Release Timeframe Update

When we first announced this game, I think we both knew it was the largest project we'd taken on. I sort of just extrapolated from my experience with "A House in California," which took about 6 months of work, then multiplied that by 4 (thinking KRZ would be about 4 times the length) and divided by 2 (since there are 2 of us working on KRZ), and came up with the rough estimate that the new game would take us a year to complete.  In retrospect that was pretty naive.

It also didn't take into account the fact that developing this game has been for both of us more a process of discovery than implementation. We still have the same basic gameplay, art treatment and plot framework that we started with in November 2010, but as we've worked on the game we're discovering a lot of new opportunities for depth, and rather than hold onto a narrow preconception of these environments and characters we've found that we're drawing a lot more energy from being alive in the creative moment & open to exploring some of these thematic rabbit holes.  For example, Tamas' new design for The Hall of the Mountain King is probably about 6-8 times the size of the environmental demo you saw a few months ago.  It's actually sort of frighteningly large, and that's informing my writing & character planning -- I'm trying to write dialog trees that don't feel like trees or hubs & spokes but like cave systems themselves, delimited only by the player's fear of going too deep and not being able to find a way back out.

Neither of us are the kind of people to obsess over a single project for years upon end -- done is better than perfect. But, also, great is better than good enough!

So for now we're going to stop talking publicly about a specific release timeframe for Kentucky Route Zero and just say "when it's done."  Privately, in this newsletter, we'll keep being transparent with you and give you updates about our progress and milestones, because we know that you (like us) are personally invested in this game and in seeing it completed.  Right now, based on our current pace & expectations, we're estimating the game will be ready to release some time around the summer.

More soon!

jake+tamas