Greetings! It's us again.
It seems not long ago that you were visiting us here at our fine castle. Last we spoke, spring had just sprung and there was a distinct sense of anticipation in the air. As is our custom during your visits, we were most eager to recount tales of development to you. Yet today, we suspect the eagerness is likely yours, for word around the castle is that we've been preparing a few announcements.
This, dear friend, is one such announcement.
First Impression Obsession
We've been doing a fair bit of pondering and chin scratching as of late. (We really should do something about that chin rash.) Something we've found ourselves thinking back on often is the very first prototype we released before the Kickstarter. By Druida's armpits was that thing rough! But something that we found absolutely invaluable during that time was the prototype feedback we received from everyone. In fact, several of the development areas we've been focusing on since the Kickstarter came out from those early player impressions.
Over the years, we've chatted with developers who tell us they prefer working in secret until their game is ready. There's nothing inherently wrong with that approach, especially depending on the kind of game it is. For us however, we're a bunch of odd ducks in that working in secret makes us antsy. The more we've worked on this game by ourselves the more we've found ourselves wanting outside perspectives.
Yet we also know that Early Access will be our game's very first impression on Steam and we're not taking the importance of that lightly. Many games live or die by that first impression and we want to make sure the game is ready. Granted, it is Early Access and nobody's expecting a perfectly finished game of course. Yet all the same, we want to hit a certain bar of quality and content before that release.
Thus, our conundrum. How do we ensure that we we're making our best first impression on Early Access if we can't get feedback from our players until after we release on it? Furthermore, how do we give ourselves extra time to prepare the Early Access build while not making all our eager backers wait even longer?
It is often said that good questions outrank easy answers, but in this case we felt the answer was clear.
The Announcement: Aka, The Part Where We Finally Get On With It
Anyone capable of reading the title of this announcement knows where we're going with this. We are most delighted to announce that we're launching a Kynseed closed beta, open to all backers!
When the idea of a closed beta came to mind, we became immediately excited by the prospect. This will allow us to get valuable feedback and ideas from the players while simultaneously letting us spend some extra time making sure the Early Access version of the game is the best it can be. Most importantly, it lets you backers do the one thing on all your minds: play the darn thing!
Sunday - The 29th of April, 2018. That, our dear backers, is when the closed beta will go live. What's even better is you'll be able to play it right on Steam!
Also, it is not without a certain sense of irony that we recognize that 29th April happens to be the 2 year anniversary of the exact day Lionhead Studios officially closed. What's a bit uncanny is that we hadn't actually planned for that. It was only until after we'd selected the closed beta's date that we realized its significance. It felt like providence. Lionhead's story may have ended that day, but we hope a new story may yet begin with Kynseed.
The Details
We wanted to make this process as easy and painless for backers as possible. The short version is this: every backer can play the closed beta on Steam. For a look at all the other juicy details, you can read on below. (And to whomever is responsible for spilling juice on our details, please stop. It's making our keyboards sticky.)
• The closed beta launches 29th April.
• Closed beta keys will be sent on that day.
• It's open to all backers (both Kickstarter and Piggy Backers).
• If you're an existing backer, all you'll need to do is opt-in.
• Any brand new Piggy Backers from today onward will be opted in automatically.
• All backers will still get their Early Access copies when the time comes.
• We'll soon be launching a closed beta section of our forums for feedback and ideas.
• As a special treat for our Land Shaper tiers and higher, you all will be getting access to the closed beta a day early.
Our goal is to take things one step at a time, so for now we don't have anything concrete on when to expect a formal Early Access release. It all depends on how the closed beta goes and what sort of feedback we get. We've no doubt that you'll be keeping the PixelCount Studios team more than occupied with your reactions and ideas, so sorting through all that will be our primary focus for now.
What to Expect in the Game
Much like the Kickstarter prototype, the closed beta is going to be rough around the edges. In fact, it'll probably be rougher around the edges than the prototype, if only because we've added so many more edges since then!
Rather than try to make the game overly polished and perfect, the idea is to let everyone play when much of the game is still incomplete. This is absolutely crucial we feel, because it means that there's still time and opportunity for us to make fairly large changes depending on the feedback we get. The further into the game's development we go, the harder it'll be to make big changes.
So expect many things to be unfinished. Expect bugs. Expect embarrassing typos. Whole swaths of the game will have half-complete mechanics and clumsy presentation. This is what you're signing up for if you join the closed beta. In short, you'll be playing the same version the developers are playing.
Streaming, Let's Plays, & Other Sundry Things
We'd been mulling over this whole streaming thing lately. Speaking candidly, we were worried that letting folks stream such a rough version of the game would give off the wrong impression about the quality of game we're wanting to make. But honestly, the idea of telling people they couldn't stream the closed beta made us uneasy. It's not really our style as a company.
So we decided to do what we always do: let our community have free reign over such things. It's always been our experience that streamers (and similar) take their work very seriously. As such, we're sure we can rely on all you lovely streamers to regularly mention to your viewers that you're playing an early version of the game - a version that's only scratching the surface of what we intend to make in the end.
Opt-In Instructions
To make sure that we're not sending out a bunch of Steam keys willy nilly, we're doing a quick and easy opt-in process for existing backers. Just head to the link below and put in the email address you used when backing the game, whether it was here on Kickstarter or on our Piggy Backer.
Not a backer? Not a problem. You can still head to our Piggy Backer page and support the game there. As of today, anyone who joins the Piggy Backer will be automatically opted in and can expect a closed beta Steam key on 29th April. (For anyone at the Land Shaper tier or higher, you'll actually be getting your key a day early!)
It certainly feels like April has been showering us with all manner of exciting developments. What's more is we're not even done with all the announcements yet! You can expect one more small, but interesting, bit of info from us shortly before the closed beta goes live. Curiously enough, it isn't about anything you can find in the game, but it's something which we've had a growing interest in doing for some time. Though that's an announcement for another day.
It often seems that we only part to meet again, but rest assured we'll be meeting again most soon indeed. As you can imagine (assuming you have at least the imagination of a walnut), we're all going to be incredibly busy these next few weeks preparing The Vale for many new visitors. For any of you with questions, thoughts, or bacon, you can find us at all the usual places listed below.
The next chapter of our story is closely approaching and we're looking forward to having you at our sides when it happens. We'll see you again very soon.
Love,
PixelCount
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