Team Health Update
Necrobarista has been in the works for a really, really long time. Route 59 Games has existed in one form or another since 2015, and the project now known as Necrobarista started development at the end of 2016. Additionally, when we first announced our August 2019 release window, we genuinely were very set on that. Everything looked like it'd line up for that release date, and I'll go into further detail on the reasons behind our delay below, but it's important to talk openly about working conditions in the game industry, so here goes: we're all suffering burnout, and that's difficult to deal with.
If you're unfamiliar with burnout, it's essentially a physiological state that manifests as feelings of exhaustion or energy depletion, as well as reduced workplace productivity. It's not fun. We've focused a lot on healthy working practices, particularly over the last six months, but the fact of the matter is that it's very difficult to stay motivated and healthy when you're working towards a finish line that you can't see. It's also very difficult to "switch off" from working, because it's easy for our brains to trick us into thinking that we're not working hard enough and letting down everyone else on our team. Since we've been unable to set a solid public release date for Aforementioned Complex Reasons, working on the game has often felt like wading around in the dark, trying to find a light switch that keeps running away from us. Like I said before, it's not fun, but when the choices available to you are (a) overwork or (b) the game not releasing, it's hard to say no to option A.
With that in mind, we're all taking a break towards the end of this month. It's been a long time since the entire studio took time off together, and if nobody's working on the game for a little while, that hopefully means nobody else will feel that unconscious peer pressure to get back to work. It's the healthiest thing we can do, and we're looking forward to starting 2020 with a fresh burst of energy leading towards our PC release.
Ultimately, a lot of this is out of our control, and we're rolling with the punches as best we can. The past six months have been a pretty mixed bag for us. We've had some very cool things happen to us, as well as some totally garbage things, but that's just life, y'know? We're doing our best. And we're thankful every day that our fans are sticking with us. You are all wonderful humans and we couldn't ask for the support of a nicer bunch of people.
What's Taking You So Long?
If you cast your mind back to our original delay announcement, you'll note that we mentioned translating the game into a patently ridiculous number of languages. Fifteen in total. We were very excited to suddenly have the resources to do this, and it's something we're still very glad to have, but localization has been a significant drain on our resources, and we've had to put a large amount of engineering work into making everything work correctly across all languages and playable aspect ratios. Additionally, right-to-left languages like Arabic are still difficult to implement into games, as documentation and support for their fonts and layouts are often lacking or simply nonexistent.
On top of this, we've recently devoted significant engineering resources into optimizing the game. The past six months have involved a large amount of bugfixing and quality assurance, and Necrobarista is much better for it. According to Jira, we've resolved at least 371 issues in the last six months, on top of ongoing work to polish and refine all aspects of the game. It's a good-looking game, and it looks a little bit better every day.
Necrobarista's Launch Window
This is the question that's on everyone's minds: when's the game actually launching? After all, we've announced tentative release windows many times (RIP our initial October 2017 estimate), and even went to the point of nailing down a solid release date earlier this year. A point I'd like to emphasize is this: we wouldn't be delaying the game unless we absolutely had to. And in this situation, it's because the ability to set a launch date is currently out of our hands. The decision is not ours to make, and we won't be announcing a solid release date again until we're 100% certain that nothing will get in our way.
However—and this is not an announcement or a promise, but a transparent communication of where we're at—we are currently aiming for "very early 2020" for our PC release. The game is looking great, and is essentially done, so it would take a chain of very unfortunate events to delay the game anywhere past Q1. We're feeling just as impatient as you are, promise.
Beyond Launch
There's not a lot we can say here yet, but I'm happy to confirm that Necrobarista will be well-supported after launch. We'll respond to bugs and other issues as they emerge, and we also have solid plans for post-launch feature updates and significant content additions. There's some very cool stuff in the pipeline to look forward to, and if you've been paying close attention to our trailers, you might recognize some familiar faces...
The Future Is Bright
It's been a long slog to the finish line, but we're beginning to feel like we're almost there. We're all very much looking forward to having the game out, and we're confident that it's in a very good state. Our playtesters (and friends and family) have universally given us glowing feedback, which fills us with DETERMINATION. To put it simply: we got this. And we're so, so thankful that you've stuck with us.
More news soon.
❤,
Route 59 Games
