On Monday I decided it was reasonable to consider the game to have hit the Feature Complete milestone.
In software this is sometimes also called “Alpha.” It means that everything we plan to include in the game is complete, at least to a reasonable level of quality. There are still known bugs, and some of the art is still being worked on. (All of it is at least inked, however — see the example work in progress.)
In terms of the project, it means we can invite a small number of external playtesters to try the game and give feedback. The emphasis is on small, because there are after all known bugs, and there are likely to be confusing bits. It doesn’t help if a dozen people tell me that an icon is unclear. Better to hear that from one or two and then iterate.
It turned out that one of the important bugs we found was actually in our bug reporting. The game now does a better job of capturing information about an issue, so playtesters don’t have to jump through hoops to do so.
We’re also starting to get data on how the game is actually played. This has led to some minor tuning, and will surely result in more. We’ll also learn if systems work well, or if anything else would help.
Meanwhile, the QA team is continuing to make sure all the game situations have been exercised and make sense. (We recently had a discussion about whether one scene should be dropped entirely because of changes that had been made since it was written.)
At some point, we’ll have all the art complete, changes made, and bugs fixed. That will put us at the “Beta” milestone and we’ll look for more playtesters. (Don’t ask now! I’m not sure exactly what we’ll be looking for at that point.)
And I still can’t figure out a release date. That will depend on how alpha testing goes. But we are definitely progressing.
Thats great to hear! Cant wait for the game to finish. And I would love to be part of the testing once the Beta stage starts (have been an old time avid KoDP player on PC and iPad).
Do you have more art to show us?
More and more excited with every update! I’d love to help out in any way possible to see this thing released at its up most potential… Hopefully without spoiling myself of the full release version.
Nice to see the art in progress. Are the same artists that have worked on KoDP involved?
Our lead artist Jan Pospíšil did art for some of the later KoDP updates.
Very excited to hear this! Any teasers to show?
I hope you will release in 2017 as you promised, and you wont be like other GDs that break on their promises. Peace
Um, we haven’t made any promises. Don’t make me stop predicting.
You act like you put money into this.
Either the game is a little later and in better condition
Or
Game is rushed and is criticized
Pick one.
If we held you to every prediction, we’d still be mad it didn’t come out late last year. Better for it to be completely with quality than to be rushed, in my opinion.
Still looking very much forward to this. 🙂
I absolutely cannot wait, your work is wonderful!
I have been checking this blog frequently for months and I am so excited with how it is progressing!
Oh my God it may actually be released this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Long-time KODP player, first time commenter here. (Although to be honest, I’ve never actually “won” the game.) Super excited about this. I keep checking back in every couple of weeks. KODP is a unique jewel amongst games and I relish the thought of a spiritual successor. Keep up the good work. Let me know when I can pre order as I most certainly will.
Releasing in time for the holiday season would make sense–but only if it’s well and truly done, and not released in beta state, as so many games are.
Best of luck, regardless.