Looks like we did that thing again where we don't post much progress for some months, oops.
Ah well, I'll start queuing up some stuff now that we're trying to target an actual release date soon.
Cutting to the chase, we're looking at March of 2024 for the first version of Early Access, that should time well with being able to get a demo out for Steam Next Fest along with having all the backbone stuff finished that we've been stuck on for a while.
Exact date to be announced.
The main holdup right now is wanting to make sure the reworked UI does everything it should, and that the save files/config files work well. UI stuff doesn't come natural to us it seems, and even the state of the first version will likely be very unpolished, but so long as we can get that to a minimum level of quality we can feel at least somewhat safe to focus down the release window.
Besides that, I'm becoming more confident everything is getting to a point where post-initial-release I'll be able to output regular content updates, so in the mean time I just need to make sure the initial content feels good for that first release.
Meanwhile the one problem child of development right now is music, still do not have the money to hire someone, and still don't have an ounce of talent, so it is the one aspect of the game I worry about. Ideally one day we might have the money to hire someone, until then I just hope what I've managed to scrape together can satisfy.
Let's see, what else can I talk about? Oh yeah, part of the weirdness is the odd transition social media is in right now. Some services are failing, others need a bit of effort to start accessing, some we don't feel like supporting... This combination unfortunately leaves us a bit lost as to handle our social media presence going forward, so we'll try to figure that out soon.
For now our new Discord server works as a decent hub for news and conversation, at least for those that use the service.
Also, obviously this release window is the plan, but there's always a chance the plan will fall through (a theme is starting to form in this regard). Like, even this announcement was meant to come out back in October, but a family visit, a burned hand, and a cold later and October was not my month... Time keeps on ticking, but sometimes development doesn't.
Let's try to fix that.