The Common’hood team is back to give you an update on development and our upcoming release. Our full-time work on the game has continued since our last message and we’re happy to say Common’hood is really close to release.
The last few months have been dedicated to polish as well as building our sandbox multiplayer mode. In the Multiplayer Sandbox you will be able to play alongside your friends, design and build to your collective creativity’s desire with unlimited materials. This mode is not only great for creative expression, but it’ll allow you to create blueprints to share with other players or use in the Story mode.
Common’hood has grown to become a larger game than what we anticipated, which has us excited but at the same time there has been a lot of polish necessary for reaching the standard that we think you deserve. So, we are not there yet, but we are getting closer.
This are the mayor updates that we have finished recently:
Completion of the campaign
Online Multiplayer Sandbox
Upgraded character models
Upgrades to NPCs AI.
Upgrades to Pathfining.
Final OST
Campaign Blueprints
Rebalance for tech progression / economy
We are currently working with our QA partners to polish all the hundreds of details that are necessary to reach a finished product. We want to reassure you that we are working hard on having the game ready as soon as possible and we will be announcing our release date as soon as we feel that we have a finished product.
We are planning to do some network testing in the coming weeks so please join us in our Discord if you would like to take part.
On our planned release date
After months and months of development, beta testing and the demo release, we’ve been nothing short of thrilled by your enthusiastic response. However, we’ve also realized that if we were to stick to our original release date of Fall 2021, Common’hood would not be the game we envision, and most importantly, the one you deserve.
Due to the mixture between simulation and narrative, we are not aiming to do an early access release, as we don’t want to spoil the story of the game as we gradually iterate over it’s implementation. We want to release a finished product.
At the current rate of development, the version of Common’hood that would come out on this date wouldn’t have the level of polish we find acceptable. This would leave us with the choice of either narrowing the scope of the final version or releasing a less optimized version of the game to patch and fix at a later date.
Therefore we are officially announcing that we’re aiming to have Common’hood out and in your hands on March 2022. We know waiting isn’t the greatest feeling, but we hope that the wait will be very much worth it. Common’hood has ended up being a much larger project than originally intended (which we are very excited about) and that has required a lot more balancing and polishing time.
We appreciate the support from all of those who have wishlisted the game, those who have kept up with our progress and to the people in our Discord handing out valuable feedback and participating in our playtests. We hope you will stick with us til the end!
-The Common’hood Dev Team
New gameplay, dev interviews and more from Common'hood at the GDoCExpo 2021!
We're bringing our best to this year's GDoCExpo; see new gameplay footage from the game alongside some of the other awesome games at the event right here!
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The event is jam-packed with interviews, panels and gamedev talks, including a game design interview airing this Saturday 25th at 7:50 AM PST.
Everyone here at Plethora is thrilled to take part in this event and we hope you'll like what we have to show and say!
Dev Q&A and more! Meet the team!
In celebration of the Steam Next Fest, we'll be livestreaming on Steam this Tuesday 22nd!
Join us at 11:00 PST / 14:00 EST to hear what we're working on, get to know the dev team and the community that is helping make Common'hood into the best game possible!
Dev Q&A and more!
In celebration of the Steam Next Fest, we'll be livestreaming on Steam this Sunday 20th!
Join us at 3 PST / 6 EST to hear what we're working on, get to know the dev team and the community that is helping make Common'hood into the best game possible!
New Demo Available
The Steam Next Fest is coming and we’ve been invited to participate. What better way to jump in than a brand new demo? If you’ve followed us so far and have entered our beta events, you’ll recognize the elements in the demo as upgrades and integrations from what you’ve seen in Beta One and Beta Two, so this is a great opportunity to catch up on what you’ve missed. Also we really like our new gameplay trailer, we hope you do too!
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We are still entirely focused on polishing off the aspects you were introduced to in Beta Two, so please do your best to center your feedback on the building aspects in Sandbox mode. We want to thank you for the feedback you’ve so freely given us in our Discord (Join here) as they’re helping us make Common’hood the best game it can be!
