It's been a while since I've posted any update, and many of you are rightfully asking about Sellswords future. So here is a long overdue explanation:
What happened?
The past few months have been tough for the studio, which basically went close to bankruptcy. Some of you may know that I've been working alone on this project, which partially explains why the development is taking so long.
As a solo developer who didn't have any funds to start with, I was hoping that the sales during early access would finance the development along the way. A lot of people seemed to be interested in the game, and overall the response from the community was amazing! But, due to the fact that the game was in a really early state, most people were waiting for the game to advance in its development before considering buying it, which is totally understandable.
Developing updates took a lot more time that I originally planned, and as the months went by, I was more and more worried about the studio's finances. This led to a point where I had to make a choice. If I wanted the studio to survive, I needed to find another way to bring money to the table.
SwarmZ
A couple months ago, I decided to concentrate my efforts on a smaller game I could release quickly, in an attempt to save the studio, and allow the development of Sellswords to continue. This little zombie game called SwarmZ was born, and was released on november 29th. So far it's doing pretty good, and should allow me to continue developing games in the near future. I'm sorry to talk so much about money, but this has a lot to do with what happened.
Sellswords future
Sellswords is my dream game, and I still hope that I could release a game like this one day!
But the more I make progress in its development, the more I realize that this kind of project is really not suited for a one man team. Due to the scale of the game, and its specific nature (huge battles with thousands of soldiers, and a mix between RTS and 3rd person), getting basic features to work is, in itself, quite difficult. But reaching a level of polishing that allows to have the quality experience that you, the players, deserve, seems almost unachievable for a small studio like Munity Software. Unless I can recruit a team to help me in the coming months, which seems unlikely, the development would take too much time, and I would be facing the same situation I previously described. So that's with a heavy heart that I decided to stop the development of Sellswords, for now. In the coming months, I will be focused on releasing content updates for SwarmZ. Sellswords will be retired from Steam at the end of january 2020. What this means is people won't be able to buy Sellswords anymore. Players that bought Sellswords will still be able to play it, though.
I'm so sorry to make this announcement, and I can't thank you enough for the support!
I should have communicated earlier about this, but the truth is I really didn't know what to say, as I couldn't convince myself to cancel Sellswords, a game I was deeply passionate about.
We say that we learn from our mistakes, and that was a big one.
Possible Sellswords Reboot
As I said, I've been dreaming about a game like Sellswords for years, and I always hoped that a big studio would have the same idea!
The project may be on hold for now, but that doesn't mean it's dead forever. This game is still on my mind, and I will do everything I can to be able to release it someday! So it's very likely that a Sellswords reboot will see the light someday. It would first require the studio to grow, so it won't be in the near future, but I'll try my best to make it happen.
Refunds and apology gift
I imagine that, given the circumstances, many of you would like to get a refund. Unfortunately, the situation is not compatible with Steam refunds policy.
So, in an attempt to apologize, I decided to give any owner of Sellswords my new game SwarmZ for free. If you bought Sellswords, you should now have SwarmZ in your Steam library.
I know this is not enough, but it really is all I can do for now. I sincerely apologize to everyone of you, and I hope I can make it up to you one day.
Thank you for reading this, and despite the dark tone of this announcement, I wish you a very happy new year.
Sincerely,
Maximilien Gabillard
