Selaco News

Hello everyone!

We need to take a moment to talk about the demo.

If you prefer a TL;DR version, here is a Steam thread that's more straight to the point than this blog post!

https://twitter.com/SelacoGame/status/1783947199795036514


[h2]What is happening to the demo?[/h2]
We have made the decision to delist the demo from our Steam Page. However, preservation steps have been taken to ensure it will forever remain accessible.

For starters, all three versions of the demo will soon be uploaded to Archive.org. This includes the initial Nextfest version, the patched version, and 'The Big Update' we launched six months after the demo's initial release. Additionally, anyone is welcome to distribute copies of the demo across the web. There is no DRM for the demo.

[h2]Why did we decide to do this?[/h2]
There are many reasons, but let's discuss the two biggest ones:

1. The demo and full release have incompatible saves
Because of how much the game has changed, saved games cannot carry over. This means that anyone who beats the demo before deciding to purchase the game, will have to immediately redo a (mostly) similar level. This is not how we want to introduce new players to the game, and it may potentially harm the first impression for many.

It is worth noting, though, that the level has been reworked in many areas. If you've actively played the demo before, you will notice these differences right away!

2. It's outdated. Very outdated
While we really love the demo and still find it enjoyable to play through today, it hasn't aged all that well. It is simply not a good representation of the game anymore. Many of the critiques we frequently received are problems we addressed years ago, and many of the suggestions to improve things have been implemented. I still hope to make a blog post in the near future to explain a bunch of these improvements!

To put it bluntly, the upcoming release version blows the demo out of the water. Everything has been refined, portions of the demo map have been reworked, performance is better than ever, and our AI is now capable of much more. Everything feels a lot better. Nothing is left untouched.

Having the demo out there doesn't make us feel as comfortable anymore because we know how much things have improved.

[h2]Why not update the demo instead?[/h2]
We would love to! Unfortunately, updating a demo takes a significant amount of development time away from the full game, which is our current priority. In game development, it's often easy to underestimate how important every single day of development is. Maintaining a demo can easily take away entire weeks of progress from the full game.

Perhaps once we are ready to leave Early Access in the future, we will consider launching a demo that's more representative of the final product. No promises here, but we would love to do it!

[h2]What difference does it make to keep it on Steam?[/h2]
Having it front and center on the Steam Page means the demo will still receive a lot of attention, which could lead to the aforementioned issues. By making it a bit more obscure, we can minimize these problems without sacrificing preservation.

For those who truly wish to play it, it will still be easy to find if you go out of your way to look for it! However, for the broader audience who can see the demo on Steam, we are concerned it may cause too many problems when transitioning to the release version.

[h2]Can I make a backup?[/h2]
You can! If you want to make a backup, you can find all builds in the 'Betas' tab. 'None' is the most up-to-date version of the demo.

While I am not entirely sure, I believe you get to keep the demo if you have it installed on Steam as well!



[h2]Conclusion[/h2]
We hope you understand why we are doing this. We are not fans of delisting demos either, which is why we are taking so many steps to prevent this demo from becoming buried and forgotten.

If you have any questions about this, sound off in the comments and I'll get to you!

Attention: At this time of writing, the Early Access store page is not live yet. We made an error and are awaiting approval from Valve!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The Release Date is finally here! After lots of dedication towards the game, we're gearing up to launch a massive chunk of our work to the public.

Before we dive in, we want to express our heartfelt gratitude to everyone who has been with us on this journey. We began working on this back in 2016, restarted the project multiple times over until we finally found something that worked to our satisfaction. In 2020, we announced Selaco with a screenshot from a build that was barely able to hold it together. The entire thing consisted purely out of prototypes and, in the distance, were visible placeholder sprites that were nothing but a string of text. Fast forward to today, and here we are, getting ready to launch something we feel is immensely fun to play, polished and dynamic. Never in our wildest expectations did we anticipate having the audience we have today.

Whether you joined us from our very first tweet many years ago, or became a part of our community just recently; your support has brought us to this moment. Thank you for giving us time, encouragement and support.


What to expect from the Early Access launch?

