Greetings, captains!
We know that these last few months have been complicated, and that many of you are unhappy with the pace of development of Between the Stars. In this announcement, we want to update you and give you explanations about the future of the game. We will try to answer the doubts you have had during this time.
1 - Is the game abandoned?
The answer is a categorical no. The pace of development has slowed down due to issues that we will explain below, but the game is going to be finished. During all this time, we have continued working on the final chapter, which closes the main story line and ends the campaign. In addition, there will be secondary content to be implemented, such as Kickstarter rewards.
2 - When will we get the end of the story?
Although we don't want to give a closed date, we expect it to be ready in about four or five months. The story is already completely written, and we are currently programming the events and working on the English translation, and soon we will start recording the dubbing. As soon as it is playable, we will launch a beta version, so you can all try it out before the official release.
3 - Why has development slowed down for so long?
As many of you know, Isolated Games is now working on two projects: Between the Stars and Travellers Rest, this has caused us to have less time for Between the Stars. We know that many of you are unhappy, and that having two games in development at the same time is not an ideal situation, but there is an explanation for this.
4 - Why have you produced another game if you haven't finished the first one?
This is the core of the matter. Travellers Rest is not an original game from our studio. The game was created by another developer who for personal reasons had to abandon the development and offered us the opportunity to take it over without any upfront payment.
At that time we were looking for a way to finance the final chapter since we were dangerously close to bankruptcy, and although we knew that another game would add to the workload, it seemed like a good opportunity to keep the production going. Our plan was to use the revenue Travellers Rest was generating to hire an independent team, while Shovah and I (The Bullet) continued to work on Between the Stars and sporadically lead the Travellers team with the basic guidelines, but in practice it was impossible to accomplish.
5 - How has the development of a second game affected Between the Stars?
With the extra revenue Travellers Rest generates, we have been able to keep the studio afloat and maintain both productions. But on the other hand, our plan to stay completely focused on Between the Stars has been too optimistic.
When we were given the Travellers Rest project, we found an alpha version with a lot of potential. We knew that with the change of studio, many players would be upset, so we needed to make visible improvements in the shortest possible time. New art, design, mechanics, interface change... These modifications were not easy to implement, and we had to spend much more time than we would like helping and managing the development of Travellers Rest. It was very important not to fail with Travellers Rest, because if it didn't succeed, the next step would be to close Isolated Games, abandon both games and leave us all unemployed.
After more than a year of hard work combining our time on the two games, we reached a solid foundation. The Travellers Rest community had grown, and we finally had enough time and budget to finish Between the Stars. Now, Shovah3D has already finished writing the final chapter and I am already revising and integrating the new missions. We have to keep in mind that, despite having freed us from part of the workload of Travellers Rest, it still demands a lot of time: management, meetings, design, recruitment, marketing, publishing, translation... This obviously still slows down the development of Between the Stars.
6 - It's not fair that Between the Stars players have to wait because of another game
No, it is not. We understand the general anger about the delay that Between the Stars has suffered, but the reality is that we had no alternatives. We underestimated Between the Stars development time and production costs.
Some of you already know this, but Between the Stars was born as a personal project in which I (The Bullet) worked for 4 years alone, later Shovah joined the project and we worked together on the game, while I financed everything with my personal funds. When the time came, the money ran out, and we were very close to being able to release a playable version.
That's when we decided to launch the Kickstarter. Although the goal we were asking for was low, it was enough to be able to launch the prologue and the first chapters. The plan was to use the revenue from the launch to finish the project, but we were soon overwhelmed.
Although the initial launch was good, sales dropped off. In addition, the launch content was less than 25% of the final game, which meant that there was a high percentage of work to be done. We pushed forward as long as we could, until, at the critical moment, we managed to save the production thanks to Travellers Rest, although this has delayed the development.
7 - About criticism and our silence
During this time we have not missed the forums and the painful criticisms that have come in because of the delay of the game. Once again, we understand the general anger, but we want to reiterate that, if it wasn't because Travellers Rest has allowed us to keep the studio afloat, Isolated Games would be closed by now, and Between the Stars would be really abandoned.
Despite negative comments, financial problems or accusations of abandonment, we have never stopped working to give Between the Stars the ending it deserves. We have put years of effort and risked a lot to make the game a reality, and moreover we love the game, and we are going to finish it no matter what it takes.
8 - What can we expect from the final chapter?
Another of the most frequently read comments is that if we release an update it will be to finish it poorly and quickly, but that is not true. The final chapter has 45 missions and will be the longest so far, and will finish the story without leaving loose ends. Although you know that our resources are limited (we are only two developers), we assure you that the quality will be in line with the rest of the game, and it will probably be the best chapter of the whole game.
9 - About Kickstarter rewards
Once we have launched the final chapter, we will work to implement the backer rewards. Thanks to all the people who trusted us when we needed it the most, the game was able to see the light of day. We are really grateful to them, and we will make sure we honor their trust.
10 - Finally...
We have tried to calm the community on several occasions, assuring that we are working on the game and that soon you will have the final chapter. In spite of this, some people have assured that the game is abandoned, that it will never be finished, that we are scammers, that we have run away with the money...
As we have said before, all this is false. The game is going to be finished and is not abandoned. If we wanted to abandon the game, it wouldn't make sense to write this announcement or keep replying on the forum, but we keep doing it because we are committed to finish Between the Stars.
To those of you who have supported us during this time, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. To everyone who has been disappointed by the delay, we are extremely sorry. We hope that, despite everything that has happened, you will be able to enjoy the end of the game that we have been working on for so many years and that you will be happy with the final product.