Hi everyone,
As promised last month, we want to make a few announcements in this update.
We would also like to share our view of the path ahead with you.
In the past months, people were already guessing about many different kinds of directions we could take after we broke up with our publisher.
The number of people that went out and gave us practical advice and pointed out possibilities to us was very encouraging. There were very sceptical comments as well, probably just because we could not announce anything yet - so it was no surprise to get those comments. But now, the time has come to move forward and tell you in which direction we will migrate and leave the past behind, and to share the bright future we see for ourselves.
”Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?” (An English castle guard, 932 A.D.)Publishing
We are very happy to announce that Gates of Hell will be released in cooperation with Digitalmindsoft, and that launch is to take place in 2020.
There are a number of obvious reasons to want to do it like this. One of the reasons is that the 64-bit engine we get from DMS is a very sophisticated evolution of the engine we conceived our game on.
So, we save time in comparison to switching to a completely different engine; instead, we will port to a version of the GEM engine that has been developed into the reliable and stable 64-bit version with out of sync free netcode that already powers Call to Arms.
HD LinkIntegration
We came into talks with Digitalmindsoft, who became interested in Gates of Hell and who were willing to put in the needed software investment, but as they also have no rights over the engine and we didn’t have a license, there was little that could be done to release Gates of Hell as a standalone title.
Instead we agreed to incorporate Gates of Hell as part of the DMS game “Call to Arms" by means of a DLC. To most people that will sound a bit surprising, as GoH has little in common with CtA.
However, we put together a plan for the release of both projects under one license, without compromising the uniqueness of GoH.
Call to Arms: Gates of Hell will keep the own identity and gameplay it is supposed to have, while Call to Arms will continue onward in its own path. Our teams have agreed to keep the gameplay of GoH as intended to ensure the truly compelling experience you expect.
HD LinkWhat’s next
We never stopped producing content, whatever was going on. We were able to deliver a lot of extra work; in all departments we have made more progress than we ever thought we would.
As a result, we think we will be able to give you a very generous amount of material in every department when we release the game, which we will do in 2020.
We want to start our beta by the end of this summer, and we are on our way to publishing still this year.
Publishing will mean we completely skip the early access part of our previous plans by the way, instead we will be going for full release! We produced so much more than was required for early access that we think we should skip that step.
Exact dates are to be determined.
HD LinkContent
We put the extra time to good use. We’ve been producing lots of content and this is not just about more assets.
We’ll be introducing new voice acting, new animations, new sounds, new maps, scenarios and everything else will be new as well in the full release version, but maybe you already knew this.
Testing
Porting will be finished soon. We will then turn our attention to QA and start testing; first we test internally, and the next test will be the closed beta we tried to start all those months ago.
We are currently reviewing the closed beta briefings and we will be in closer touch with our beta testers than we have been for a long time.
HD LinkOur store page will be updated soon, to reflect the changes that we need when being part of CtA. Within our team, the excitement is growing, knowing we have excellent technical and community support, and knowing we are not going to hell in a bucket after all! We want to thank you all for your support and we will be working hard to make it all happen.
HD LinkMeanwhile, if you haven’t done it yet, subscribe and follow us on social media to make sure you miss nothing. Click on as many links as you want:
In the meantime, stay safe everyone, and stay tuned!
