Ambient.Update #7

Hello everyone. I know that we haven’t make many updays lately and we have a reason for this. Not because we were just sitting back. Actually quite oposite. We are dedicating almost all our free time to development and we don’t want to spoil things for you. Lower you can read the transcription of our update video if by some reasons you can’t/don’t want to watch it.

Okay, the lack of updates does not mean that we are dead. We haven’t announced anything like “hey guys, the project is cancelled” or “we’ve frozen the development” so rest assured that we are still very much alive and focused on the development of the game

Now, I’ll give some insight on what we’ve been doing for the past year, what we are doing now and what we will do in the future

My name is Dreamy, I’m a lead developer of Ambient.White, and I’m here to explain what is going on.

Text Disclaimer: This video, unlike others, is purely for informative sake, so we cannot provide beautiful animations and such to enhance the viewing experience. However we are still doing our best to be informative, clear and honest.

WHAT WAS THE PAST YEAR LIKE FOR THE PROJECT?

• For the past year, our team has attended multiple conventions such as Babscon, Galacon and some smaller ones, where we showed fresh, exclusive footage of the game, explained our vision and successfully attracted some very talented people into the team.
• Additionally, we were quite active on our Patreon blog, making announcements almost every month, writing in detail about what’s new, what’s next, and even releasing two closed demos – one in April and another in June.
• As for the development of the game, in a nutshell, we were mostly exploring gameplay concepts that would work for the game, doing game builds, testing and experimenting until we were satisfied with it. As you might have figured out, it took quite a long time. We made mistakes, we learned from them, we made more mistakes and then we learned even more. Making games is hard, you know… if you know any stories about game development you might be pretty familiar with the fact of how much time is wasted due to various mistakes. This is especially true since we don’t have much experience. Sorry for being so vague, I just don’t want to spoil anything until the project has been completed.
• In general, we have been fleshing out the concept, adding minute detail and polishing up, situationally reorganizing schedules, and now we are much much closer to completion of the game.

WHY HAVEN’T THERE BEEN ANY UPDATES FOR SUCH A LONG TIME?

The main reason is – we don’t need to!
…
What?
“Dreamy, what are you talking about?! Fans of the game need to know whats going on! They care so much about the project!”
I know. That’s why I don’t do many announcements. … Okay, let me explain,

• Consider what would happen if I made a lot of announcements every month – They will be small and boring unless if I reveal spoiler content, so they will quickly become tedious and will only remind you of the fact that the project is not yet completed. It’s probably better if you forgot about the project and remembered about it just in time, when it’s completely finished.
• However lets imagine what if spoiler content was mentioned in update videos, then you would know everything about the game before it’s even released! We cannot leave you without the pleasure of fully experiencing a game. Moreover releasing trailers, videos, pictures and news about the game before the launch may result in situations similar to what happened with No Man’s Sky, Watch Dogs etc.
• By the way, guys, as much as we would like to make every piece of our content look good and sexy, creating announcements like our last update video takes a lot of time and effort; to the point that it actually drags our attention from working on the game. Not to mention, that by the time such an update video is complete, some of the content in it may even become irrelevant.
• So, in a nutshell, we value the end result of playing the game as a whole, when it comes out. And we also believe it is unnecessary to make small, boring announcements; just to remind you that the game is not done yet.

HOWEVER, WAIT! Before you say: ‘Are you really dragging on the development for the purpose of getting more money on Patreon?’ Let me tell you – Pfft, hell NO! – if I had this goal, I would have used a completely different strategy. If I wanted to get as much money as possible from people, we would have gone with a similar strategy to those… certain… development teams use… To be fair, they are making a lot of money from donations, and are only increasing that amount with every game update they release. However… it would seem that with a strategy like that… the actual game never gets finished.
We are A Little Bit Different. We put a high emphasis on quality to ensure a complete experience, that would pull various heartstrings; including love, hate, happiness, and pain. To feel the spirit of adventure, and to get through the mental journey you never knew you wanted or needed.
We are doing our best to not just make a fun game, but to create a game that will make you think and feel. A game that will stay in your heart for a long time; like the games, movies and cartoons we have been inspired by ourselves. We want to believe that we are doing something special.

‘But, Dreamy, if you try to create something perfect, you will, most likely, never finish it!!! Will you ever actually complete the game we are looking forward to so much?!’

Yes. I, as well as everyone else, care about the game being completed and released as soon as possible. But then there is a question:

How complete is the game at this point?

Ambient White is a story-driven adventure game. So, the story, in this case, from start to finish serves as a skeleton for everything else: gameplay, music, atmosphere, level design and so on. Everything is built around the story and storytelling to make the player feel and experience the same kind of struggle the main characters are going through. Why am I telling you this? To better explain the fact: hey we’ve actually finished the story section of our game! And this is quite an important milestone, because since the skeleton of the game is complete, we are able to flesh out levels, small details in them and gameplay. To you, this may sound like it should be done in, practically, no time. However, according to our current schedules, plans and our experience in development so far, it does, and will, take a lot of time.

So when is the game going to come out?!

I honestly can’t make good assumptions, guys. I hope it will be complete after half a year or so. We know how much it matters to you, and, obviously, it matters a lot to us as well, but, again, we are aiming for a good game. And good games, even with complete and experienced teams, can take years to develop.
However, let me tell you one interesting thing here – we have been quiet for all of this time, but… You guys haven’t; you still have been reaching out! You are still, to this day, supporting us; you even understand the fact that we need time, and, judging from your comments and emalis you seem to accept that! Seriously, we can’t be happier to have such a supportive and caring fanbase; so, thank you! Your comments and emails of support, your donations, reviews, encouragement fill every hour of our work with inspiration and a wish to do better, to work faster, more efficiently and, most importantly… You make every one of our days, every decision to get back to work instead of resting, every line of code and stroke of a brush worthwhile. So thank you a lot for your support! And thank you for helping our common dreams, hopes and goals come true.

We’ll keep on working, and we’ll keep on getting closer to finishing the game we’ve all been waiting for.

Oh, and to be clear, if we do make another announcement in next few months, it will either be related to an important milestone in development, that is worth talking about, or some other news you will actually want to know.

Thank you for your attention and see you in the next update.