Genre: Platform, Role-playing (RPG), Hack and slash/Beat 'em up, Adventure, IndieKandria
Kandria Launch Stream
The launch and stream will happen on January 11th, 15:00 CET.
2022 for Kandria in Review
It's that time of the year again! The end of it. And what a year it's been for Kandria. We're now less than two weeks away from the release. Yikes! Or should I say, woah! Well, let's take a moment and look at some of all of the things that happened, before we look at what the future may possibly hold in store for us. At least, if I have anything to say about it.
Honestly, so many things happened that I barely remember most of them. I had to go back through the monthly reviews to remember all of it. But then again, I've always been rather terrible at remembering things that far back in any chronologically complete manner. I won't be going over stuff in chronological order, either, but instead will touch on a bunch of individual topics. Let's start out with
Conferences
In 2022 we were present in person at quite a number of conferences:
European Lisp Symposium in Portugal
Digital Dragons in Poland
Develop: Brighton in England
Gamescom & Devcom in Germany
HEROFest in Switzerland
We got a lot of useful feedback from random people trying the game out at the events, and also got to meet a lot of friendly and great developers from around the World. That all said, these conferences are also quite taxing and costly. We got the booth sponsored for all of them, but travel expenses are still not nothing, not to mention the work time. Travelling is also quite exhausting to me in general, so I hope I won't have to zip around the place quite as much next year.
However, I can already say that – unforeseen circumstances notwithstanding – I will be at the European Lisp Symposium in the Netherlands, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan.
Kickstarter & Steam Next Fest
In July we had a big double whammy of our Kickstarter and the Steam Next Fest, both launched at the same time. This was also our first big attempt at pushing for some marketing. We tried out Facebook ads, which weren't of much use at all. We also contacted a number of streamers and influencers, a few of which actually gave the new demo we had at the time a shot. It was a lot of fun to watch them play through it and chat with them as they did so.
Leading up to release and during it I imagine we'll have a few more such stream appearances. If you see a streamer playing Kandria, please don't hesitate to notify us in the Discord and I'd be happy to drop by in chat. Assuming I'm not asleep at the time, of course!
Anyway, the Kickstarter went rather well for us, and we managed to get funded in the first week. After that it was mostly coasting along, giving an update every now and again to keep spirits up and push for those stretch goals (more on that later).
I'm really happy that things weren't as hectic as they are often described as being, as I was still able to focus on developing the game. Losing a month of work would have made things quite a bit more troublesome later on.
Still, I'm also very well aware that the reason things went so well for us is mostly down to the fact that we had a rather low goal set, and that we had a lot of support from the programming, and especially Common Lisp community, many of which chipped in rather large sums. Thank you all very much!
I'm not sure that launching your Kickstarter alongside the Next Fest was a good idea. It's definitely a good idea to have a demo available for your Kickstarter, so that people can trust in your abilities to deliver a complete product, but I don't know if the cross-promotion idea worked out. It might be better to have the next fest part way through the Kickstarter or even at the end of it, or entirely separate them, to have two marketing beats rather than one bigger one. Still, it's impossible to say whether it would have gone better or worse overall if we had done it differently, so I'm not complaining. More just thinking about how I'd do this if there's going to be another similar thing in the future.
Development
At the start of the year we didn't even have the full game map ready yet, let alone all the assets, quests, or dialogue. A number of important features were also missing still, both in the engine and in the game itself.
Thinking back to it now it is kind of insane how much of the game was still missing. I know there's folks that can put together a full game in less than a year total, but that's usually much larger teams, or far smaller games.
There were quite a few painful stretches of arduous work. Filling out the entire map with interesting challenges was one, then going back and tiling it all was another. And finally going back again to add details and flairs everywhere was yet another. But, the game feels a lot more livelier and interesting now, so it was definitely worth all that extra work.
If you want to read up on all the nitty gritty of the development that happened during the year, you can browse back in time on the blog, or for even more detail, hop on by the mailing list.
One of the coolest parts for me was finally getting a Steam Deck (they're still not officially available in Switzerland), and seeing Kandria just... work for the most part. Having it be portable is really, really sweet. And it only took a couple of tweaks with the menuing to make it all run well. I would still love to also have the game on Switch, but we'll have to see about that later down the road.
Working up to Release
The game's been pretty much done since the end of November, and in the remaining time since then I've been working on translating the game into German. That took quite a bit of work, there's some 60'000 words, and I'm not the best at translating to begin with. The first draft of that is now done, and we should be good ready to get the game out there in both English and German by the release date.
Unfortunately there won't be any other languages for the foreseeable future. My funds have run very dry, and I need to save up again to be able to support the development of the next game (more on that later). However, if you're interested in localising the game yourself, you'll be able to do so soon. Please keep your eyes and ears open!
