Welcome to the year end report for 2022! Let's get started...
For the VLOG version, click below:
2022 was an eventful and yet tiring year. It started very hopeful and then got bogged down until the later half. We went from fighting over buggy frameworks and trying to get ports out, to closing out with a lot of major assets for Raven's Prayer done and a new team member coming on board.
In the midst of all of this, Project 2 has gone from idling on the backburner to having it's entire opening sequence of key images done thanks to our new Filipino addition. All of that within two months since his inclusion! Wow!
Things have looked up a lot since our anniversary in July. Even more so when we got our iOS port up the exact day and hour that we originally exited from Early Access on Steam. That was quite the fun shocker.
Adding onto this was the fact that Tyrano went from an engine that was in desperate need of updating to now being handled by it's core devs again from Strikeworks. We didn't expect major updates until 2023 but what they did do was pretty fantastic that enabled us to close out the year testing Mac OS builds and prepping another release.
Unfortunately everything seemed to take longer to get done. Battling with the ports took a bit of wind out of our sails. We also had team members making some major moves in life. Georgy finally left Russia and got married in Italy and he wasn't the only one entering married life on the team. Others made some major moves or had losses in the family to tend to. Tragedies happened...
Yet, like all stories, the pages turn and the next chapter begins. 2023, we find ourselves coming out of the port nightmare. A big thanks to Strikeworks on that.
Still shocking that what started as something we figured would take a few months turned into over a year because of Nyu Media's decision to go dark and not inform anyone they were going to be shuttering.
2023 is looking to be getting back to where 2022 should have gone. We've got Raven's Prayer moving along, as well as Project 2. Both of them are in more active production than they were at the start of the year.
We're happy to announce on top of that, that our new artist John Vergara will be working on both projects. His speed of production puts him in a perfect position to do a bit of leadoff in concepting BGs for Dust and Air. Whereas in Project 2 he'll be the primary artist for BGs and key images.
Decisions on this were made in reflects to his art style, which is more anime/manga oriented. This flows better with Project 2 but can be a big help on Dust and Air for getting ideas going. Especially cityscapes which have taken us longer due to their complexity and artist schedules. John loves these types of images so, it's just a huge, monumental addition that we had been looking for, for a long time.
As we approach release of Raven's Prayer, we're going to be having to re-evaluate our estimations on the production schedule. We also have to take into account the music side in 2023, something that doesn't have as many assets to produce as art but, will need to be done.
Project 2 release, pending it's current progress rate, may be as early as 2024. We did not expect to make as much progress on it as it did in the later half of the year. Ingrid has her own health to be mindful of and we've already told her this isn't a rush job. She hasn't returned to her old commission schedule so she's got the reins on character development for Project 2 at the moment.
On the backburner going into 2023 is currently quite a few things that may get elevated. We've got a website redesign to do, achievements to add to Dust and Air, an ad driven version of the phone apps...
We may even re-evaluate our plans for the story launches pending what Strikeworks does in 2023. In the end, we'll have to make the choice on that which is best for both the players and our development goals. We did cross over 100 copies of Dust and Air sold in 2022. Not much of a milestone to some but a great one for us.
With that note, we bring this to a close with an overdue update on the heroine decals you can get in Guns of Icarus Online. The scoreboard as of the end of 2022 are:
Gwynevere
Nakiri
Calle
Sofia
Aoli
Abigail
Surprising to see Nakiri gained a lot of ground. Especially given her character only has a brief cameo in the Cathedral arc and no official model done. But then, there is a few Arashi fans in the GOIO community. At the very least, we're glad people like them and that they are helping bring some money in for Muse.
As always, eternally grateful to Muse Games for being here today. They may not revisit the GOIO universe anytime soon but, we always wish them the best and a greater future.
See you all in the skies of 2023!