Serment - Contract with a Devil
Release date
Unfortunately, the Steam's Winter Sale is coming very soon. Clashing the initial release window with such a big sale is very worrying, thus, following our publisher's recommendations, the game will be set to release on February 1, 2019.
There are a few problems from a commercial perspective with releasing a game near a big sale, and I'll try to elaborate a bit more on this matter so you can understand our reasoning for choosing such a release date (Fortunately, no major gameplay bugs or related issues this time, so expect no more delays after this).
Firstly, each game on Steam has a small window shortly after release, where it publicly appears in several places on the Steam client, notably the "New releases" list. This largely serves as an initial visibility crutch for a new game, and there's a snowball effect where more popular games will subsequently appear in other places such as the "New and Trending" list, the main store's banners or Steam's recommendations while less popular games will quickly fade into obscurity.
During major sales like the Summer of Winter Sale, this initial visibility is severely reduced to make space on the Steam client for featured discounts. So releasing a game during the sale is very undesirable.
Then, why not release the game before the sale instead (for instances, right now)? Due to Steam's compulsory review before release (which takes more time than we expected due to the recent changes in Steam's policy about games with mature contents), the earliest possible release date would be next Monday, December 17.
The Winter Sale will start shortly after, so the game's spot in the "Specials" list due to its sale discount (which is also a very significant amount of a new game's visibility) will be quickly swallowed up by thousands of other featured deals. Thus, releasing right before the sale is also a no-go.
But then, why wait a whole month after the Winter Sale? Why don't we release the game right after it ends?
Past data from our publisher suggests that right after a big sale, the number of store views and purchases immediately plummets, and remains a lot worse than other normal periods for a solid 3 to 4 weeks. We speculate this is due to potential customers being occupied with their recent purchases during the sale, so they're not immediately looking to buy any additional products.
Thus, our publisher recommends a 4 weeks gap after the Winter Sale before Serment's release, which leads us to the date of February 1.
The timing is rather unfortunate, so we apologize and hope for your understanding.
Demo update and some news about the full release
Aside from 2 new events, this update also includes several QoL and gameplay features, as well as some balance and UI improvements. The complete changelog would be too long so it won't be posted here this time.
Moving on, as some of you may already know, we have been doing QA for the last few months to get the full version of Serment ready for release. Unfortunately, there are still some bugs to be sorted out and improvements to be made, so the game's still not polished enough to go on sale yet.ːsteamsadː
However, as I've mentioned in some discussion threads, all the core contents have been finished so it shouldn't be too long from now!
Clarifications on the late release
It's an honor to know there're this much interest in our game, and believe me when I say we are just as impatient as you are! However, the delay is a necessary evil and I will now elaborate a bit more on why we are taking so long.
First off, as I mentioned in another part of this discussion forum, there were several design flaws present in the demo that we didn't notice until testing the full game. Redundant mechanics that served no purposes ("Hang around" option in most places in the demo), mechanics that are not scalable beyond the small scope of the demo (Buffs and debuffs being purely percentage based and stacking indefinitely), lack of replayability between different routes, we had them all.
These problems can't be left unaddressed and after some discussions, we decided to rework major parts of the design from scratch instead of making impromptu fixes whenever things go wrong, otherwise there'd be no end to them.
This was our inexperience as developers showing and we have no excuses, but if we have to choose between a timely release and a quality game, we would always choose the latter and I hope you can agree.
There are also many bug fixes and polishing touches to be made. Unclear UI, awkward controls, unnatural dialogues, unnecessary clicks or button presses are some of the issues we've been trying to tackle. Here're a few polishes we've done since the last demo update to give you an idea of what to expect in the full commercial version:
- Added visual indicators for several UI elements
- Added some QOL features
- Review crafting orders
- Confirmation for important choices
- Make another purchase instead of moving back to the shop menu
- Review crafting orders
- "WASD" keys can now be used to navigate the game's interface to make it more convenient for players using a mouse and keyboard
Of course, we have no intention of delaying things forever. We are fairly happy with how the latest build turned out, and have supposedly entered the "final" phase of testing. However, we have a track record of underestimating how long these things would take, so I can't really give you a release date until things are absolutely confirmed (The demo was released 2 months later than what we'd planned. We also thought the full game would be ready by last November, but here we are ːsteamfacepalmː).
I hope that clears up the situation a bit, and hopefully Serment will turn out to be a game that's worth the long wait.
Also, a quick shoutout to our publisher Sekai Project, who has been very supportive and understanding thus far.
Demo update 2.07 + news regarding beta testing
Complete changelog:
- Added a new event in the pub.
- Slightly improved dungeon movements when using a controller.
- Added default commands in battle if the player's mouse is inactive.
- Added remappable keyboard controls - Can be found in the "Gameplay" config panel (Experimental).
