Nova's Diary #17 (The Not-Devlog Special)

Welcome back to Nova's Diary, issue number 17. And man what a month it has been! (ah-ha, it rhymed!)

Let's get right into the heart of the matter: our release plan.

For the few of you who escaped my incessant spam (for which I congratulate you), back in June 15th we released a new trailer, thanks to our participation in the Shacknews' E6 event.

The trailer itself was a lot more narrative focused than the previous ones, who leaned more into the gameplay and the game's strong points (the 2D/3D, the chill soundtrack and yadda yadda...); but that's not the most important piece: Venice 2089 will release in OCTOBER 2022 here on Steam and on Epic Games Store.

Here's the trailer if you missed it, I promise it's the last time I spam it

Now, as much as we all are hyped for this, I cannot help but feel like there might be some genuine questions that you might have, and one in particular that I'd like to respond right now:

- "DIDN'T YOU GUYS SAY THAT YOU'D RELEASE IN MID 2022?"

Yes, back when we announced our Kickstarter run, we did state our intention of releasing the game in this year's Q2 no matter what. Sadly, because of the Kickstarter failing and the inevitable rescope of our game that followed, we ultimately failed to meet our word and decided for a later release.

- "AND COULDN'T YOU TELL US SOONER?"

We initially started talking about a reschedule at the start of 2022, but at the time we still felt pretty confident on delivering Venice on time. Later analysis and much, much talking later, we realized we needed to hasten our feature freeze to mid June if we wanted to have a solid polishing phase.

- "WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH EPIC GAMES STORE?"

Very simply put, we are also releasing on the EGS.

Before jumping to conclusions, I'll assure you by saying that we do not have any exclusivity contract, and that there's not going to be a single difference between the two storefronts.

- "ANYTHING ELSE WE MIGHT WANNA KNOW?"

We (I) are fully aware that we've fallen short of our word, and that in hindsight could have done things in a different manner, but we assure you that we have only the best interests for our game.

If we have ANYTHING else to say regarding the game, I'll personally make sure to notify our community as soon as possible.

And that should cover all the questions, at least the one I thought of. Once again if you have any question or feedback you want to forward us, all our social channels are open.

DEVELOPMENT & STUFF

Have you noticed how there are no more sections based on department? I figured that they'd be useless now that we're in post.

Because yeah, we're officially in post-production now. June 20th marked the last day where we could confidently talk about new features; now all we are going to do are fix what needs to be fixed and polish what already is there, plus the very rare small addition to the game that we're 100% sure it's not going to cause any problems.

This polishing phase represent the last step in our development cycle, and it will continue 'til release in October.

...So what have we actually done this month?

Well, most of us were busy making