Full funding secured! Kowloon Nights joins the party.
about 5 years ago
– Sat, Feb 06, 2021 at 07:16:47 PM
Important update today, and a big moment for our small studio. It relates to the business side rather than the game itself.
We decided to go with the full transparency approach for this post and share behind-the-scenes business considerations around the production and eventual publishing of Sea of Stars.
If you are only interested in updates about the game directly, that's totally fine, feel free to skip this one. The gist of it is everything is going super smoothly, and our partnership with Kowloon Nights basically amounts to us officially having the means to achieve the complete vision for the game while retaining 100% creative ownership and freedom to self-publish without any compromises whatsoever.
If you have any questions, we’ll be happy to answer them in the comments, or on our Discord. Let’s dive in!
BIG SCOPE, BIG BUDGET?
You might have heard of the infamous production triangle (fast, cheap, high quality) out of which you only get to pick two items. Whichever pair you chose entails giving up on the third one. Fast and cheap? Low quality. High quality and fast? Expensive. Cheap and high quality? See you in 2027.
From Sabotage's inception 5 years ago, it was always clear that there would be two main aspects on which we would never compromise: actually and measurably humane work conditions, and high-quality content.
Inspired by the response to shoot for The Full Scope while bearing our two main business considerations in mind, and still aiming for a 2022 release, we needed a slightly bigger team, and thus a slightly bigger budget.
We now have 23 team members working full time exclusively on Sea of Stars, most of them having 10+ years of experience in their respective crafts, which makes financial risk management and production planning a core aspect of turning the vision into reality.
Building the full-fledged version of Sea of Stars, including things like side content, a fishing mini-game, backstories and high density areas with seldom any re-use, is frankly a few million dollars venture. This is a ballpark that can put a lot of pressure on a small studio like Sabotage.
IT TOOK CLOSE TO A YEAR TO FIND THE RIGHT PARTNER
Right after the Kickstarter campaign, we started taking meetings.
Defining what we wanted for the future of Sabotage was a long process, and each of the countless meetings we had with potential partners helped us close in on the relevant questions pertaining to our long term vision for the studio, along with shorter term considerations, which lead us to these key takeaways:
We want Sabotage to be recognized by its peers and by players as a studio that specializes in blending retro aesthetics and modern game design.
We want freedom to publish ourselves and grow our own brand with long term plans to keep our games' stories alive for those who gathered around them.
We want to keep the team relatively small (below 25 members).
We are willing to go all-in on Sea of Stars, reinvesting everything we made from The Messenger.
We don't want to cut content from the game, even if it means requiring more investment.
We need support on the "bizdev" side, as we frankly never cared to spend too much time negotiating deals and prefer to focus on making games and building hype with the players directly.
When we met with Alexis and Callum from Kowloon Nights, the connection was all but instantaneous. They are laid back and very knowledgeable of the industry. Within minutes it was clear that they understood on a deep level what we were trying to build regarding both Sea of Stars and the future of Sabotage, and that they agreed it was a worthwhile venture.
Kowloon Nights is a specialized fund focusing mainly on PC and Consoles premium games. They act as a big sister company, providing funds, business advice and opportunities, while letting us make all the final decisions. They are a hands-off partner, meaning we retain full ownership of the creative vision and business decisions around both Sea of Stars and our studio itself, which brings us to the big exciting news.
WE ARE SELF-PUBLISHING SEA OF STARS
Empowered with the response from the Kickstarter campaign, and on social media afterwards, we decided to tackle the challenge of publishing. The proximity that developed with the community around Sea of Stars really feels unique to us, and it is something we want to nurture, as it helps us let the game emerge as what it is trying to be. For example, we weren't sure at first if more mundane content should be in the game (things like fishing and cooking). Seeing the feedback following the demo last summer, it became clear that the core systems of traversal and combat were well received, and that almost unanimously players were hoping the final version of the game would be closer to what we refer to as The Full Scope.
With in-house experience coordinating QA, localization, ports, community management, marketing and compliance, we are confident (and excited) to tackle the challenges of going through the full process by ourselves.
WHAT’S NEXT?
With the team fully ramped up and the funding secured for The Full Scope, the next months will be all about crafting every single act, and iterating on every minute detail until everything is as good as we can make it. As always, we’ll keep you posted on our Discord and Twitter with weekly updates.