Aside from localisation work I've also ironed out some more bugs, cleaned up some stuff in the code base, developed an independent key distribution system so I can sell copies without being attached to a third-party platform, and added some more minor enhancements and changes along the way.
I really hope the release will go well, as far as I know there's only very minor outstanding issues.
The Release
So. Kandria is releasing on Wednesday, January 11th, 15:00 CET. It'll be released on Steam, Itch.io, and our website. All versions will be DRM-free, though we get the biggest cut of the revenue if you buy it directly from our website.
In addition to this, the Soundtrack will also be available on Steam, Itch.io, and Bandcamp, and on various streaming services such as Spotify.
If you were a backer of the Kickstarter campaign, you will receive your keys for the game and OST in the coming days.
Immediately on release I will be streaming the game on Steam and Twitch, so please join me there for a little celebration. After that I will be looking at any and all feedback that's coming in, and working on patches to address any fires that may be unveiled. And after I've addressed what I can, I think I'll take some more holidays to recenter myself and consider the coming year properly.
2023
Even after the release, my work on Kandria will not be done quite yet. There's two big post-release updates thanks to the Kickstarter stretch goals that will be coming:
Level Editor. The initial release already includes the development level editor, but it is a bit rough around the edges and needs more usability and stability improvements. Once that is done, there'll be another big patch update along with a community event to encourage people to make and share their own levels.
Modding Support. While the game's source code will be available on release already, the second post-launch update will focus on two things: presenting an explicit API for mods, documentation for people to write their own mods for Kandria, and an in-game mod browser supported by mod.io.
I cannot yet make any promises about when these updates will land, especially as I also need to start gearing up work for the next game project. That's right, I'm already planning and working on the next game, and I'm really excited about it. I don't want to reveal anything about it yet, but I think you'll be positively surprised when I do!
Since things are still a bit under covers at the moment I don't know if I'll be able to keep doing monthly roundups like this, though rest assured that I will keep you in the loop with any important developments, don't you worry about that.
You
I wanted to reserve this last section right at the very end of both the article and the year here just for you. Thank you so much. I know this is sappy, and I know this is cliche, and I know it is all of these things and many others, but I do genuinely feel blessed at this moment to have you reading about my work, and following along for such a long time. And the better you know me, the better you'll know how rare it is for me to express such genuine positivity, so I hope you will take it to heart and believe me when I say that I am very thankful to you, and I hope that you'll continue to follow my endeavours in the future as well.
Before I go, I have one last favour to ask of you: please share Kandria with your friends, colleagues, and groups. I know it may not seem like much, and I know it can feel awkward, but it is invaluable for someone like me that's just starting out in this industry. Even just a few more people can make a big difference. So please, share the Steam page, itch site, or our website with people.
And again, thank you. I hope you have a great new year.
Launch Party Stream
The launch and stream will happen on January 11th, 15:00 CET.
Minor Fix to Settings Menu
- The settings menu should no longer crash when no specific language is chosen.
- The in-progress German translation has been added. Quests up to Q6 have been translated as a first draft.
Rounding Up - December Kandria Update
Various Things
The translation is going slow, as I'm doing it myself and am not used to a good workflow for that. I expect I'll get the hang of it yet though and I've already made pretty significant progress on it.
Other than that, the achievement icons are done, thanks to Blob! I'm really happy with how they turned out, and it's nice to have some of his high-res art associated with the game.
Finally, I took two days to develop a new webservice for key distribution, which will allow you to buy the game DRM-free directly on our website once it releases. This will also ensure that 95% of your money goes to us, rather than the 70% we get on Steam.
The Soundtrack is also now fully mastered and done, and is ready to be released at the same time as the game, which is 1500 CET, January 11th. Those that backed us via Kickstarter can expect to get their keys sometime early January, though the game won't unlock until the official release date.
Roadmap
Since last month things have not changed drastically, though the game is now "done" as far as the English version is concerned. Most of the remaining time until release in January will be spent on very niche bugfixes and the German translation.
- Spruce up some of the sound effects and music tracks
- Create achievement icons and integrate them into the game
- Translate into German
- Release the full game
- Backport re-usable components into Trial
- Separate out the assets from the main repository
- Publish the source code under a permissive license
- Fix a plethora of bugs and inconveniences in Alloy
- Polish the editor and make it more stable
- Release the editor
- Develop a modding system for Trial
- Finish the Forge build system at least to an extent where it's usable
- Integrate the mod.io API with the modding system
- Create a mod manager and browser UI
- Document more parts of Trial and Kandria
- Release an official modding kit
Well then until that fateful day, 11th of January, please continue to share the steam page with your friends and other communities! We really need all the help we can get leading up to release.
Please also look forward to a yearly roundup at the end of the month, and until then I hope you have a great holiday season!
