2 Years Early Access + Release Schedule Update

crosscode-schedule-2017
Woah, has it really been 2 years already? Indeed: CrossCode started Early Access back in May 2015. To celebrate the occasion we have a Daily Deal today on Steam!

Now before some of you might be tempted to take the offer we thought it would be fair to talk about the ever-so-important question:
When is CrossCode finally finished?

Back in 2016 we posted our release schedule and at that time, we estimated the final release for June-September 2017. We’re now very close at this date and unfortunately see that there is still too much left to do. Yes, most major locations and dungeons have been finished and you can already gather all 4 elements. The only major thing that is now missing is the story. And story is difficult. It’s important to us that the plot will leave enough space for character development, will be able to surprise you and most important of all: will have a satisfying conclusion. All of this unfortunately takes time, more than we estimated.

The only way we could release on time would be by cutting content, making the game shorter than intended. This will of course leave the final product lacking and we really want to avoid this.

The good news is: financially we can afford to develop the game until it reaches the intended conclusion. That of course means we have to postpone the release. We fully understand that some of you might be angry about that. But we also believe that, in the end, nobody wins when we release an incomplete game on time. We owe it to you to give this game a satisfying conclusion and we believe this is what most of you want us to do as well.

With all that being said, we now target a release of CrossCode in Early 2018. Yes, this is big step, but this should give us enough time to finish the story and make sure it reaches a satisfying conclusion. It will hopefully be the last time we have to postpone the release to such an extend.

Since it will be another half a year, we plan to add a few more releases in-between with more content to play.

New Release Schedule

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CrossCode 0.9.5
Release Date: June 2017

This update will finally extend the story! By quite a bit as well. It will slightly expand locations around Maroon Valley, Rookie Harbor and Autumn’s Fall, include several smaller boss battles and plenty of interesting plot developments. It may also be leaving you wanting more story, so be warned.

Includes:

  • More Story
  • More Quests

CrossCode 0.9.7
Release Date: Autumn 2017

This release will add the new area Sapphire Ridge with new enemies and puzzles included. You may recognize the area from another part of the game you’ve already played.
We’ll also finally work on all those backer perks we promised back during our Indiegogo campaign.

Includes:

  • New Area: Sapphire Ridge
  • More Quests
  • First Backer Food / NPCs / Quests / Enemies

CrossCode 0.9.9
Release Date: End of 2017

This release will implement the new level 3 combat arts so you can try those out and give us feedback for balancing!
You will also, for the first time, be able to enter Rhombus Square. You might only be able to enter certain parts of the city in the beginning, but we intend to expand the place over time, even beyond the 1.0 release.

Includes:

  • Level 3 Combat Arts
  • New City: Rhombus Square
  • More Quests
  • More Backer Food / NPCs / Quest / Enemies

CrossCode 1.0
Release Date: Early 2018

This will be the big release of the full version! It will include a (hopefully) satisfying conclusion to the story.

Includes:

  • Full Story
  • Complete Skill Tree
  • Indiegogo Backer Food / NPCs / Quest / Enemies (maybe not complete)
  • More Quests

Note that versions 0.9.7 and 0.9.9 will have less content compared to previous releases. That’s because a lot of content for the final version will be developed in parallel to those versions but only released with the full game.

Post Release Content

Of course we still plan to develop the game beyond it’s final release adding more post-game content and remaining backer perks we didn’t manage to implement on time.

This includes:

  • New Game+
  • All remaining Indiegogo Backer Content
  • A Battle Arena in Rhombus Square with a lot of different challenges
  • More Quests

And this is our new schedule! Again we’re very sorry we have to postpone the release once again, but we really hope that all the wait will be worth it in the end!

Localization

Two weeks ago, we released the Chinese Localization with help of our partner WhisperGames.

We are now also happy to announce that we’re working on a Japanese Localization with our new partner Dangen Entertainment to be released sometime during Early Access, possibly with version 0.9.7.

Now many of you asked for translation into other languages, be it Russian, Spanish, French etc. We’re still in the process of looking for potential partners for some of these languages, but if nothing comes up, we do plan to involve the community to help up translate CrossCode to other languages. However, we plan to start those community translations later once we’re closer to the version 1.0. This is mostly because working with more people to translate the game early on may further distract us from developing the game itself and we really don’t want to keep postponing the release!

Back from BitSummit

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We’re back from BitSummit in Kyoto, Japan and man… what an event.

We met a lot of other cool developers including Konjak (Iconoclast), Bomb Service (Momodora), Kayin (Brave Earth: Prologue), and Stellar Jockeys (Brigador) among many others!

bitsummit-1
Our CrossCode booth got a lot of visitors by all kind of folks… and also the press!