Once again, we thank you for believing in our vision at such an impossibly early stage. The amount of love and support we received from backers played a central role in giving us the confidence to self-publish.
2020 wrap-up, and news from production
about 5 years ago
– Tue, Dec 22, 2020 at 10:55:15 PM
What a year 2020 has been. We hope you are all safe and healthy.
From an intense Kickstarter campaign that started at the same time as a global pandemic, to going fully remote while hiring, to refining our production and work from home pipelines, it’s been quite the roller coaster. That being said, we couldn’t be more grateful for the support we received from this community, and the very welcome distraction it blessed us with.
This update was long overdue, so let's start unpacking...
Act 1 alpha is a wrap
Pretty big milestone for us as the team is putting the finishing touches on the first act of the game. We learned a lot, and are really happy with the result!
Here are a few shots from Act 1 (alpha footage) :
We are live streaming new Sea of Stars content this afternoon (EST).
This afternoon (December 22nd, 2PM EST), Thierry will do a live Q&A on Twitch and present a sneak peek of the Mountain Trail dungeon, featuring everyone's favorite warrior cook!
If you have a question for the team, you can post it in the comments section here, and we’ll add it to the pool :)
Our team now has 22 members
To maintain the focus on quality without causing avoidable delays or compromising on the full vision, we hired 6 more people! Three more pixel artists, one more programmer, a social media manager and a new QA manager. We’re now fully ramped up and ready to tackle this production with only one metric in mind: to make Sea of Stars as good of a game as we can make one.
In other news, like many others we had to adapt our methodology and processes for the challenges of full time remote work, but we are happy to report that velocity has not been impacted. Our dev pipeline is optimized and content is being produced at a steady and predictable pace, so you can expect to be seeing more reveals in the following months.
Exciting news: we are self-publishing Sea of Stars!
This isn’t the official announcement, but we closed a major deal that will allow us to self-publish Sea of Stars. We’ll go into the full details in a dedicated post in 2021.
Since it is not an exclusivity deal, we have complete freedom here, so you are more than welcome to voice any hopes or preferences about platforms. We will be listening and prioritizing our efforts according to your demands.
The Crypt Customizer is launching early 2021
With more than 7000 memorials to be customized for The Crypt, we had to create a platform to gather all the data and streamline communication with backers.
The Crypt Customizer is a web application that allows eligible backers to customize their memorial, whether it is a monument, a statue, or a stone. It will be accessible via your favorite browser using your unique code and backer email.
In the first phase, coming Q1 2021, only the monuments section will be open (a Hero to be Worshipped tier), and will progressively open up to other tiers.
The second phase will add statues (A Hero to be remembered) and stones (Solstice Warriors).
You will receive an email with instructions the moment it goes live. Multiple reminders will also be sent via Discord and email to make sure everyone has ample time to send us the data.
2021 will be a big year!
There are a lot of announcements coming next year, including launch platforms, feature reveals, character reveals and so much more.
But for now, it's time to rest. We wish you all happy and peaceful holidays, and give you our thanks once again for the incredible support you have shown us in this adventure.
With love,
-The Sabotage Team
Demo post-mortem, and the beginning of production.
over 5 years ago
– Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 01:20:51 AM
It's a wrap for the demo, and what a month it has been! Despite a few distribution hiccups at first, thousands of backers played and replayed it inside and out, and we couldn't feel more blessed with the response.
We received more feedback than we could have hoped for, and had discussions with players from all over the world who offered their perspectives and hopes. The one thing that seems to come through unanimously is that the core of the vision works. There is no way to overstate how happy this makes us as we make the transition from pre-production to production.
A lot of you have taken the time to put together extensive feedback, all in the spirit of helping us make Sea of Stars the best game it can be, and we have been listening. Without going into too much detail here, one thing that seems worth mentioning is that in the demo the world was rather "empty", both to keep playtesters focused on the main path, and because it is still so impossibly early. In the final game, you can absolutely expect more ways to touch the world in both mundane ways like opening drawers, fishing and cooking, as in more concrete ways like undertaking side-quests or booting your endgame save to discover and fight optional bosses that are "stronger than the final boss".