Release Date Announcement! - November Kandria Update
Release Date: 11th of January!
Alright, I'm happy to announce that we got a final release date for Kandria, which is as the title says, **Wednesday, 11th of January 2023**! To celebrate the release date announcement, and the large amounts of progress we've made polishing the game, please enjoy this brand new trailer as well:
The game will release on Steam, itch.io, and onto the website as a direct sale. All copies of the game will be DRM-free. I'm also excited to say that the game will release both in English and in German, translated by yours truly. We have enough time left over to do the localisation, so I really want to do it.
Shevalin Single
The full soundtrack of the game (which is excellent, by the way!) will be released together with the game in January. However, you can enjoy a single from the soundtrack right now:
https://hypeddit.com/q89kb4
This is Shevalin, the ending credits song, composed by our very talented Mikel Dale, and sung by the incredible Julie Elven. I hope you enjoy it!
User Feedback
Currently we're still polishing everything we can find and responding to user feedback. One of the most prominent things we noticed watching people play was that they were confused by the locked doors in the first region of the game. So hey, we finally added crashable doors:
If you're part of the beta programme, please give the game a try! We still have some time to include more changes if you have any suggestions.
Development
Okey, last month we got a new roadmap, so let's look at that now:
- Add even more detail tiles, foliage, and animal spawners throughout the world
- Fine-tune the levelling, trade prices, and enemy difficulty
- Create new key art
- Create a new trailer
- Spruce up some of the sound effects and music tracks
- Create achievement icons and integrate them into the game
- Translate everything (over 50'000 words) into German
- Release the full game
- Backport re-usable components into Trial
- Separate out the assets from the main repository
- Publish the source code under a permissive license
- Fix a plethora of bugs and inconveniences in Alloy
- Polish the editor and make it more stable
- Release the editor
- Develop a modding system for Trial
- Finish the Forge build system at least to an extent where it's usable
- Integrate the mod.io API with the modding system
- Create a mod manager and browser UI
- Document more parts of Trial and Kandria
- Release an official modding kit
Alright! Until the 11th of January finally hits, please continue to share the steam page with your friends and other communities!
Mapping the Road to Release - October Kandria Update
In case you missed the Kickstarter but would still like to support us ahead of the release in January, you can do so by preordering Kandria or its soundtrack through Backerkit. Unlike Kickstarter, this also accepts PayPal, if you don't have access to a credit card.
HeroFest
Another convention!
We'll be at the HeroFest in Bern, October 14-16! You'll be able to play the latest Kandria release there and chat about whatever. If you're in the area, please stop on by and check out the rest of the Swiss indie games presenting there as well.
Soundtrack
The release of the soundtrack has been delayed by a bit, as our composer got swamped with work, and we're still trying to hash out the complicated stuff behind royalties and all. However, a single of the soundtrack should be out soon. Please keep an ear out for that!
Steam Deck Support
Gaben finally delivered a Steam Deck to me, and I've tested Kandria on it. There were a couple of minor fixes to make it more usable, but now it seems to run flawlessly on the deck! Nice!
The Deck is a wonderful piece of tech, and I've been enjoying playing other games on it as well. While I still would like for Kandria to run on the Switch as well, this is the next best thing for now.
Development
We're still rounding out the last bits of polish and bugs, and focusing on playing through the game more to ensure the balance and progression also work well. Development of the core game will officially end at the end of November, after which focus will shift towards adding the stretch goals we promised during the Kickstarter, preparing promotional materials, and so on.
To that end, here's a new rough roadmap of all the stuff left to do including post-release updates:
Add even more detail tiles, foliage, and animal spawners throughout the world
Fine-tune the levelling, trade prices, and enemy difficulty
Spruce up some of the sound effects and music tracks
Create achievement icons and integrate them into the game
Release the full game
Backport re-usable components into Trial
Separate out the assets from the main repository
Publish the source code under a permissive license
Fix a plethora of bugs and inconveniences in Alloy
Polish the editor and make it more stable
Release the editor
Develop a modding system for Trial
Finish the Forge build system at least to an extent where it's usable
Integrate the mod.io API with the modding system
Create a mod manager and browser UI
Document more parts of Trial and Kandria
Release an official modding kit
We're also planning some cool events to celebrate the three big release milestones, though more info about that as we actually get closer to them.
For now, please continue to share the steam page with friends and other groups. It would help a lot to ensure that we can continue to make games in the future!
Kandria enters beta - September Kandria Update
If you're a beta backer and haven't gotten your key, please check your emails and your Backerkit account here: https://kandria.backerkit.com/
In case you missed the Kickstarter but would still like to support us, you can also do so by preordering Kandria or its soundtrack through Backerkit. Unlike Kickstarter, this also accepts PayPal, if you don't have access to a credit card.
