Chained Echoes News

We haven't posted here for a while now. We've been busy with finishing the Alpha version of Chained Echoes. And guess what? We're done. The alpha has been sent out to Kickstarter Backers this morning.

What does the Alpha include?

• It contains the whole main story. This equals roughly 30 - 40 hours of content (But we'd like to hear how long it did take you, maybe we have to adjust the numbers)
  
• Sidequests and optional areas are not included
  
• Lack of polish in all areas (Lots and lots of missing assets, you will notice what isn't finished just yet)
  
• Everything pertaining to airships is not in the alpha
  
• Cutscenes are all done, but lack polish (i.e., some animations and lots of sound effects and lots of assets)
  
• Most battle animations are missing (makes the battles quicker though!)
  
• Game difficulty / balancing is all over the place (we'd like to hear feedback from you!)
  
• There will be bugs (of course!), but hopefully nothing game breaking!

But what does that mean for other players? Right now: Not much, sorry. The alpha is not greenlit for Streaming just yet. And we don't have a final releasedate just yet. But we now have the time to also start working on a new trailer, so expect some news in the near future.

We got the first questions already, why the demo was taken down. The reason is rather simple: We took part in the digital Gamescom event this year and prepared the Demo for this only. We decided to keep it online for a few more days, so that people could still check it out. However, the time has come: We've deactivated the build for now.

We have read lots and lots of feedback. Here on Steam. And on social media. We even grinded through Reddit. And yep, also via Discord. Thank you all for participating, it has been a cool experience so far - and we now know even more that we're on the right track.

But will the Demo return?
Eventually. Kickstarter Backers for the Alpha Tier can still play the build. However, as explained before, this Demo was a very early version. To be absolutely transparent here: It was even a first playable. While certain features and functions are already way farer in development than what we did showcase, most of the features and contents are still far away from being finished. So we hacked together a small vertical slice to show you what we are working on. And to test some things (e.g. the Overdrive system for Combat. Which, in the final game, will be a bit more complex - but we needed to test if people like it).

The question if the demo will return is not an easy one to answer. There might be additional digital shows in the future. And we might participate. And we might use the demo (and update it slightly, maybe even the achievements only?) for these situations. But we don't know yet.

What's next?
Don't expect to see too much new stuff all of a sudden. Chained Echoes is still quite far away. Q4 2021 is still more than a year from now. And the next weeks we'll reuse a lot from the Demo for Social Media as well. That saves us some time to focus on making some actual progress in terms of development in return.

Nothing has changed. Chained Echoes is still not releasing anytime soon. We are currently working with the aim to release the game in late 2021. In early to mid 2021 we plan to hand out the playable Alpha version to the Kickstarter Backers. Followed by the official Beta later that year. A lot of work has to be done, many features are still heavily work in progress, others have yet to be touched. But we're making good progress. And as of today, we'd like to make clear: From now on you'll hear more and more about the game as Gamescom is our kickoff for talking more about it.

That also means that for the very first time, you, yes you, get the chance to play Chained Echoes for a limited time. In a world before 2020, we would now be at our Booth at Gamescom, showing off a first playable Demo to visitors and press. But due to the global situation, this is currently not possible. However, Gamescom was not canceled. It went online. And we're part of it, as we joined forces with the Indie Arena. And thanks to these amazing people, Chained Echoes now has a playable demo for everyone to try out.

It is a pre-alpha demo and on a trade show we'd be standing right next to you, explaining you the features which are in, which are yet to be implemented or which were cut for the sake of having a demo available. A few of you already spotted the demo and gave us tons of feedback via Discord, Twitter, Reddit and Steam. And we're reading all of it. Every single written line. And we're thankful for it. Let us explain a few things upfront however:

• There is no progression system in the demo. The skills are not upgradeable. The weapons aren't either. The system is, more or less, in place already but for the demo we had to cut it out and change the balancing.
  
• The Combat System is not yet fully finished. You will still have fun (at least we hope so) but especially the Overdrive system will be way more complex in the final game, offering multiple stages of Overdrive and Overheat.
  
• The dialogues were written exclusively for the Demo. There are no story spoilers in the Demo. And there aren't that many dialogues just yet. And not many options. The GUI for these, also when exploring the world, is just placeholder stuff.
  
• There are no real options in the Demo. And the Dualshock layout has not yet been implemented.
  
• The Menus are not finished
  
• Everything you see may change. We tease quite a few features but do not really show them off. Again: Keep in mind this is very much pre-alpha.
  

One last important note: We will take down the demo around September 7th. We thought about taking it down as soon as Gamescom ends, but we wanted to give everyone a chance to give it a try. Why take it down? The thing is: Yes, it shows off Chained Echoes but it does not represent the final quality of the game. And we're more than a year away from the release. So a lot will change and we may or may not update the demo at some point for future shows.

And that's it. Now enjoy your first trip to Valandis.

On Saturday we'll be live with a dev stream. Swing by to watch us play our own demo. We'll be hosting a Q&A, so feel free to ask your questions about Chained Echoes in the chat.

Der Frankfurter Entwickler und Publisher Deck13 hat heute bekannt gegeben, dass man unter seinem Publishing-Label "Deck13 Spotlight", das sich auf vielversprechende Indiespiele konzentriert, das erfolgreich über Kickstarter mitfinanzierte Fantasy-RPG Chained Echoes veröffentlichen wird. Das beeindruckende Spiel im [...]

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