ESSENCE News

ESSENCE has relatively successful launched on Steam early access. Although the launch itself was very rough for us. We did our best to create a relatively bug-free build in a very short time to keep up with our schedule as well as handling the first wave of new players and making the game more visible to the public through the press and social media.

We see now that this was still a good decision. It's really hard to cope with launching such a large project for a duo like us. Also, it is our first game too. So bare with us we are not yet doing everything perfectly. We can say there have been plenty of time-consuming complications to go through before such a game could come to such a storefront. We are happy to launch this now (in early access) instead of an even riskier hard launch with higher expectations. We have made a good step forward which gives us more space for better iterations with your help. You can now play and experience the iterations more directly and give proper feedback to the changes we make.

We have also seen a lot of feedback from players who expected the complete VR experience at the first launch. We apologize that we have not stated this clear enough, so this will not happen again. But to clarify again, for all who are still wondering, the VR mode will come later trough a free update, that means this game will be playable with and without VR.

Also to clarify for all Kickstarter backers, we have not yet sent the surveys but these will come soon and we will make a proper notification - so that you can't miss it, no worries. To show you how we are planning to continue with the progress of ESSENCE we have created a new Roadmap as we promised. It shows you all major updates we will reveal with the next releases.



Here some additional explanation:

• As said we will release the Linux version of ESSENCE as the next step. Also, to a recently Unity engine update we can now enable the anticipated Vulkan Graphics API. That means all Linux players will get a huge performance boost that should match up with Windows users. We will also try to give Windows users as well the option to use Vulkan since its available for both OS.
  
  
• The Revision of ACT I will be a major overhaul of the current version. We will enhance everything we can and push the general quality and content of the game and give our best to translate the feedback from all players into this update.
  
  
• Also, we will release the Soundtrack from the first Act. All selected backer will receive it via mail. It will also be available on the Steam store.
  
  
• Important: The soundtrack will be updated with new tracks when ACT II and ACT III will be released and will remain as a single package. Of course, all the backers who pledged for the soundtrack will be notified once the soundtrack is updated.
  
  
• Soon after we will be sending out all Kickstarter surveys before we continue with finishing ACT II.
  
  
• In the release of ACT II, we will also include the game related Spirit Rewards and the Kickstarter world.
  
  
• With the release of the last Act, we will also begin to send out all other digital and physical Rewards to all Backer.
  
  
• Also, we will Release the VR Mode for ESSENCE, before we will leave early Access and round up the game with a final release.
  
  
• After the release, we probably want to make some additional community updates for you, but there are no concrete plans now.
  

We really hope you like the current plan and its priorities. Otherwise, please tell us what do you think about it, if we have forgotten something or if we should change something.

We are very excited how the next months will turn out to be.

As always thank you for your patience brave travelers.

See you next week,

ONEVISION

ESSENCE ACT I is now in available in Early Access, but what comes next?


UPDATING THE FIRST ACT

We are already working on a major update for the first act, which will be a huge overhaul ranging from technical aspects to design. We are also planning to improve the puzzles and interaction possibilities. With the overhaul, we will increase the quality, further populate the world of ESSENCE and fix a couple of minor bugs that are still existing.


LINUX SUPPORT

We are already working on the Linux support. If everything goes well, and we are able to fix the last existing Linux bugs, we should have our Linux build ready very soon. This should be only a matter of days.


VR SUPPORT

We are planning to enable the VR support of ESSENCE with the release of the third act. Sadly, this means that there will be some time before we are able to enable the VR mode of ESSENCE. However, we did set up a newsletter for ESSENCE. If you would like to you can subscribe and you will be the first to know about the VR support once it’s available.
Here is the link: http://www.onevisiongames.com/newsletter


THE SECOND ACT

Once the overhaul for the first act is out we will continue to work on the second act of ESSENCE. We have a lot of great ideas and have already prepared some of the most important worlds of the second act. If everything goes well the second act should be coming out in a couple of months. If you would like to be informed about the development of ESSENCE and about new releases, please subscribe to our newsletter: http://www.onevisiongames.com/newsletter


We hope you like what you will discover and we will always hear what you have to say. Thanks for your patience.

ONEVISION

ESSENCE ACT I is now in available in Early Access, but what comes next?


