OK,
First off, I don't know how or when I forgot to keep posting updates here. Secondly, I am posting a huge game update here!
Yes, it has been since 2016 since I posted an update about the game. Obviously, a lot has happened since then, some good and some bad. We'll get into all that later.
I am pleased to say that despite delays and all sorts of communications snafus,
The 13th Doll is expected to release Halloween 2018! It's been a long road but, we are nearing the end of it.
At the current rate of progress, game modeling will be completed around April. There will still be bug testing to complete after that. Then there is the marketing plan and ensuring that we get all of the digital game shops up and ready for launch day. In short, there is a lot to do in the next 9.5 months!
So, What Happened?The largest contributing factors to the significantly delayed launch are the 3D models we used. The models, some of which literally came from the original The 7th Guest, were designed to be used in pre-rendered videos, not in a free-move live-render environment. This meant having to significantly reduce the polygon count in ALL of the models. The process can only be done manually and in many cases, models had to be re-created from the ground up.
It also didn't help that we lost developers. So right when we had hit our stride, people ended up needing to drop off the project. In fact, some of the people listed on the KS page don't directly work on the project anymore.
Our last big issue was communication. When we realized that things were slowing down, we also slowed down on communication, which was the least intelligent and our most regretted decision. People began to think we "took the money and ran" even though everyone was still working at whatever pace they could.
Where do things stand now?That being said, we have since bounced back from those issues, released some in-game video on Halloween 2017, and are also doing regular updates again. There is even a weekly DevLog that has been set up, specifically for that purpose.
WHEW!
I know that is a LONG update but, I hope it was worthwhile. I will be more active in this thread going forward. You were all such huge supporters of the game and the originals. I want to ensure that I don't leave you hanging again.
Links below include videos and the link to the DevLog:
video 1 video 2 The 13th Doll DevLogThanks everyone for your understanding and patience, I hope that this update starts to make things a little better.
-Chris
The 13th Doll team at Attic Door Productions