And now you we nice articles by IGN Japan and IGN USA! There was also a Famitsu articles that disappeared… but maybe it’ll show up again!

Traveling all the way to Japan was quite exhausting and so was standing at the booth all day long, but overall it was definitely worth it and we’d gladly do it again next year!
We also want to say thanks to Dangen Entertainment for organizing a great deal of the whole thing and taking good care of us in general!

See you at Dokomi!

dokomi

This Saturday and Sunday we’ll be at Dokomi in Düsseldorf, Germany presenting CrossCode! You’ll find us in Hall 4, Booth L12! If you’re there, feel free to drop by, say “Hi!” and get a sticker!

And that’s all folks. Until then!

17 Comments

  • Hi! When is the Daily Deal supposed to show up?

  • Us gamers can wait. Take as much time as you need and release the best damn game you can! :)

  • Enttäuschend, keine einzige Sekunde habe ich in die EA Version gesteckt, weil ich die gesamte Erfahrung genießen wollte und dann sowas. Damals sagte ich noch zu einem Kumpel, dass ich nach dem release von Cross Code sogar einen zweiten Teil mit offenen Armen empfangen würde. Inzwischen bin ich mir da nicht mehr so sicher. Und ohne es böse zu meinen, ich erwarte sowieso keine allzu große Offenbarung von der Story. :/
    Naja, mal schauen was ihr nächstes Jahr so treibt, viel Erfolg noch bei der Entwicklung.
    Auch wenn sich der Text sehr negativ liest, wie ich gemerkt habe, dann spricht da einfach nur die bittere Enttäuschung aus mir. Ich hoffe ihr könnt mirs verzeihen.

    • Wie gesagt wir verstehen, dass Leute enttäuscht sind.

      Wir haben persönlich schon die Hoffnung, dass die Story eine der Stärken vom Spiel wird schlussendlich, aber das wird uns nur gelingen, wenn wir genug Zeit haben diese zu entwickeln.

  • It is a great game your’e making guys, and thake the time you need, but what does “new game+” mean exactly? haven’t really understood that.

    • New Game+ is a gamemode most games have where you can replay the campaign on a harder mode, with different enemies, or you can keep all items from your past playthrough. It’s usually for 100% completion people.

    • you don’t know new game + ? the whole game from the start but you keep your stats etc. and enemies are stronger. (I hope it won’t be like with The Witcher 3. at the witcher 3 your eq is shit and you have to buy something from a merchant.)

  • Take as much time as you want for making this game even greater than it already is *^*

  • Cachwir on May 30, 2017 at 9:51 pm said:

    Take your time. No matter how long it takes, I want this ending to be memorable. Also I’m looking forward that New Game + !

  • I totally agree with David. I also prefer a well rounded story and overall polished game to one that is out just a bit earliers. And half a year isn`t really that much.
    But don´t get too perfectionist – ressources are finite after all ; )

  • Take your time, a good story is essential for a great RPG. I just really hope you don’t underestimate your financial costs here.
    If I could offer some constructive critisicm (for future projects): It would have been wiser if you had targeted Q4 of 2017 all along, even at the Indiegogo campaign. Seeing how complex this game is for indie standards, Q1 2016 was bizarre, never believed in that. (Though I still gladly funded this awesome project, don’t misunderstand me)

  • I for one am not angry at all. You guys worked hard on this game for two years and that’s what matters. I have faith that you will all get it done and it will explode in terms of popularity. Good job and good luck!

  • Sarah Z. on June 3, 2017 at 9:16 pm said:

    This is easily among the best games I’ve played in recent memory, so I’m willing to wait. It’s hard to be patient for this wonderful game, but I’ll do my best!

  • I am so happy every time I hear that there will be more time flowing into the development of this masterpiece. If you manage to keep up what you have been doing so far I think the game will come pretty damn close to perfection for what it is. I think releasing at some point next year is reasonable and hope that the finished thing will be a massive success to prove that game development doesn’t need to be rushed. Much love :)

  • Are you gonna be at Gamescom this year? :D Would love to see you there :D

  • I know my comment is late. But I hope NG+ won’t be like the one in The Witcher 3. Where your eq is shit and the weakest in the game is stronger than the best you can get.

  • hi guys
    i love this game and i love your work and that you wont rush to release the game to keep the perfection and a great story
    sadly i cant buy the game cuz my country is permabanned from everything in world (iran) but i still thinked i could at least thank you and show my support
    keep up the good work guys

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