UPDATING THE FIRST ACT

We are already working on a major update for the first act, which will be a huge overhaul ranging from technical aspects to design. We are also planning to improve the puzzles and interaction possibilities. With the overhaul, we will increase the quality, further populate the world of ESSENCE and fix a couple of minor bugs that are still existing.


LINUX SUPPORT

We are already working on the Linux support. If everything goes well, and we are able to fix the last existing Linux bugs, we should have our Linux build ready very soon. This should be only a matter of days.


VR SUPPORT

We are planning to enable the VR support of ESSENCE with the release of the third act. Sadly, this means that there will be some time before we are able to enable the VR mode of ESSENCE. However, we did set up a newsletter for ESSENCE. If you would like to you can subscribe and you will be the first to know about the VR support once it’s available.
Here is the link: http://www.onevisiongames.com/newsletter


THE SECOND ACT

Once the overhaul for the first act is out we will continue to work on the second act of ESSENCE. We have a lot of great ideas and have already prepared some of the most important worlds of the second act. If everything goes well the second act should be coming out in a couple of months. If you would like to be informed about the development of ESSENCE and about new releases, please subscribe to our newsletter: http://www.onevisiongames.com/newsletter


We hope you like what you will discover and we will always hear what you have to say. Thanks for your patience.

ONEVISION

We are currently working on the final steps to get the beta of ESSENCE ready for you.

We are expecting to be able to release the beta before the end of next week and really hope that you will like the game in its evolved state and style.

Over the last months, we have been giving our best to bring ESSENCE into a much better shape than ever before. Especially, in comparison to our alpha we have improved the following huge aspects of the game:

• We worked on major graphical improvement for colors, effects, and detail, in order to make the game worlds look more fascinating.
  
• We have created several exciting and very diverse sub-worlds to create a new dynamic to the game.
  
• We have greatly improved the performance and fixed many loading time issues the alpha version still had.
  
• We have added new levels and have filled the already existing levels with more content and hidden places which are waiting to be discovered.
  
• We have fixed some very heavy bugs and also a couple of smaller ones.
  
• We have created a lot of in-game options in order to allow you to adjust your experience.
  
• We have implemented autosaving so that you do not have to worry about it anymore.
  
• Also, ESSENCE has now full controller support.
  

We are really excited for the release next week and are looking forward to finally present you this early version of ESSENCE, to your feedback and to your suggestions for improvements.





Because there are many things and worlds that we still would like to include in ESSENCE we have decided to split up the game into three huge acts. The beta will feature the first act and features three of the main worlds and many sub-worlds.

Splitting up the game into three acts does mean that with the initial release not all worlds will be unlocked, but it also means that we will be adding more content, worlds, puzzles, improvements, abilities, breathtaking landscapes and features over time.

That being said every act of ESSENCE by itself does have several hours of gameplay, so there will be a lot to discover in every single act.

From now on the world of ESSENCE is growing like a tree. It unfolds its branches, starts to blossom and stretches its tree crown towards the sun. Well, of course, a tree needs time and care to become big and strong, but in the end, it will be more than just worth the effort.

With the new approach to an open development, we see also new opportunities to greatly improve the game until its finished. We can bring more people into our journey and process. Also, we can collect more critical feedback and directly integrate it into the game.

Feel free to let us know what you think about the three-act structure of ESSENCE.





As the new three-act structure does make a release date not quite as trivial as it should be, we would like to give you a quick overview of upcoming releases and the new roadmap.

The closed Beta: This release will be next week. We are currently working on the finishing touch.

The 1st Act: This official release is scheduled for the 18th of April and will be released worldwide on STEAM as Early Access. All backer with a 20€ + Tier will get their Steam key.

The 2nd and 3rd Act: We are expecting that we will need around three months to get one of these acts in perfect shape. Of course, we will keep you up to date with our development.

The Rewards: Once the beta is released we will send around the survey regarding the rewards. Physical goodies will be sent around with the final release.

The VR Release: As VR was only a stretch goal in our Kickstarter campaign we will first focus on getting the three acts done. We are planning to include the VR support in the release of the third act.

Console Releases (Xbox One, PS4): Even though we have not reached the stretch goals for those we are still planning to create a console version of ESSENCE as well. However, of course, we will first focus on creating the PC and VR version.





As you probably have recognized at this point, we are behind our initial schedule. We think it is important that you know what we are doing, so we would like take the possibility to explain this delay.