- Improved Maria's sprite.
- Fixed some minor bugs.
- Reduced Rocky's STR and HP.
- Reduced Land Turtle's HP.
- Reduced required G amount for the 2nd payment from 14,000 to 10,000.
- Reduced the number of fishing spots to 4.
- Damage penalty due to level difference is now capped at -30% instead of -50%.
- Removed walking time inside the dungeon.
- Increased amount of time passed after a battle to compensate for the above change.
- Party members now no longer leave the party when visiting the shop.
- Closing the status screen no longer resets the selected character if she's still in the party.
- Improved equipment stats preview when shopping/crafting (Will now show the difference of each individual stat).
- Added a scripted end for Kiku's battle on day 2.
- Added keyboard hotkeys for battle menu - remappable in "Gameplay" config panel.
There will be at least 1 more major update for the demo before/during the full game's release, which will include additional events, new crafting mechanics, the codex and some other things.
As for the beta testing, unfortunately, after a lot of discussions, we have decided to not make the testing process public. Everything will be done internally by our and Sekai Project's QA team instead.
We apologize if this disappoints any of you, but please rest assured that we will do our very best to make a high quality release worthy of your time.
Partial controller support has been added!
Aside from a few instances (for example, when entering the main character's name), the game should now be fully playable with a controller (please update the demo to the latest version before trying this out)!
This is still an experimental feature. If you find any bugs while playing with a controller, please report them in the discussions forum.
Demo update 2.06
Complete changelog:
- Dungeon minibosses will now only appear after winning a certain number of battles on the same floor (For example, Land Turtles can only be encountered after at least 3 victories on Floor 2).
- Added a "game over" theme.
- Added missing sound effect for "Purify" skill.
- Improved several existing sound effects.
- Added some visual polishes.
- Fixed a few minor bugs with status screen's inventory.
- Reduced randomness of HP bonus on level up (Average amount unchanged).
- Rebalanced several enemies.
- Revised some dialogues.
We are experimenting with some new crafting mechanics to make the crafting system more exciting. The next demo update will be a big one with new contents.
Nkt Studio is now on Twitter!
Follow us here if you're interested in sneak peaks of what we're working on between major updatesːsteamhappyː
Demo update 2.05
Complete changelog:
<*>Added multiple minor visual polishes.
<*>Fixed a few typos and rewrote some dialogues.
<*>Removed an exploit to reset lost battles without loading the game.
<*>Improved the big dungeon map's UI (It's now easier to count the number of tiles).
<*>Added random gameplay tips when transitioning to a new day.
<*>Added notifications when receiving and completing a quest.
Demo update 2.04
Complete changelog:
- Added 2nd encounter with Sera on Floor 3.
- Cooking multiple food items now only require half the time after the first copy (For example, cooking time of a Fruit Cake is 30 minutes. Cooking 2 Fruit Cakes at the same time will now take 45 minutes instead of 1 hour).
- Fixed buying/selling/cooking/crafting quantity not resetting to 1.
- Fixed a rare bug where variables are not updated after a new patch (Might be incompatible with save files from version 2.02 and below. Sorry about this, it will not happen again).
- Fixed buying food items crashing the game.
- Fixed some typos.
- Changed battle speed calculation formula (Characters with extremely low AGI are now a bit slower).
- Tripled essence drop rate (All non-boss enemies have a very small chance of dropping essences).
- Fixed Ice Shrapnel’s damage not being calculated correctly.
- Increased Shadow Cross’ damage.
- Increased Vampiric Touch’s lifesteal percentage from 20 to 50.
- Nerfed Shadow Slime’s INT.
Edit:
- Fixed Floor 3's Recharge key being disabled.
We will probably have 2 or 3 more updates with additional contents for the demo before the full game's release.
Demo update 2.03
Complete changelog:
- Rewrote a few scenes (Removed some nameless characters' dialogues and made minor adjustments in a couple of other places).
- Each summoned party member now takes an equal share of G dropped in battles (All dropped items and treasure chests are not affected).
- Increased G rewards and loot drop chance of most enemies to compensate for the above change.
- Fixed the inner waypoint of Floor 3 not working.
- Replaced the confirmation message of deleting a save file to avoid confusion with loading.
- Replaced the 2 center doors in Floor 3 with a single door requiring 2 keys.
- Slightly reduced amount of MT drained after losing a battle.
- Increased amount of MT drained otherwise.
- Fixed Young Wolf's battle AI not working.
- Added a "Load" option in boss battle menu.
- Reduced initial selling price of all weapons.
- A weapon's selling price now scales with its level (Up to 80% of buying price).
Edit:
- Fixed Floor 2's spinner appearing in the wrong direction.
- Fixed Floor 3's spinner not immediately reappearing if the player turns away in the same tile.
We'll add some new contents to the demo in the next update!