Dev Journal #24: Now What?

Elemental: Reforged has just been released. And people like it. They really like it. But the question is, now what?

We now have a modern, 64-bit 4X strategy engine with extensive modding support. We've been quietly working on this for years. Nights, weekends, off the books. The "1.0" release was fairly arbitrary.

That matters because there's a difference between spare-time effort and having actual artists and engineers assigned. For the last few months, we got some. You probably noticed. The game went from "really buggy" to "wow, the bugs largely went away suddenly."

We've got budget for two years from release to build an audience.

First up: a DLC. Partly for you, partly for us. We are so tired of the existing monster lairs, goodie huts, and quests. I hate you, Bacco. So much. The first DLC adds new lairs, goodie huts, monsters, and quests. Just more variety. It also helps us gauge demand, which determines whether we get to borrow artists and engineers for the crazier ideas later this year.

So: fix bugs, ship a DLC to show how we can extend this game, and see how much appetite there is. What say you?