Posted November 13, 2017
Why decide to join games in development on GOG?
TLDR: Dead Cells is lots of fun right now, more time will make it even better. We’ll need about 8 - 12 months. We will try to double the May 10 content. Right now you have about 20 - 25 hours on average for one playthrough. The price will probably increase during/after the development period. We will work very closely with the community to improve the game.
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
We will need at least 8 months to implement everything that we already have planned. Taking into account community feedback and requested features, we could go up to 12 months or even more.
We feel like this is a reasonably accurate estimation of the time we'll need, as we've been working on this iteration of the game for a bit over a year now, starting from the ground up. Of course this is early access, anything could happen and our crystal ball refuses to be drawn on the result of the French elections or the exact date we'll leave the Games in Development program.
What do you plan to change during development?
Ultimately we would like to come near to doubling the content we had when we initially launched the game. So that means more; levels, enemies, items, bosses and meta skills. The core of the game right now is very fun, the combat is tight and punchy, the difficulty is pretty well balanced and there is a solid amount of variation in monsters and levels.
However we plan to iterate over every aspect of the game until it is as close to perfect as you can get. That means everything is subject to change, we might add; new locked areas that need new powers to access, new weapon classes, new meta game systems, new skins for monsters, basically if it’s not 150% awesome and you let us know, we’ll make it better.
What is the current state of your game?
At day one of the Early Access we have:
11 Levels - Each one with varied monsters, level designs and secrets to discover.
2 Bosses - We're really hoping to do these guys right, so go forth and destroy them.
50 or so weapons and skills
2 special powers, for unlocking new areas (metroidvania gear lock items)
1 Complete, fluid and fun to play combat system
Hours of fun (depending on your skill, anything from 10 to 30 hours or more)
A few rage-quits
In practical terms Dead Cells is an attempt at combining the progressive exploration of a Metroidvania, with the high stakes replayability of a Rogue-lite. Special powers that unlock new areas and paths, secret rooms, big boss battles and character progression, with randomised loot, permadeath, fast paced punishing combat and massive replayability.
On the game design side of things, we've got the monsters, combat and loot system down. All of this takes place in hand designed levels that are procedurally assembled each run, meaning you never know where the secrets are or exactly where you're going. However, we're still building the world you'll be exploring, so you'll be playing regular updates with new levels, bosses and ways to explore the levels and progress through the game. Meaning that the game will only reach its full potential as we keep adding content.
But don’t worry, what you see here is well and truly enough for you to risk losing your job because: “one more run”.
Will the price change on release day?
Yes. We will probably increase the price during or after the early access based on the amount of content available and feedback from the community.
How can the community participate in the development process?
We're looking forward to working with the community on a number of fronts:
Balancing the game:
We want a tough but fair experience. Unjust situations should be hunted down and eliminated. We’re aiming for that sweet spot between a (very) challenging game and a broken controller and we’re counting on the community helping out a lot with this.
Suggestions and ideas:
We actively encourage members of the community to contribute their ideas on how to improve the game with new content or design ideas. We have a pretty clear vision of what we want to create, but we'd like to be able to incorporate any awesome ideas we receive from you where possible.
Bug hunting:
We’ve done our best to provide as bug free an experience as we can. However, there will inevitably be crashes or performance issues. Whether they're caused by thousands of players with thousands of different rigs and a gazillion configurations, or just us having a brain fart while coding, we want them bugs! I gotta get me my bugs Morty! I need my bugs MORTY!
Translation:
We are currently investigating ways of letting the community help us translate the game and bring Dead Cells to as many people who want to get involved. More to come on this.
How often do you expect to release updates?
Initially we were working weekends and nights to push out an update every two weeks, then we realized that that this kind of behavior get you divorced, so we’ve slowed things down a bit. Now you should expect major updates, with new levels and new stuff every two months or so
TLDR: Dead Cells is lots of fun right now, more time will make it even better. We’ll need about 8 - 12 months. We will try to double the May 10 content. Right now you have about 20 - 25 hours on average for one playthrough. The price will probably increase during/after the development period. We will work very closely with the community to improve the game.
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
We will need at least 8 months to implement everything that we already have planned. Taking into account community feedback and requested features, we could go up to 12 months or even more.
We feel like this is a reasonably accurate estimation of the time we'll need, as we've been working on this iteration of the game for a bit over a year now, starting from the ground up. Of course this is early access, anything could happen and our crystal ball refuses to be drawn on the result of the French elections or the exact date we'll leave the Games in Development program.
What do you plan to change during development?
Ultimately we would like to come near to doubling the content we had when we initially launched the game. So that means more; levels, enemies, items, bosses and meta skills. The core of the game right now is very fun, the combat is tight and punchy, the difficulty is pretty well balanced and there is a solid amount of variation in monsters and levels.
However we plan to iterate over every aspect of the game until it is as close to perfect as you can get. That means everything is subject to change, we might add; new locked areas that need new powers to access, new weapon classes, new meta game systems, new skins for monsters, basically if it’s not 150% awesome and you let us know, we’ll make it better.
What is the current state of your game?
At day one of the Early Access we have:
11 Levels - Each one with varied monsters, level designs and secrets to discover.
2 Bosses - We're really hoping to do these guys right, so go forth and destroy them.
50 or so weapons and skills
2 special powers, for unlocking new areas (metroidvania gear lock items)
1 Complete, fluid and fun to play combat system
Hours of fun (depending on your skill, anything from 10 to 30 hours or more)
A few rage-quits
In practical terms Dead Cells is an attempt at combining the progressive exploration of a Metroidvania, with the high stakes replayability of a Rogue-lite. Special powers that unlock new areas and paths, secret rooms, big boss battles and character progression, with randomised loot, permadeath, fast paced punishing combat and massive replayability.
On the game design side of things, we've got the monsters, combat and loot system down. All of this takes place in hand designed levels that are procedurally assembled each run, meaning you never know where the secrets are or exactly where you're going. However, we're still building the world you'll be exploring, so you'll be playing regular updates with new levels, bosses and ways to explore the levels and progress through the game. Meaning that the game will only reach its full potential as we keep adding content.
But don’t worry, what you see here is well and truly enough for you to risk losing your job because: “one more run”.
Will the price change on release day?
Yes. We will probably increase the price during or after the early access based on the amount of content available and feedback from the community.
How can the community participate in the development process?
We're looking forward to working with the community on a number of fronts:
Balancing the game:
We want a tough but fair experience. Unjust situations should be hunted down and eliminated. We’re aiming for that sweet spot between a (very) challenging game and a broken controller and we’re counting on the community helping out a lot with this.
Suggestions and ideas:
We actively encourage members of the community to contribute their ideas on how to improve the game with new content or design ideas. We have a pretty clear vision of what we want to create, but we'd like to be able to incorporate any awesome ideas we receive from you where possible.
Bug hunting:
We’ve done our best to provide as bug free an experience as we can. However, there will inevitably be crashes or performance issues. Whether they're caused by thousands of players with thousands of different rigs and a gazillion configurations, or just us having a brain fart while coding, we want them bugs! I gotta get me my bugs Morty! I need my bugs MORTY!
Translation:
We are currently investigating ways of letting the community help us translate the game and bring Dead Cells to as many people who want to get involved. More to come on this.
How often do you expect to release updates?
Initially we were working weekends and nights to push out an update every two weeks, then we realized that that this kind of behavior get you divorced, so we’ve slowed things down a bit. Now you should expect major updates, with new levels and new stuff every two months or so
Post edited November 13, 2017 by B0SC0
