour paintings I’ve done before (2010-13)

If we will fill the quota at the end of each month we will extend development. If we are able we will expand the game to December, 2015. So you can see this as a stretch goal system where we try to be as transparent as possible so you know what to expect. And we get clear goals to work for too.

August Core Module

This is the module we have promised you since the beginning, and this is the version you will get whatever happens. Though one feature we promised can’t make it on time and we’re deeply sorry. This is: “Followers can explore beyond your initial island and find new ones to live on”. We have decided to make this its own expanded module.

These are the things we will develop during the rest of the summer to fix the core:

• More symbols allowing for more specialized commandments with more outcomes
• Associations; followers will associate your commandments to their perception of them
• More animals (lions, hyenas, ostriches)
• Balancing fixes
• Performance fixes
• Feedback fixes
• Interface tweaks
• Bug fixes

We will try to make the core version as polished as possible so it can function as a stand-alone game.

September Module – Scheming City States

Each city becomes an autonomous city state and in essence selfish, they will form alliances, trade and wage war on each other. As usual you will be able to influence them indirectly and at times their political scheming will feel like a pleasant surprise or a bad dream.

October Module – Faith in God

The relationship with the player is expanded, what you write will affect how the followers will react to your future commandments. Their faith in you will rise when you’re writing commandments in their comfort zone, but when you deviate they will feel uneasy and loose faith temporarily.

November Module – A Whole New World

Several islands that your followers can settle on and travel between. This is the feature we promised for Core Crest, but sadly can’t fulfil on time.

We will also implement a Russian and a German translation of the whole game since these are the biggest communities we have outside of the English speaking world. However, if there is demand for more languages we might fit them in, it depends on the budget and time constraints. You’re welcome to propose other languages.

December Module – Ancestor Worship

Ancestors are the link between you and your followers, they act as advisors but will also chronicle your legacy.

2016 - DLC?

If the interest for the game becomes big enough we will perhaps make a free DLC next year after we have launched Crest.

What do you think about this model? In essence we’re no different than the early access system already functions in reality for many indie projects. We just thought that being more transparent will be beneficial.

Is there something in the modules you’d like to be changed? If you have already bought the game and want to support us further, what would you like to get in return? Please send us feedback to correct the details in the coming week. After your initial feedback we will try to iterate with your feedback in mind and we will update the store page in the beginning of July.

Oh, and due to illness we had to postpone the stream to Friday, July 10th, sorry for the inconvenience but we hope to see you then. 15:00-17:00, UTC+2.

Have a good weekend!