What a milestone we have reached! Today, closed beta testing of The Last Time will begin. I’ve messaged all Kickstarter backers who selected a tier including the beta-testing reward with a link to download the first closed beta release of the game. The feedback I get from this will help me not only identify bugs, but also get feedback on the story and gameplay.
I want to thank everyone for your patience in waiting for this stage – working solo on this project has meant that I’ve had to wade through a rather unwieldy to-do list, and I want to spend as much time as necessary to ensure that The Last Time becomes the best game that it can be.
There is still a long list of remaining tasks that I need to complete to get the game to a finished state, including technical, graphical and writing issues. In addition, Tom is aware of a number of audio changes / additions that need to be made. As such, the beta version is not a complete reflection of what the final release will be – however, pretty much everything is in place in some form or another 🙂
Today, I also began the process of sorting out the documentation I need to register as a Steam Partner, which will enable me to publish the game via Steam. As promised during the Kickstarter campaign, the game will also be available on DRM-free platforms.
I’ve done some more research on translations – I’ve discovered that, due to the very large amount of in-game text, my initial plans to get the game translated into four foreign languages was unrealistic budget-wise. At this point, German’s looking like a safe bet for translation, due to the large audience for adventure games in Germany – as for other languages, I’ll have to see how the game’s selling and see what budget I have left. It might make most sense to start off by releasing the game just in English, and then update it with foreign translations at a later stage – this would allow me get the release date closer to my original estimated date.
That’s it for now – I’ll update you in another month or so to let you know how the testing’s going. Thanks again for your support! 🙂
Daniel