This is not the post I was hoping to make, but a post that is needed for clarity, especially in regards to Steam and commercialization of RPG Architect.
The long story made short of it all is that it’ll be delayed a few more months.
Originally, the plan was to have a workable battle and map engine, without much concern about save data, shops, victory and progression. The idea was to give a “taste” of what RPG Architect would become on Steam, since it would, after all, be Early Access.
After careful consideration from several people testing and playing with it, I’ve decided to try to ensure that we have some semblance of a “full game loop.” The ability to load/save games, buy items, fight enemies and have them fight back, and so forth. This will add, roughly, another month for each of these features or so.
So, what does that look like?
October will be focused on fortifying the battle engine and “completing” it for Early Access.
November will include more details for user interfaces, such as a victory screen, shops, dialogue options, and a few more custom elements that should be rendered in those user interfaces.
December will focus on save/load data (which should be pretty straight forward, as I have a good idea of how it’ll all be done — I’ve been planning this since RPG Architect’s inception). The rest of the time will be spent for fixing any bugs, usability issues, and making things nice and solid.
I’m adjusting the original target (Halloween!) of October 31st to December 26th (Boxing Day). It may be a little earlier or later, based on how progress goes.
Almost all of our patrons from Patreon have been given keys to Steam already. In fact, Steam builds are already a thing — in a pre-EA state. Patrons who already hit their $30 donation mark and testers are already getting builds and updates via that platform. The big hurdle of getting onto Steam is complete and all of the tooling complete. It’s just a matter of doing the rest of the actual “work” to make sure that RPG Architect gets to a state that would let someone actually build a game.
I ask for your patience for just a little while longer. RPG Architect can only be officially released on Steam once. I want to make sure that it is a product that everyone sees the potential in — and wants more of. In the spirit of that, I’ll defer to something that Shigeru Miyamoto is well known for saying, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.”
Thank you to all of RPG Architect’s supporters and fans thus far. I look forward to sharing more news as we get closer!
