the Pokemon-like is a popular subgenre of games, with successes such as In the world And He muttered– Games that played with the formula of hunting legendary monsters in multiplayer settings. However, although the former is newer and appears to be designed to be Continuous service gameand the latter is entering the end of its active development, according to An open letter from the developerBecause it was never built to last forever.
He muttered, which was released in early access in 2020, will receive its last few content-packed patches in the next few months, before developer Crema wraps up development and keeps the game on life support. According to the studio’s letter, Patch 1.7, which will arrive in June, will feature a variety of the usual content, including a new season, a season pass, and the last of the promised roadmap features, the Arcade Bar. More importantly, it will change too He muttered To the next phase of its life and uproot the microtransactions that were implemented over the course of its development.
Patch 1.8 will then complete the transition, allowing players to cycle through previous season passes in order to reduce ‘FOMO’, initiate balance changes and rework the in-game metas and economies to pave the way for He mutteredSoft retirement. Karima claims that this won’t be the last time they ever touch He mutteredas they will continue to release patches and fixes for problems that will naturally arise from the changes published by the studio, but after 1.8, He muttered It will be complete and playable forever. The letter also confirms that thanks He mutteredGiven its relatively low server costs, the game will remain up and running for a long time to come.
An open letter is more than just a notice He mutteredThe upcoming content and roadmap for, is also an apology to the community for the shortcomings of the game and the studio. Concerns about the future He muttered It seems to have risen among the community as the studio has remained silent on the status of upcoming content, announcing another title in the series, Timm: swarmThis seems to be the turning point.
It seems that much of the tension, says Crema, can be traced back to the beginnings of the game and the language used around it. He muttered And what he promised to be. Although Crema notes that it always called the game “MMO-lite”, the limited labeling capabilities of storefronts led to the widespread belief that it was a full-scale MMO like, e.g. World of Warcraft. Crema seemed to regret not making it clear more effectively that this wasn’t the case, and those perceptions in turn supported the studio in a place where it felt it had to deliver meaningful features to a crowd of players expecting a full-fledged MMO. move forward, He mutteredStore signs would paint a clearer picture of what the game is about, but the issues surrounding this issue have already done their damage.
Crema isn’t the size of your average MMO team, a fact that has crept up on the studio in more ways than one. Developing new areas and creatures was always a large investment for a relatively small crew, and time and money were not luxuries the studio had in abundance. while He muttered They were designed with a certain amount of content in mind, and the fact that the team has exceeded that scope has created what Crema calls “technical debt,” making adding anything else on top of the existing infrastructure a logistical nightmare that threatens to undo the game. . The studio’s letter thanks the Crema of the Past for having the forethought to build a “limited but endlessly enjoyable online world,” even if that structure now prevents the team from fulfilling all the desires of the player base in He muttered.
Technical debt, combined with Crema’s size, has prevented the studio from implementing a number of promised features, including a PvP Draft system and a He muttered API. According to Crema, the first of these features wasn’t quite up to the team’s standards and “the amount of bugs it caused was a cautionary tale.” Meanwhile, the scope of the API integration was deemed “more complex than expected.”
As for the future He muttered series, Crema suggests that it is not immediately working on a sequel, citing the team’s desire to “produce a product and streaming content that all of you can enjoy and love to the maximum”, and admitting that this goal is still a long way off. However, the studio is developing another game in the universe (apart from… Timm: swarm) named The project is below In a new engine and a new combat system. The hope seems to be to use it as a project to test out ideas that could have been turned into a direct sequel to He mutteredwithout marrying the studio to such an expensive project.
Despite the setbacks I faced throughout He mutteredAs the game develops, Crema seems relatively optimistic about the series continuing in games and other media, including ongoing studio projects and a TV show in the works. And who knows? Maybe one day, we’ll actually get a proper sequel. In the meantime, I’d like to commend the studio for being so open about the difficulties of developing an ambitious game with such a small team.