If you miss the demo or want to revisit it, there's a lot available online from streamers and content creators! Here are two of our favorites:
Now that we're officially done preparing tools, renderers and character controllers, we are hard at work on our first milestone of final content (Act 1). Here's a sneak peek of what's in the works:
Childhood intro in Mooncradle Village:
Some enemy concepts from Act 1:
Kid Garl, Kid Valere and Kid Zale running
Enemies spell FX concept sheets
By popular demand, Garl's frying pan attack:
We are also ramping up the team with three additional artists who will help us attain the quality we are shooting for without having to compromise on the timeline.
As always, be sure to come say hi on our Discord from time to time for backer exclusive updates, or to chat with the team!
You can expect another update this fall, as we have started the work on Monuments, Statues and Stones. A Web app is coming soon for you to make your choices!
As always, we thank you once again for all the support <3
The exclusive demo is coming out on August 20th!
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Aug 18, 2020 at 10:41:57 PM
Exhausted and brimming with excitement, we’re happy to finally announce that the super backers exclusive demo (Solstice Warrior package and above) will be out on August 20th!
Featuring 3 different areas to explore, the demo has been cut out of the middle portion of the game, heavily redacted to avoid spoilers, and balanced to offer an early taste of the core mechanics. While you will be encountering areas and characters that are part of the final game, we will ensure your adventures on Watcher Island feel fresh despite having played the demo!
If you are eligible for the demo, but haven’t gotten your access to the dev channel yet, simply join us on Discord and follow the instructions in the #instructions channel. To secure demo access, you need to claim your "Super Backer" or "Top Backer" role. Head over to the #support channel for any questions or issues, we're making a point to be swift and responsive!
If you haven’t backed Sea of Stars yet, there is still time to get the Solstice Warrior Package on Backerkit, which includes access to the Super-Backer Exclusive demo and the private #dev channel. If you want to upgrade your pledge to the Solstice Warrior package, just come see us in the #support channel on Discord.
Here are a few considerations about the demo:
It is for PC (Windows 10) only
It is accessed through our Discord exclusively; your Super Backer / Top Backer role is the access key
It will be available for 1 month, from August 20th 2020 to September 20th 2020
You are free to stream the demo, take screenshots, record footage, or otherwise share content or impressions about your time with it etc.
We started a casual Twitch stream. A couple times a week, Thierry plays some retro gems to chill with the community and sometimes talk about game design.
To kick things off, the first third of the demo will be livestreamed on August 18th, at 8PM EST. Tune in on Twitch to chat with the team!
New trailer, and some news
over 5 years ago
– Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 11:10:00 PM
My, we spent a long time in the dev submarine, silent and all. Just as it was about time we poked our head out, Summer Game Fest invited us to join the celebration with a new trailer, and we gladly obliged!
You can watch it here:
Demo hype
"With the Coral Hammer in hand, Valere and Zale arrive on the shores of Watcher Island. Across the jungle they must reach Docarri Village, where they hope to have an audience with the legendary Oracle of Tides..."
While the game is still a couple of years out, a lot of you pledged for access to a playable demo, and it is coming VERY SOON. Cut out of the middle section of the game, the demo has the two protagonists go on a quest without the rest of the party. Spoiler tags will be used profusely to preserve the experience once the game releases, but there is still some world building taking place there with an outdoor dungeon, a town, and an indoor dungeon.
Along with the traversal and combat mechanics in place, you will be able to play with the main systems (leveling up, upgrading equipment and harvesting food to rest and heal up between combats).
Meanwhile, in our empty studio…
As you can probably guess, we had to switch over to remote work. It did require some adjustments, but now that we are a couple of months in, we can gladly report that our production timeline has not been impacted. Our only gripe is that we have yet to get together and celebrate the success of our dream campaign, which is a very minor gripe all things considered.
Many backers have joined our Discord to talk about Sea of Stars, game dev, and enjoy some unique inside looks at our work in progress. If you were still considering joining the fun, here is a quick look at some of the things we've shared on there:
Level design ideas sketch
Title screen in action (music included)
Valere's successfully timed attack animation
We'll send another update soon as the demo rolls out, which will be distributed through Discord, so all the more reason to join us! Feel free to come say hi, we'll be happy to have you.
Thank you once again for your support, it still means the world to us and goes a long way in carrying our efforts as we build this fantasy world of ours!
