benwiddowson
patreon
Restart Coming Soon
🕑 Added 2023-08-14 21:28:48 +0000 UTCHello and long time no talk everybody!
I'm sure you have all been curious where I've been and what has been going on. Well, the answer is - nearly a lifetimes worth of anything and everything. (Side note - I'm trying my best to remember to use "I" instead of "we", so bare with me lol. SUZAKU is just me and Kayi now, but I am the primary dev full time. I've gotten kind of weary of trying to make us look like a super serious company. I'd rather return to being personal and more human with all of you, shitposting included)
After Midnight came out I had a lot of reality to deal with and a lot of course correction to do in a lot of ways. Once we completed the massive update in October, we then focused on making sure the game was fully optimized for consoles with East Asia Soft. That led us through to Around April/May where we began waiting for the console digital release and now the physicals (which shipped late last week!).
All the while in the background we had begun working with Unreal Engine 5, learning the tools, trying to build a better version of the toolkit that our previous coder had made within unity. It didn't go particularly well to be honest. The inventory system being the sole hang up. Over time, it became clear that purchasing a solid system from the asset store was the right move, at least for the time being.
I'm not going to lie. the last year has been incredibly difficult, and filled to the brim with days of questioning, doubt, and depression. BUT, I've said it before and I'll say it again now. Kayi and I are not quitters, and I will not give up. Doing this is my dream, and I have been so blessed to have the opportunity to make games and try to make it a full time job and career. That said, we realized that as the economy has tanked, and cost of living here in Austin TX has skyrocketed, we actually need to find a different place to call home. So, we are going back up North in October, to return to the mountains and woods where I personally belong. Honestly, I love Texas but it is way too expensive here to be so damned hot all the time. Once we get up there we will be saving roughly 1k a month on living costs, and able to dedicate even more time to just gamedev, but also enjoy time together to wind down and breath, which has been sorely missing thanks to our work schedules. I also know that the environment itself will help inspire me to create something that only I can.
This brings me to the next important update - Our next title, currently named "Project Office" is kind of big. It will be roughly on scale with Sense 1, and is a deeper and more personal and emotional story that tackles some themes that need to be perfectly delivered. This one will take time. We are not ruling out an eventual crowd funding either. I will be sharing some concepts and ideas in the near future. But we honestly cannot afford to go potentially 3+ years without a release. So we have a smaller project we plan to release first. That project will be our way of building out the full system, all of the gameplay concepts, and getting us familiar with UE5 and testing those systems to make sure that anything that doesnt hit perfectly can get corrected. I will announce that title probably around the time of our reboot. We've been moving at a crazy pace on it, and will soon be back in Unreal working on the actual gameplay. the plan is for this to be a more western-audience friendly game focused a little more on the action and in your face horror. While Office will remain a more slow paced and emotional horror. Think of it like the difference between Resi 2 remake and Silent Hill 1. We mentioned "Storage" before, it kind of evolved from that idea and an old story I wrote based on a real experience I had as a kid. I think if you like Evil Dead this game might be nice treat.
If you have been a patron in the interim I cannot tell you how much your support has meant to Me. Soon we will have a lot to show you that should make up for the absence. A BIG part of that is going to be our dev-logs on youtube and rumble, those channels will also have videos about the paranormal and supernatural which inspires us. Once Kayi and I have found our house we may even livestream some literal fire-side chats. We've been coming up with a lot of ways to engage and build the audience, and I think we've settled on some really awesome stuff. Just gotta get all this packing, driving, and unpacking out of the way first.
Thank you all, I'll have a new update for you soon, and plan to start weekly or atleast biweekly updates again from here. We are planning to make our move a kind of cryptid road trip, so expect lots of pictures and maybe some videos in mid October!
- Ben
Comments
neptuniafan
You and your team's personal health is way more important, so keep up the good work, but don't overwork yourselves. And also looking forward to your upcoming project.
I love you guys ! Please, keep up the good work !
