January #2: BROWNING
Our final sprint of January! It’s been busy.
Firstly, we’re getting interest from the press: Cultist Simulator featured in both PCGamesN and GamesMaster as indies to watch out for in 2018, and we’re heading to GDC, EGX Rezzed and Reboot Develop in various capacities. Ahead of these, I’m slowly spicing up our Steam page with new review quotes and assets, putting my graphic design skills to the test in much the same way a chipmunk creeps up on a bear.
We blogged last week about removing Perpetual Edition from sale at the end of February to help drive traffic on launch day – more on that here if you missed it! For the avoidance of doubt, nothing is changing for anyone who currently owns Perpetual Edition.
In case our Kickstarter backers were feeling neglected, this sprint we also revealed an early glimpse of the USBs we’ll send out to Disciples and above (£35+), the delightful bodies for AK’s digital notebooks. These are currently in production, so don’t expect to receive yours any time soon – but here’s hoping you like the Orchid Transfigurations as much as me!
Meanwhile, art has been full-go this sprint, with Clockwork Cuckoo producing some lovely icons based on spells, betrayal and handsome investigators…
…and Catherine-of-our-hero-image-fame rejoining us for new game mock-ups and something pretty damned exciting I can’t tell you about yet. However, I can tease you a little.
(I’m afraid that’s all you get.)
AK, of course, has been skeletoning out the remaining content for the rest of the game: a mammoth task that sounds surprisingly small. WELL IT ISN’T! But he is essentially a poet-spider, forever weaving words, so has somehow also found time for new and upgraded followers. Enlighten, corrupt or, y’know, consume. A select quartet below.
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Stay tuned next week for the nice surprise of an interim build, packaging up our latest work for you to get your mitts on. Look out for that dropping into your life in the near future, like honey from an illicit spoon.
Those USB sticks look sweet. Makes me wished I’d backed the Kickstarter. Guess the lesson is learned: back Weather Factory’s next Kickstarter so I can get the cool stuff!
With each sprint update posted, I become more and more happy that I backed this project! I love the new art and can’t wait until the next build!
Connor: thank you!
Ermzzz: we’re looking at the practicalities of offering a Slacker Backer late reward option on the USB sticks. There are practical costs with ordering another batch, so we need to run the numbers and may not – but do make sure you’re on the mailing list!
Hey this might be a stupid question but are you going to provide those of us who purchased the perpetual edition with cd-keys that we can add the game to steam?
Or did it get emailed to me from ichio and I just missed it?
Hey Max, everyone who owns Perpetual Edition – whether by backing the Kickstarter, or purchasing via itch.io – will receive a Perpetual Edition Steam key.
We’ll be making a big noise about them having been sent out shortly, so if you realise you still haven’t received a Steam key after that point, email us and we’ll sort it out. 🙂
Thanks Lottie, that makes sense.
I’m a little curious about the sprints. I know from previous posts/tweets that continued contact with backers is an important priority so a first assumption would be that sprints are “All tasks involved in making a game” / # of 2 week periods until release, but this makes about as much sense as posting on a job forum “I would like to hire you to produce exactly 3/16ths of one video games please.”
I guess I’m a bit curious as what goes into building a sprint (what goes in, what is moved to another) and specifically how unknowns are handled (tasks that could fit the description “I know we should be able to do this but I’m not quite sure how yet”). I’d like to think these things are done by magic but I know one of you is in charge of the hacknplan account for a reason.