RELEASE DATE IS HERE!!!
So today Greenman Gaming announced the release date of Eternal Step and the date is the 16th of October!!
On a personal level this doesn't really seem real, me and Paul have been building this game now for just over a year and now it's almost release.
There are probably loads of things we should have done and should do before release but me and Paul are honestly just play testing as best we can and making any minor fixes. One of the things we have always done from the start is play test the game and make sure it plays ok.
We are excited yet scared of release and it's a personal thing, we just hope people like the game. People say they like the game, and give us good feedback, and any negatives we look at and try and come up with a solution to fix. However now it's going out to the wider world and that's a scary thought but also exciting. We hope people get some joy out of killing and having the basic need to get more loot!
So mark your calendar for October the 16th and make sure you tweet out your deaths so that the watcher of the dead can comment on the best one for launch day!
We also have to say a great big thanks to Greenman Gaming. They may not realise it but they have been a huge support. It's been the push we needed, as much as indie is about going it alone on a small budget. (Believe me Eternal Steps has been small due to it mostly coming out of my pocket :)) It's nice to have someone behind you who has done it and seen it and knows what they are doing.
So it's a thanks to Gary, Tracey, David and Rosie (who made a kickass trailer) who have emailed me and spoken to us and given us direction and support, and to the rest of the team there who I don't know personally - thanks.
Eternal Step for OMWG is a starting point. Me and Paul are not uber rich, we don't have a huge team, unlimited resources or a huge community at our door. We just plan to carry on making games we want to see and concepts that interest us, which may mean we don't make sequels or if we do we generally believe we have something to offer.
Eternal Step was about me and Paul wanting to make a game and see it done to the end and make something we wanted to play. A Rogue-like that was easy to pick up but has hidden stuff, random loot and twitch based combat, and whatever happens me and Paul should be proud of it.
Release day is going to be probably the most stressful day since the day I drove to pick up mine and my wife's new dog. That day resulted in a drive of 3 hours to Skegness, my car breaking down 20 miles from my goal. Paying AA a stupid amount of money to come out to my car to go "yeah tis broke" and recover it a local garage some 200 odd miles from where I live.
I still then had to pick the dog up, ask a friend for a lift and go home, get some time off work and then randomly drive to get my car and bring it home!
Worth it though, the dog's kickass!
So RELEASE 16TH OF OCTOBER!!!! Get yourselves ready and keep checking Greenman Gaming to learn more and of course our blog and website!
Oh and check out the awesome trailer by Rosie:
UPDATE 1
So as we said we plan to update the game after launch all being well ( if it sells zero copies then maybe not!)
The first update is going to be about adding content and boosting what's in the game currently.
Other updates might add brand new weapon types among other things (shh) but for the first update we felt more stuff is best!
This is what we plan to add come update 1 (of course I will be spreading the news after release and going over all this again and in more details but it's nice to know a game you may be buying (we hope) has devs that plan to support with awesome content and not just dodgy DLC or preorder bonuses!)
So the Update. Eternal Step we think will be updated more like an MMO than a console game with content coming regularly (depending on support and demand) and bug fixes and tweaks like an MMO.
So Update 1 contents
6 new weapon cards
5 new armours
5 new shields
A rare monster of each normal enemy that doesn't have one (these are like mini bosses and will always drop a rare card)
Second gen move sets for enemies that currently only have their first gen moves
2 new of each golden and evil floors ( to cause you more love and pain)
Colosseum with secret stuff if you get to end
Lift floor (chance of going up floors)
Super death person: that will do stuff that's currently secret!
Second boss form 2 for floor 150
Rare monster ???????? secret
Rare monster ??????? secret
New tileset (or 2!)
Some new music
As you can see that's some chunky stuff right there and this update will be free.
The time line after launch for this update will be as soon as possible, we would like to make sure an update is done every 3 ish months. If they are going to take any longer you will be told!
This also is not a guaranteed list and we have the right to remove stuff if we need to!
The second update we also already have ideas and depending on what we feel is missing we may introduce some magic and guns to the mix as they are planned!
Why the updates and why not add them for release? That's a good question and it has a simple answer! Me and Paul just keep coming up with more things to add to the game, Eternal Step has been designed to be ever growing and me and Paul just cant stop coming up with ideas!!
At some point we had to say that's it, for release!
We aren't trying to nickle and dime people or trying to fudge anyone by saying it's a post release but was actually finished during development. It's honestly because if we didn't limit what we put into the game we would never ever release it!
So we took the hardline and stuck to our original plan 100 floors of content and all the stuff that's currently in the game. Anything else we had to say would be post release. However we probably are very bad as a game company because me and Paul was adding new enemies and floors and content as little as week or so ago, which for a games company is madness but we have that itch! The truth is that only a small amount of people may only ever get to floor 100 or see all the content but it's just me and Paul, we can't help it!
So this is why things like Update 1 are already planned, it's just all the stuff we have had to say no, we can't start that till after release.
So until release......
Gusto out!