Our goal is to start big and build from there. We always meant to release in Early Access and to make the initial launch worth the price of admission by itself. I'm sure you've heard that before, but let me prove to you that we are not exaggerating.

Here is a summery of what to expect from the initial launch in May 2024:

• 25 levels. For comparison, the demo had 3
  
• 11 weapons, 10 of which will be upgradable with new stats, abilities and Alternate Fire Modes
  
• Dynamic encounters with reactive combatants
  
• Heavy emphasis on exploration and worldbuilding
  
• A large number of secrets and unlockables
  
• Intense combat and effects taking inspiration from John Woo movies
  
• A wide range of environmental variety where no two levels look the same.
  
• Full modding support
  
• Gamepad & Steam Deck support
  
• A synth-heavy soundtrack composed to Lawrence Steele
  
• Very kind robots who clean up your mess you've created
  

We will elaborate further on some of these points further down

In short, there's a lot. And we have a lot of plans to further iterate upon all the stuff mentioned above. Months after playing it you may suddenly be playing a version of the game where the enemies have a brand new trick up their sleeves!


What can we expect from the other chapters?
We plan is to make Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 a little shorter than Chapter 1. The honest reason here is that the game would otherwise end up being far too long.

The story is fully mapped out, a lot of ideas are on the table and now it's just a matter of getting the design plan down for these later chapters. We will discuss more details when the time comes.


What parts of the trailer will be in the Early Access release?
Everything shown in the trailer is planned for Chapter 1.


How is patching going to work?
We care a lot about preservation in videogames, so whenever a new patch launches, we will be providing options to roll back to older versions. Basically, every available version can be selected from a dropdown menu. On top of that, there is no-DRM, so you get to keep it forever.

Saved Games may not be compatible with new updates, but that depends on what has changed. We can safely add new systems, new effects, additional layers of polish, rebalance things and more while keeping saved games intact. But the moment we alter levels, a save starts breaking.

Thankfully, since we allow players to roll back to any version they want, players can safely resume their run if that's the case.

We will also be adding in-game warnings a few days (or even weeks) before a new patch launches so players can properly anticipate it. We already did this in the demo to great effect!

Of course, ideally, saved games are always going to work regardless of what has changed and that is absolutely something we are going to try and fix. But unfortunately, not at our Early Access launch. It's a complex problem that is going to require some work with the engine.


Is there an exact launch date?
May 2024 is as exact as we can be right now! We want to remain flexible and avoid launching alongside gigantic games that have an overlapping audience. This allows us to launch a few weeks earlier / later as needed


Gamepad & Steam Deck support
In it's current state, Selaco fully supports a wide range of gamepads and our gameplay systems can be fully utilized with these! And we've improved it further since our Public Demo by adding a Weapon Wheel and an on-screen keyboard.

For Steam Deck, we are aiming for Steam Deck verification. So far, all requirements should be met, but it's up to Valve to approve it when we are closer to launch.


Modding Support
Selaco is based on GZDoom (albeit modified) so adding support for mods is going to be easy and any of the tools modders have used for Doom, can be used for Selaco. To make it even easier, we've added an in-game menu to manage your mods.

Modders are able to make completely new levels or even entire campaigns, add new weapons, add gameplay modes and much more. Honestly, there are no boundaries here given the open-source nature of the engine.

Steam Workshop is planned but we have to work out some potential issues and ensure it's actually possible with the engine. To be continued on that front.


What is going to happen with the demo?
For the time being, the demo will be kept online. However, we may take it down closer to launch because it's becoming increasingly outdated and already doesn't reflect the quality of the final product.

We may, however, launch a brand new demo after the launch that uses the newest build. But that remains to be seen.

Thankfully, you get to keep the demo forever if it's installed on your system!

Can you talk about what improvements have been made in regards to common demo critiques?
Yes! We are doing this in a future blog post. We think it makes more sense to do this when everything has been finalized.


Conclusion
We are going to take a moment to celebrate the reveal of our release date. It's still hard to believe this news is finally out there, and that's pretty damn exciting!

If you have any burning questions, we recommend hitting us up on Discord or make a thread on our forum page.

Take good care and have a fantastic weekend!

- Altered Orbit Studios