Mainly ESSENCE takes so much time because of two different reasons:

There are just so many exciting things and great ideas that we want to have inside the world of ESSENCE... We ourselves look at ESSENCE like at an organism which evolves and changes with our ideas and work and hope you appreciate that we are taking our time to improve ESSENCE as much as possible, rather than rushing the game.

Last but not least we are a very small team of 2 students and sadly have underestimated the roles and pure effort to create a game with this scale and ambition. So we hope you can understand this.

This being said we would like to thank you once again for your patience and trust and are looking forward to the upcoming beta of ESSENCE and the release of the first act of ESSENCE.

Thanks for your trust and passion, brave travelers

ONEVISION

We are currently working on the final steps to get the beta of ESSENCE ready for you.

We are expecting to be able to release the beta before the end of next week and really hope that you will like the game in its evolved state and style.

Over the last months, we have been giving our best to bring ESSENCE into a much better shape than ever before. Especially, in comparison to our alpha we have improved the following huge aspects of the game:

• We worked on major graphical improvement for colors, effects, and detail, in order to make the game worlds look more fascinating.
  
• We have created several exciting and very diverse sub-worlds to create a new dynamic to the game.
  
• We have greatly improved the performance and fixed many loading time issues the alpha version still had.
  
• We have added new levels and have filled the already existing levels with more content and hidden places which are waiting to be discovered.
  
• We have fixed some very heavy bugs and also a couple of smaller ones.
  
• We have created a lot of in-game options in order to allow you to adjust your experience.
  
• We have implemented autosaving so that you do not have to worry about it anymore.
  
• Also, ESSENCE has now full controller support.
  

We are really excited for the release next week and are looking forward to finally present you this early version of ESSENCE, to your feedback and to your suggestions for improvements.





Because there are many things and worlds that we still would like to include in ESSENCE we have decided to split up the game into three huge acts. The beta will feature the first act and features three of the main worlds and many sub-worlds.

Splitting up the game into three acts does mean that with the initial release not all worlds will be unlocked, but it also means that we will be adding more content, worlds, puzzles, improvements, abilities, breathtaking landscapes and features over time.

That being said every act of ESSENCE by itself does have several hours of gameplay, so there will be a lot to discover in every single act.

From now on the world of ESSENCE is growing like a tree. It unfolds its branches, starts to blossom and stretches its tree crown towards the sun. Well, of course, a tree needs time and care to become big and strong, but in the end, it will be more than just worth the effort.

With the new approach to an open development, we see also new opportunities to greatly improve the game until its finished. We can bring more people into our journey and process. Also, we can collect more critical feedback and directly integrate it into the game.

Feel free to let us know what you think about the three-act structure of ESSENCE.





As the new three-act structure does make a release date not quite as trivial as it should be, we would like to give you a quick overview of upcoming releases and the new roadmap.

The closed Beta: This release will be next week. We are currently working on the finishing touch.

The 1st Act: This official release is scheduled for the 18th of April and will be released worldwide on STEAM as Early Access. All backer with a 20€ + Tier will get their Steam key.

The 2nd and 3rd Act: We are expecting that we will need around three months to get one of these acts in perfect shape. Of course, we will keep you up to date with our development.

The Rewards: Once the beta is released we will send around the survey regarding the rewards. Physical goodies will be sent around with the final release.

The VR Release: As VR was only a stretch goal in our Kickstarter campaign we will first focus on getting the three acts done. We are planning to include the VR support in the release of the third act.

Console Releases (Xbox One, PS4): Even though we have not reached the stretch goals for those we are still planning to create a console version of ESSENCE as well. However, of course, we will first focus on creating the PC and VR version.





As you probably have recognized at this point, we are behind our initial schedule. We think it is important that you know what we are doing, so we would like take the possibility to explain this delay.

Mainly ESSENCE takes so much time because of two different reasons:

There are just so many exciting things and great ideas that we want to have inside the world of ESSENCE... We ourselves look at ESSENCE like at an organism which evolves and changes with our ideas and work and hope you appreciate that we are taking our time to improve ESSENCE as much as possible, rather than rushing the game.

Last but not least we are a very small team of 2 students and sadly have underestimated the roles and pure effort to create a game with this scale and ambition. So we hope you can understand this.

This being said we would like to thank you once again for your patience and trust and are looking forward to the upcoming beta of ESSENCE and the release of the first act of ESSENCE.

Thanks for your trust and passion, brave travelers

ONEVISION