SO CLOSE - BUT SO MUCH ELSE!

We said we would be presenting a new Alpha by the end of the month, and while we are INCREDIBLY close, we ran into a snag.  In the interest of transparency, I'll lay it out here:

The guy to whom we  entrusted the development of the character controller - well, he just sorta disappeared.  One week, he was working with us, as he had for the previous six months, and the next, he was hard to find and when we DID track him down, he was not responding to any hails.

After just a week, a bottleneck developed, preventing us from moving forward on our preferred vectors of development, and we have had to temporarily scale back things, while we bring a couple of new people up to speed.

WE WILL BE RELEASING THE REVISED ALPHA, IN MID-FEBRUARY.

I say a "couple of new people" rather than "A new person," because if there is anything we have learned from this, it's that going forward, we can no longer safely put all of our eggs into the care of a single person.

Thankfully, we are making good progress: we've fixed the annoying issues with the jumps, and have begun converting NPC animations again.  We finished the new Geese animations last week, and we should be bringing in the new mice next week.

SO, SOME FOLKS SARE SAYING : HEY - WHY DON'T YOU GUYS FOCUS ON PRODUCING THE FINAL GAME, INSTEAD OF ALL THESE ALPHA RELEASES?

With all due respect, those who are asking said question are making the mistake of assuming that those two things are somehow mutually exclusive.  Understand that making a game like this is a years-long endeavor, whether we produce a single alpha or a thousand.

As Peace Island is currently exclusively funded by our supporters, we believe that they deserve to see what their money is going into.  They deserve to see how their support, patience, and confidence has helped our efforts over time.

Further: some folks don't have the 25 bucks it requires to secure a full version of the game, upon release.  I believe that EVERYONE who has donated a single dollar to the campaign deserves at least one chance to play a version of Peace Island that their contribution funded.

Finally:  I actually RESPECT those who want to wait for the whole package - you have my word:  It will be worth the wait!  Just continue to enjoy the pics, screenshots, and dev news!

FOR ME PERSONALLY, IT HAS BEEN THE WEEK OF THE SPREADSHEET...

I've spent a LOT of hours cataloguing the places where our contributors want their names included in Peace Island.  We're already at the stage of development where we can start integrating these requests, but I need another two weeks to wait for the stragglers to submit their preferences.  

While it might look rather dry and dull....

It has been INCREDIBLY engaging, and what is more - quite touching and even humbling - to see the hundreds upon hundreds of memories and names that so many people have entrusted to us.  

I believe that this was the first time that I fully understood that what we have created has become so much more than the sum of our efforts.  

I'm so honored to be able to do this...

This coming weekend, I will be doing another live cast on YouTube, where I'll be discussing what I've learned over the past three years.  I might have time to show off a bit of new Peace Island stuff, but it will be mostly about the more broad details of game development.  Consider tuning in! 

WE'RE SHIPPING OUT PREMIUMS AS FAST AS WE CAN!  IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED YOUR POSTCARD OR PRINT PREMIUMS, PLEASE MESSAGE US!

SEE YA'LL IN 2 WEEKS!