Over the next few days, we will be increasing the price of the game from $7.99 to $8.99 USD. It is still cheaper than the original launch price of $9.99. Other currencies will be adjusted accordingly based on Steam's recommended regional pricing. We hope this adjustment will provide us with better development capacity.
The current cosmetic DLCs have been a great help. Moving forward, we plan to create more skins that can be unlocked in-game. We understand that players generally don't like excessive DLC. As we’ve mentioned before, we never originally intended to sell character skins frequently. However, our 3D art team currently has the most surplus productivity. If our goal was purely profit, we would have sold paid content at launch. We only introduced paid cosmetic DLCs nearly six months after launch after realizing that current sales figures would lead to the project's "slow death." We hope you can understand this difficult decision.
Regarding recent updates: we have recently met two rare and valuable talents who can accelerate our development—a Senior Technical Artist from Ubisoft and a Senior VFX Artist from NeoBards Entertainment (the developer of the recent breakout title SILENT HILL f). We hope to increase our sales to hire them. We would appreciate it if everyone could help promote our game so more people can discover this work we are so proud of.
Why do we need more people? A project like "Endless Alice" reasonably requires 30-40 people for development. Although that was an estimate from before AI became prevalent, even with advanced AI tools, we need at least 20 people to ensure every part of the project runs smoothly. We usually operate with only 10-15 people, many of whom lack sufficient experience. Our home, Taiwan, has almost no game industry, making it extremely difficult to find qualified candidates for every position. In Taiwan, besides NeoBards, almost no one else has successfully navigated the workflow for developing a 3D multiplayer game using UE5.
The experts mentioned above are crucial to the project. Our characters rely heavily on visual effects (VFX). Our inability to release characters on schedule is almost entirely due to a bottleneck in VFX capacity. Furthermore, UE5 VFX artists capable of 3D game production are extremely rare. Having veterans with AAA experience provide knowledge and productivity would be a massive boost for character production. A Technical Artist (TA) is even more critical; I believe we’ve optimized the game well even without a TA, but with a senior TA, we could squeeze out even more performance, allowing the game to run smoothly on lower-end PCs. A TA can also assist the VFX workflow in many ways. Securing a talented TA would drastically accelerate our progress.
I will always say this: we have poured everything into this product, and it is absolutely worth your support. Even if sales don't meet expectations or other opportunities arise, we feel a responsibility to finish Alice and deliver a complete experience to our players. Therefore, we hope for your support at any time. Our current sales rely too heavily on Steam Seasonal Sales. The gaps between these sales are too long, making it hard to plan and utilize our budget effectively. On normal days without discounts, our lowest daily revenue can be as little as $50-$70 USD. A smoother monthly sales performance would significantly reduce our burden.
Inaccurate Roadmap:
．Shelter NPCs: Angel Merchant (specific items & interaction events); Nurse Merchant (specific items & interaction events).
By the way, regarding why we have so many "Loli" characters: our most stable outsourced artist loves drawing them and practices that style exclusively. Some of our art is purchased from his practice works. Other artists we've worked with are either too busy or produce inconsistent work. This artist is the most compatible with us, hence the higher frequency of his work.
．We will start a "Reverse Bunny Girl" exchange event for Takehime on or before May 11th.
．Lea Unlockable Skin
．Mia’s functionality is mostly complete. We are currently rushing the UI, SFX, and VFX, hoping to finish by May 11th.
Mia Unlockable Skin
．Working hard to complete the Final Boss by May 11th.
．We have reduced the various crash scenarios to just one. We will observe if the v0.1.33 update resolves it. Stability has improved significantly since launch.
．Expressions, Emojis, and Performance Animations:
The 2D avatar in the bottom left of the HUD will be changed to 3D and react in real-time (e.g., getting hit, low health, knocked down).
Wheel-selected Emojis and performance actions (e.g., taunts, dances, stickers).
Implementation will happen gradually over 1-3 months. Some assets are already done and may be released early.
．Skin Accessory System will gradually release new parts like hats, wings, floating items, hair colors, etc.
Regarding 1.0: Before the full release (within the next 12 months), we hope to:
．Have at least 10 characters in total.
Maho
Unnamed (Maho's family)
Unnamed Wolf-Sister
Mao
Collab characters from our other games:
Psionic Sentry : Infinite - Verna
Psionic Sentry : Infinite - Alva
Psionic Sentry : Infinite - Mavis
Frenzy Retribution - Protagonist
．At least one new gameplay mode (similar to WC3's "Defense of Athena").
．1-2 new themed maps and new enemies.
．A large number of existing enemy variants.
．Special stages and enemies for obtaining special items.
Parkour Special Stage
．Character variants (e.g., older versions of Loli characters, younger versions of adult characters) that affect both visuals and gameplay.
However, we need to monitor sales. We cannot rule out ending EA and moving to 1.0 as a means to gain massive exposure and rapid income in a short time. If sales drop back to last year's lows in the next six months, we may need to make adjustments for the team's survival and move EA goals to the 1.0 release. But we firmly believe this year will get better and better.
Regarding revenue, we've had talks about new publishing opportunities. Though I think the chances are low since the game is already released, I believe Alice has huge potential on consoles, especially the Switch 2. If you are an interested publisher, please contact us. For players: unless we secure extra investment, we won't be busy with this in the short term. With extra funding, we’d only need to hire 1-2 more mid-level engineers, and some publishers handle the porting entirely, so it shouldn't impact new content development.
If everything goes as planned, the short-term goal after 1.0 is to create more Final Bosses for different clear experiences. In the long term, new characters will be developed in parallel, but more time will be spent on Bosses because we plan to make them playable. Thus, making a Final Boss is also developing a new character.
Our original setting for Final Bosses is a series of cool Mecha-Girls:
Lily
Unnamed Electromagnetic Cannon Mecha-Girl
In the long run, we want to add meta-progression collection elements, visually similar to Blue Archive’s Chibi characters and rooms where you can collect and arrange furniture. This was originally planned for EA, but it’s a difficult challenge due to the planning and engineering workload.
Our overall goal is to reach 1.5 to 2 times the content of competitors at a more affordable price before releasing paid chapter DLCs. Simply put, we aim for a $8.99-$9.99 EA price and sub $14.99 1.0 price, with the volume of "Risk of Rain 2" or "Gunfire Reborn" (plus their DLCs) times 1.5 or 2. Essentially, providing double the content at half the price.
I believe we have already surpassed our goals regarding character count and the Awakening system compared to other games' EA periods. While gameplay polish and balance take time, it’s only a matter of time. I am proud that our team of four amateurs with no prior experience has achieved this. I truly have a great team. The road ahead is long and difficult, but we remain ambitious. We hope to achieve higher visions together with our players.
