Hey folks!
I'm Art - the other steady half of the development team behind TGWSTW. I understand that some of you got a bit frustrated. But believe me 1 year is nothing if you are struggling to survive. Literally. What an omen in relation to the game .
As my wife Barbara is extremely busy now, please allow me to paste here my last update which I posted recently on the Applevis forum.
@jack Thank you so much! You nailed it.
------------------------------------------PASTED POST FROM THE APPLEVIS FORUM-----------------------
TGWSTW is not dead and of course we are still working on it, alongside our daily jobs/operations. It's funny how people who never had an own business give you advice how to turn theory into reality quickly (Not talking about anyone of this forum here) Sorry, but that's life. Most people give a sh... about your life and what you are doing until you get huge. So we are mostly on our own.
I know that 1 year passed already, and if we were working on TGWSTW 14 hours a day it probably would be finished, with all 21 episodes. But that was not the case. We have to find ways to finance further development BUT ALSO our living costs. Although many of you who played TGWSTW think it is perfect already, we have to optimize it to make it stand out and attract more players who have different expectations.
We have to focus on the market that is easy to access for us, and that is Germany at the moment (we are living here) So we are going to make a german voice over to market it here and that will hopefully generate enough income to finance the english version, which is much more expensive for us. Why? Because the german voice over artist is a friend of ours
Also technically TGWSTW is moving forward:
• I'm rewriting the whole code to assure a fast production pipeline for all upcoming episodes. This will guaranty that upcoming episodes will be published within a timespan of 3-5 weeks.
• I've thrown out all the mini games and came up with the P.A.D. system (Plan and Do). The puzzles will be seamlessly entangled in the story, no disruption. You'll be presented verbs like: GO, EXAMINE, TAKE/PUT DOWN, USE, OPEN, PUSH, PULL, DISMANTLE, SHAKE, TURN, TALK, and GIVE, which you then can combine with a location or an item or a person to execute actions. You'll be able to solve puzzles in different spots, in a non-linear manner. Like in a small open world so if you don't move forward with one puzzle you can try another. That should reduce possible frustration.
• Another new gameplay element which will regularly appear is the XONAR (kind of next gen Sonar). It gives us a bit more action and anxiety when we hear strangers trying to track down Frances. The goal here is to listen carefully and guide Frances away from the Danger.
• Last but not least: N.E.R.S. (Neurons reconditioning stimulator) You'll be able to read/listen to Frances' brain activity in order to examine her thoughts/emotions/fears/memories and manipulate them. This will help you to understand the past, to plan or change the future and to make appropriate decisions.
• Plus all the other things like a smooth auto-save, including cloud saving, in-app purchase etc.
So as you see there is a lot going on. Please be assured that I won't give up - never ever. TGWSTW is my project of a lifetime.
See it that way. For now, it just costs you a little bit of patience - please don't loose it. It's worth it. Spread the word where you can. That helps a lot.
Big thanks to all of our supporters! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!