DEV BRIEF 00 - RESOLVE Is Dead

First off, thank you immensely for your patience these last couple of months! I am incredibly excited to finally make this post about what has been going on behind the scenes and what is going to happen now.

What happened? I will cut straight to the point. After the open playtest events back in March there were a few things that became clear to me in addition to the expected technical issues of an experimental pre-alpha. Even though we had spent more than a year conceiving, iterating and implementing mechanics and features, the core of the game felt very close to games we have all played for thousands of hours already.

We had focused on optimizing the game for competitive balance and lost sight of the heart of the game: Having fun with a random group of complete strangers.

At that point I knew we had to take Resolve off the radar and take the time to reimagine the game into something new, exciting and fresh. Rethink what a large-scale team game that relies on communication looks like, and break the chains that held the project down.

This meant the direction of Resolve had to change and I wanted to build on everything we had learned so far to take the game to a new level.

Why is it taking so long? Throughout this project I have always used the word ‘we’ when referring to the development team. But the truth is that while everyone in the Dev team has brought something to the table that has shaped the project, I am making 99.9% of the work on my own. But I would rather redo all that than simply adding new paint to a game that already exists.

Until March I had been saving money with a diet of lentils, and at this point I am pretty much living on water and bread to pull off this final stretch without bringing in outside interests and maintain creative control. And now I am incredibly excited to finally reveal the new direction and get the engine roaring once again!

Tomorrow we will reveal the new direction! Recently we have been assisted by people with a lot of experience from working on Gates of Hell and Burning Lands, and tomorrow we will announce the new direction with more details to follow. and I can’t wait for you to see it!

While some people will inevitably be disappointed that the game is not what they were expecting, I hope you will cleanse your mind and take part in this journey, as we build Resolve from the ashes of what came before!