Common'hood Closed Beta Two - Freeform - is now On!
The wait is over, time for the next Beta phase! We heard your feedback loud and clear, and besides stomping down on the bugs you helped us find, we’ve focused our work on improving the game’s construction systems. Thus we’ve implemented:
Upgraded building system: More responsive, cleaner and stuffed full of new possibilities
Online blueprint sharing: Use the in-game database and share your creations with other players - We will be selecting from this to create the default database for every player at launch!
Custom blueprint creation: We’re really dedicated to tearing down all creativity barriers!
New Materials & ways to build: Let your imagination be the limit, not the tools in your hands!
Infinite Sandbox Stockpile: It’s bigger on the inside. Not available in story mode.
Automation system: Free your settlers, let robots do the hard, repetitive work!
Bug-fixes and changes galore: Made possible thanks to the feedback you gave us!
Help us test them out! What kind of awesome buildings and furniture will you make and share in our online blueprint system? Which materials will you choose? Have we made the building process intuitive and smooth enough?
All of this will be answered on Beta 2! Wanna sign up? Get a steam key by following the steps below:
2 - Once you’re in there, hop into any of the public channels and type out: “i want to test” (in any channel)
Common’hood Closed Beta Two - Freeform - Opens on June 7th!
Common’hood Closed Beta Two - Freeform - will open on June 7th! If you haven’t signed up, there’s no better time than now! Do it here: http://eepurl.com/gP1z6H
In this Beta we’re taking a sidestep from the story mode to dive into Sandbox for the very first time! Not only that, but you’ll also find...
Upgraded building system: More responsive, cleaner and stuffed full of new possibilities
Online blueprint sharing: Use the ingame database and share your creations with other players - We will be selecting from this to create the default database for every player at launch!
Custom blueprint creation: We’re really dedicated to tearing down all creativity barriers!
New Materials & ways to build: Let your imagination be the limit, not the tools in your hands!
Infinite Sandbox Stockpile: It’s bigger on the inside. Not available in story mode.
Automation system: Free your settlers, let robots do the hard, repetitive work!
Bug-fixes and changes galore: Made possible thanks to the feedback you gave us!
Like before, once Closed Beta Two opens up we’ll spend time looking into data, individual issues and all sorts of feedback. In this period we’ll implement smaller balance and bug-fixing related changes while gathering feedback before we take it back to the shop and get to work.
We once again thank you for your incredible support and we thank you for your help with making Common’hood the best game it can be!
Common’hood Closed Beta One - Foundations is now On!
We want to thank everyone who signed up for Closed Beta. If you haven’t yet, you can still do it at: http://eepurl.com/gP1z6H
We’re extremely thankful to everyone who has signed up, and you will be receiving your access key shortly. Beta One will run from today to May 10th, so get in and let us know what you think!
We’re also using this opportunity to let you know that we’re deactivating all keys to the legacy Common’hood Demo, both to avoid confusion and because the old demo no longer represents the game Common’hood has become.
We hope you enjoy the game we’re building, and we can’t wait to hear your feedback and get some help squishing bugs.
Common'hood Closed Beta Signups Open Now!
We need your help testing Common’hood so that together, we can make it the best game it can be!
The game's development has moved forward and thus we're finally ready! Common’hood will now undergo a series of Closed Beta events, allowing us to gather feedback and polish the game. This will give us the chance to improve key areas of the game based on your comments, eventually leading to the best possible 1.0 for all of us.
On April 19th we’ll open up Beta One - Building the Basics.The base systems of the game are now implemented, and we need your help to test their limits and of course, shower us in feedback for what the game could do better, or what you’d like to see in it! We’ll be closing Beta One on May 10th.
Please remember that what you’re seeing is the first of several closed betas on the way to our Fall 2021 release, so what you see in Closed Beta One is not an accurate reflection of what 1.0 will look like.
We’re hopeful that you’ll help us and give us tons of feedback to improve on both the environment and the game’s story. You can sign up for Closed Beta One - Building the Basics here: http://eepurl.com/gP1z6H
