[img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/0e90a1ebbb2fec9f618e7b290e8b72e08d83ad9e.png[/img] [i]"When you launch a game, you really don't know how many people are going to show up." _ Mike Morhaime[/i] [b]Wise words from an industry legend.[/b] Over here at the office of Frozen Lake Software, our development team is rapidly approaching the finish line on our upcoming title, Water Delivery! Yet, we are faced with quite the conundrum. Do we release the game when the development journey is complete, or do we wait to release it until we have reached a certain number of Wishlist's? [b][i]I'll get back to this conundrum in a little bit, but first let me give you all some additional context. [/i][/b] See, this will actually be our first standalone experience that we've developed as a studio. Prior to Water Delivery, all of the games that we made before were actually inside of [b][i]Fortnite[/i][/b]! As a studio, we designed, developed and released 11 games on Fortnite in the span of 14 month using Unreal Editor for Fortnite, or UEFN for short. The experience of making games that were being played by hundreds of thousands of people was amazing, and we even brought in a little bit of money during the process too. Unfortunately, for our business, the money we were bringing in from Fortnite wasn't enough money to keep the lights on and we had to make a drastic pivot to keep us all employed. One night, me and my co-founder decided that we were going to shift our studio's focus to making standalone games that we would sell on Steam, and we would use the tool our team was most familiar with - Unreal Engine. No more Fortnite. No more UEFN. "[i]Real games[/i]" as we described it to ourselves in a defeated tone. How would we announce this to the team, what would be their thoughts, questions and concerns? All of this raced through our heads prior to our announcement to the team. And then, an epiphany... [i][b]How about we tell the team we are going to have an internal game jam using Unreal Engine 5, and then use the data from this experience to decide whether or not we could actually go forward with this new plan we had devised?[/b][/i] The goals of this game jam were simple and we explained them to the team prior to starting. [list] [*] Create a horror game in 1 week. [/list] [*] Must be from a first-person perspective. [/list] [*] Must be developed in Unreal Engine 5. [/list] Simple, easy, and straight to the point. Well, not so simple in reality. The team knocked it out of the park so rapidly, that by the end of the first week, my co-founder and I decided that not only were we going to move forward with our plan, but that this simple game jam project was destined to become a "[i]real game[/i]" on steam. And, well, the rest is history as they say... [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/a15b49577bbe27f56e9f56a7dfe24aa6762681a5.jpg[/img] Development is nearing completion, and now it's time to circle back to that conundrum I had foreshadowed in the beginning of this post. Do we release the game when it's completed, or do we sit on it and wait until we have reached a certain number of wishlists? We have been debating this subject a lot internally. After a period of reflection, we have come to the consensus that, because this is our first game, we feel what it is most important to just make it available to gamers as soon as possible. Ultimately, with this title being our first game, we just want to make an awesome experience for the people who do end up playing it. Simply put, [b][i]we just want to scare the hell out of all of you with our horrific creation! [/i][/b] I'd like to wrap this up with a thank you to all of you who have supported us on this journey so far. We hope all of you will stick around for the launch of the game and return for our future endeavors. Yours Truly, Dr. Frank-N-Furter [i][b]P.S. - Here's some extra concept art for you all![/b][/i] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/1edf0256468323b20d92f222eb83723cdb3da098.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/a9e25eed7f4dad890d1668a5e8813f7d8e1b293c.jpg[/img] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/d91b77512f0e2f9b65e6cf3631b64755d3e5dced.png[/img] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/f4973891ac0109e01295aaef8d76473441a27bbf.png[/img] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/c834428232d437bb848dcb7c29f7916c2bb20143.png[/img] [img]https://clan.akamai.steamstatic.com/images/45121180/7f576ea9cd459dc4c644eabc7325ac28d4bd7d22.png[/img]