So... what happened? Also, what's the future of Castle Story?
silfarionblade
Member
First off, I was an original Kickstarter backer way back in the day, got physical rewards and everything.
With that out of the way I have to ask: What happened in the past couple years? At first development went smoothly and then all communication ended (and the failure that was the old forums didn't help). For an entire year we pretty much got no updates except for holiday themed tidbits and (very) minor changes.
At this point I assumed development A: Was no longer profitable and thus was halted, B: the team had a falling out, either with each other or with the game (as in, they no longer wanted to maintain it) or C: they were developing lots of back end stuff and just didn't mention any of it.
Now recently it looks like development may have resumed. What caused this hiatus (and the sudden return)?
Secondly, what is the (long term) future of Castle Story? Is version 0.7 indicative of what to expect in the coming months? When is Castle Story's estimated completion date and what happens after?
This project greatly intrigued me back when it was first shown as a little video put together by new game devs, and its potential is still sky high. I'm very excited to see what happens next!
.
With that out of the way I have to ask: What happened in the past couple years? At first development went smoothly and then all communication ended (and the failure that was the old forums didn't help). For an entire year we pretty much got no updates except for holiday themed tidbits and (very) minor changes.
At this point I assumed development A: Was no longer profitable and thus was halted, B: the team had a falling out, either with each other or with the game (as in, they no longer wanted to maintain it) or C: they were developing lots of back end stuff and just didn't mention any of it.
Now recently it looks like development may have resumed. What caused this hiatus (and the sudden return)?
Secondly, what is the (long term) future of Castle Story? Is version 0.7 indicative of what to expect in the coming months? When is Castle Story's estimated completion date and what happens after?
This project greatly intrigued me back when it was first shown as a little video put together by new game devs, and its potential is still sky high. I'm very excited to see what happens next!
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Comments
I'm going to try and answer what I can, best I can.
For starters, thank you for helping kickstart the game and I hope you've been enjoying the rewards.
Communications went quiet for a while as a response to a large amount of toxicity and negativity we were receiving. Going silent was not the best course of action, we regret it and apologize, but what is done is done. It's only an explanation, not a justification. As you can see, we've been working hard on remedying that situation and have been as transparent and present within the community as we possibly can.
During that radio silence, development did not stop. Development never stopped, however, at times, we were refactoring code, improving performance, etc. Nothing show-worthy.
Our long term plans for Castle Story are fairly simple; continue development until we release 1.0. We want to make sure 1.0 is not only polished, fun and worthy of a full release, but also contains the promises we made on Kickstarter. Whether development continues after 1.0 depends entirely on whether the sales and interest allow it to.
There are no "estimated completion date". We're going to avoid giving release dates in the future. An in depth discussion concerning this decision can be found here; http://steamcommunity.com/app/227860/discussions/0/496880503075182343/?ctp=2#c358415738201027110
Thank you for your interest and we share your excitement for what we've got in stores for Castle Story.
I understand the negativity angle very well: you guys were being bombarded with internet rage for seemingly no reason. I've seen this happen to a lot of indie devs. Internet communities will always be grossly negative: I've heard devs getting death threats because they nerfed something or didn't change something specific, it's absolutely ridiculous.
Fighting through that is difficult for anyone.
It's good to see the team is dedicated on reaching 1.0. It might not mean much from a stranger, but good luck and keep up the good work!