Realmwalkers,
[p]It’s been a few months since our Nightingale City update and we wanted to take a moment to step back and share where things stand, not just with Nightingale but with some of the broader work going on at Inflexion. More than anything, we want to share how we’re approaching the road ahead.[/p][p]A lot of our recent work has focused on long-term planning for Inflexion. That of course includes Nightingale, but also other projects we’re exploring as a studio. It’s not always the most visible kind of work, but it’s important, especially now given the realities of today’s games industry. Taking the time to plan well means we can keep developing the games we love.[/p][h3]
Reflections on Nightingale[/h3][p]Nightingale has been at the center of many of those conversations. We care deeply about this game. It’s ambitious and complex, and we’ve poured a lot into it. It hasn’t always been easy, but we believe in its potential and in the community that’s come with us this far.[/p][p]One of the biggest considerations has been our online architecture. From Nightingale’s earliest days, we aimed to create a shared-world experience that let groups of players join together to adventure in the Fae Wilds. The back-end architecture we created delivered that vision, with players connecting realms to other realms with magical portals. The team did a great job. But at the same time it meant constraints and limitations on our overall development speed and on gameplay elements that we’ve never resolved. Now with more than a year of early access, it's clear that many players prefer to play solo or with a few close friends, further complicating what we do going forward.[/p][p]The other difficult truth is Nightingale’s review status on Steam. It’s nobody’s job but ours to make a game worthy of good reviews. But we’ve been sitting at “Mixed” for a while now, and that hurts because it reflects a gap between what we want the game to be and how it’s being received. Steam reviews matter because they shape how new players see the game and we know we have work to do if we’re going to improve them.[/p][h3]
What We’re Doing Next[/h3][p]To address the first challenge, we’re nearly ready to release our dedicated server. This has been in the works for a while, and it will allow you to host a dedicated server the way you do with many other survival games: privately, reliably, and on your own terms, while still enjoying diving realmdiving from realm to realm through portals you build or discover. We’ll have more to say about the specifics on that soon.[/p][p]As for the Steam review score and the broader player experience, that’s a bigger challenge. There’s no single feature or fix that will solve it. But we’re spending this summer focused on finding the right path forward, one grounded in what we’ve learned since Nightingale's launch.[/p][h3]
Thank You[/h3][p]If you’ve played Nightingale, left feedback, or even just kept an eye on what we’re doing, thank you. We’ll keep sharing more in the weeks ahead as we prepare for our next update, and we’ll continue doing the work to make Nightingale a game worth your time and support.[/p][p][/p][p]Take care,[/p][p]The Realmwalkers at Inflexion [/p][p]
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