So excited to release the first real peek into the actual game environment! We’re putting our hearts and souls into this thing, and into developing a world with lush, richly-detailed and awe-inspiring landscapes a person can feel themselves in. Of course, this is largely WIP stuff, and some of the subtler finishing touches have yet to be applied to many of the scenes, but we’re super happy with the results of our world-building efforts thus far. The sights, the sounds, the view… we’re more in-love with this place every day and every element we build.
Personally-speaking, I can’t even begin to describe how incredible it is to see something inside our heads come to life at all- let alone on a 4K screen. It’s extremely satisfying to show gameplay/game-world clips like this to anyone else and say, “There it is, there’s the place in our heads”, and to really show off how beautiful, complex and immersive we’re building the world around Sak’s big adventure. Grasslands, the Town of Kodo, the Graveyard, a tour through an extremely active volcano… lots more sneak-peeks to come., we hope you’ll check back often for updates and if you get a chance definitely sign up for the newsletter here: http://159.203.12.226/newsletter/ to keep up with all the going-on’s and happening’s around the studio and with the team.
I will say that the outstanding reception from everyone seeing the intro-scene clip has been absolutely unexpected and entirely wonderful! We really appreciate everyone’s comments and feedback, and our team is greatly encouraged by all the love and attention our little pillowy hero has been getting out there in the wide world of #indiegames. Naturally, one of the questions most often asked by almost everyone we show the game to is “When is SAK’D coming out”, or “When’s the beta going to be available?”, and it’s a little bit of a chuckle every time we hear the question. TBH, we’re not really sure. Building a game world like Sak’s is a phenomenal undertaking for any studio, especially an independent studio with [almost] no funding. We’ve survived, and at times thrived these past few years due to the extraordinary generosity of friends, family and close business associates, and to the ongoing financial support of myself, and my business partner/lead developer Roland Baranowski. So, we’re not massive company or anything, nor do we have any kind of trust fund or fallback when investment capital runs out. We just keep going on our own steam, producing more and more content and weaving together this little dream of ours. (Just kidding, it’s HUGE).
It’s awesome that so many people are super-eager for this to come out, and by Crom- so are we, but living the indie-game pre-publishing life is kinda like playing Oregon Trail, without all the dysentery. It’s a long, arduous, sometimes frustrating, often exciting, weirdly satisfying and continuously the most brutal undertaking of our entire life, but- personally speaking; I wouldn’t trade game development for any other job. I absolutely love doing it, and meeting all the amazing people and having these super cool experiences, learning all the things that one learns when embarking on such a quest… 100% worth any amount of frustration endured. It’s always worth working extra hard and/or long at the day-job just to get an extra hour or two of game development in the evening, and the joy of seeing something you and your friends are creating coming to life makes even the worst days of regular work fairly bearable.
Since I’m tasked with writing this month’s post, I’d also like to take this opportunity to send some really big shouts out to my business partner and lead developer Roland Baranowski for his enduring patience and hard work, to Erika Moya for continuing to do an incredible job juggling 3D work and managing departments, José ‘Gigio’ Esteras for his brilliant cartography and creative input, Dylan Jenken for their extremely valuable analysis and development work, thanks to Bradley Norton for ongoing mastery of character controllers and other things code-complex. Mega-thanks as well to our artists Camilo Zepeda, Alejandro ‘Grenias’ Aguirre (3D, Art Dir.) and Rosa Flores Cuirro (Art Dir.) for constantly bringing the world together and continuing to visually (and expertly) translate the creative essence of what’s going on in my mess of a head. High-fives and massive thanks also going out to our supporting 3D Jedi’s- John Engesser, Sebastian Figueroa, J.C. Horta, and Courtney Trembecki. You all rock my freakin’ socks, and I love our little creative family. We’re makin’ it happen! Props to the independent game development community at large too, for being the supportive and helpful batch of awesome you are.
And last, but farthest from least- MASSIVE thanks to all our fans for all your shares, likes, retweets, high-fives, pats on the back and generally overwhelming show of support! Your enthusiasm adds fuel to the fires of our creativity and we love the whole bunch of ya for it; you keep cheerin’ and we’ll keep forging.
~ K.
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New to the project? Want to know how you can help our team succeed and SAK’D launch even faster and better? Check out our Quest page here: http://159.203.12.226/about/the-quest/