Gamescom & Devcom
We were part of the Swiss Games delegation to Gamescom this year, and had a stand at their incredible booth:
A bunch of people stopped by to talk to us about the game and try it out for themselves, which is always fun to observe.
On Thursday we were even allowed to use the booth's big LED wall for a small event, where participants could race for the lowest time in one of our side quests!
It was all an extremely exhausting week, though. Having to stand at the booth all day, plus the almost two hours of travel time between the venue and where I was staying every morning and evening ended up being quite taxing.
Luckily I somehow managed to dodge Covid again, despite most people not wearing a mask again...
Development
In the meantime, development continued and we finally got some full-game playthrough tests done! We asked a number of people to play through the game casually, and found that on average a playthrough will take about 6-8 hours, which is an excellent time for a game of this type. If you do all the side quests, I imagine it'll take about 10-12 hours. And if you go for all the secrets and everything, probably even longer than that, so there's definitely a lot of content stuffed into the game!
So compared to last month, we already got two of the major steps left to do finished out. The main questline is working well, and all of the side quests for the game, including the Kickstarter stretch goal "Synthesis" questline are done and playable. We're also almost done detailing in all the rooms with tiles. We also tuned the RPG levelling quite a bit already, though I imagine I'll want to tune that some more based on player feedback.
What's left to do now is mostly ironing out all of the bugs, testing everything front and back and whatever other ways we can think of, and marketing the game some more to make sure people actually know it exists, too. And here's where I unfortunately have to make another announcement: the release will be delayed to January. Releasing in November is not a good move, especially for a young studio like ours. January is much calmer and generally results in better marketing and better sales, which we'll really need.
The time spent between November and January won't be wasted, though. We'll keep responding to feedback from our testers, and we'll work on the stretch goals from the Kickstarter as well. With any luck, the game will be able to launch with the level editor already integrated and available!
But yes, we need a good launch if we're to make more games, and I really, really would like to. Again, I ask that if you know anyone at all, or any groups that may be interested in Kandria, please share the steam page with them. It would help us out a lot, as we're not doing so hot with our general outreach.
Well then, that's it for this month. See you next month, or next week if you're on the mailing list!
Kandria is at Gamescom!
Return to Development - August Kandria Update
If you backed us, I once again wanted to extend my heartfelt thanks to you. It's always very moving and greatly motivating to see people support what you do! You should have received an email from Backerkit by now that lets you set the details of your backer rewards. Please fill that survey out as soon as you can! If you didn't get any such email, you can manually trigger it again on Backerkit: https://kandria.backerkit.com/
In case you missed the Kickstarter but would still like to support us, you can also do so by preordering Kandria or its soundtrack through Backerkit. Unlike Kickstarter, this also accepts PayPal, if you don't have access to a credit card.
Gamescom & Devcom
Gamescom is coming up at the end of the month, and Kandria will be there, at the Swiss Games booth in the business area! We'll have the game ready to play, and some chocolates for you to enjoy as well, so if you're around, please stop on by! I'd love to have a chat!
We'll be there throughout the entire week (22nd-26th) so there's plenty of time to check out the booth as well.
Development
There's roughly four months left until until our planned release, and lord, there's still a tonne left to do. The game is fully playable, but a lot of the areas are still unfinished and need a ton of polish. That's what we're going to focus on now.
We've also started playtesting of the full game. So far we haven't encountered any breaking bugs, just minor issues that we'll iron out in the coming days. This is, at least to me, a very good sign, and it seems we shouldn't hit any major roadblocks and things are still proceeding according to schedule.
So what exactly is left to do? We'll, here's an excerpt:
Playtest the main quest line
This also requires playing the game in a variety of ways to make sure that if the player doesn't solve quests in exactly the order and way we had envisioned won't break things, and that NPC dialogue still makes sense even then.
Finish out the side quests
Aside from the main quest line we have a bunch of side quests that take you through more of the world and give you a few more extravagant things to do, and we still need to finish implementing a couple of those.
Detail out all the rooms
Right now many of the rooms in the lower regions are filled out using auto-tiling, meaning they lack a lot of the extra detail that we've added for the other rooms by hand. This'll be my main job for a while, as detailing everything takes a lot of time.
Tune the progression curve
Almost anything you do in Kandria – finding stuff, exploring, defeating enemies, completing quests, fishing – awards you exp, which feeds back into the levelling system. We need to make sure that there's a good progression curve to your levels, and that the enemies scale at an appropriate rate as well to drive the difficulty.
Fixing all sorts of minor bugs
There's a lot of teensy bugs to iron out, like minor display problems in the UI and so forth. I hope we can iron out all the ones we know about by the time the game comes out!
Alright, that's about it for now. If you want to receive more frequent updates and news, along with occasional in-depth emails about specific problems and solutions encountered during development, sign up for the newsletter!