2024: a Year in Review for Carbonflesh

2024 was the year we decided to move forward and show the world what Carbonflesh was all about.

It was judgment time.

After six long years in the making, it was time to give you the first taste and get the Internet's honest feedback without holding anything back. While we’re making the game we’ve always wanted to play (and that no one else had made yet), we needed to make sure we’d tapped into something that, at the very least, was worth your time—and ideally, much more.

This was no easy task.

Most games are pretty easy to describe or showcase. You show the main gameplay loop, explain the genre, and highlight the unique angle your game takes on an established formula. Done!

But Carbonflesh offers no such shortcuts.

While many of its mechanics might feel familiar, developing Carbonflesh feels more like creating a genre than just a game. Because there’s no direct parallel we can draw to explain it, we knew we had to be transparent about what you’d be playing.

The catch? You have to play Carbonflesh to truly get it.

So, we set out to create a demo. After months of deliberation, we decided to release the first "chapter" exactly as you’ll experience it in the final game.

Then, we waited for judgment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo3IKOIGRgw

In July, we released the demo on Steam after conducting about 120 playtest sessions. These sessions included anyone in the industry I could get my hands on. The game is better for it, though I ended up buying at least 120 beers for people I deeply respect—and whose company was an absolute thrill.

The questions after each playtest were almost always the same: What did you like? What should we work on? What the hell are we making, and how do I explain it to people?

These were nearly identical to the questions we included in the feedback form attached to the demo. A total of 140 people were kind enough to fill it out, and here’s what they said:

Highlights 90% loved the vibes and atmosphere. 87% loved the soundtrack. 80% loved the gameplay.

Lowlights UI/UX was by far the most common gripe (and rightly so). Visual clarity/fidelity needed improvement (did you notice I used past tense?). Optimization was terrible, especially in the early days of the demo.

Average Overall Score: 8.9/10

This feedback gave us a clear roadmap for improvements before we moved on to developing the rest of the chapters. Many of the necessary changes took months of work, but the freeform answers from the community also pointed us toward a new, unexpected direction—making the game even more choice-oriented.

I’ll share more details in future posts. My goal is to blog here every couple of weeks to keep you updated on our progress.

Before signing off, I want to give a huge thanks to all the gaming journalists, YouTubers, and streamers who covered the demo. Your feedback and support have been invaluable. Here are just a few familiar names who took an interest in the title and were kind enough to share their thoughts in videos or articles:

SplatterCat's video - that the ending (last 5 minutes or so) had me tear up a bit. Manly tears that someone gets it.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etjy5LJfYOM

Miri Teixeira's article on PCGamesN Carbonflesh is a cyberpunk life game blending endless genres and ideas

John Walker's mention in his Kotaku list of awesome games 20 Astonishing Indie Games To Play Or Wishlist Immediately

Thank you so much for your support and I will return in a short couple of weeks with what we're working on in 2025.

Cheers! - George "Zok" Zokas