Hi everyone!

So, some have you may noticed we said over and over again we were launching in Early Access. Well we launched, and barely anyone’s actually pointed it out, but we’re not in Early Access. What?

Quite simply, as has become my brand, I messed it up in Steamworks! The short version is: I didn’t check the box or whatever.

The long version: I don’t know exactly *what* happened–it might have been that since we briefly worked with a publisher who set up our store pages I assumed we had been applied, or I have a false memory of doing it, but in my brain we were 100% definitely set up for Early Access, and that when I clicked “Release Game” that is what I was sure we were releasing. Anyway, welcome to what it’s like to be me, a musician with ADHD, working with a complicated back-end and a non-technical mind on very little sleep for a month.

After a few moments of blinding panic, I asked myself “what did we really need EA for anyway?” and it didn’t take too long to realize that, well, we don’t? We’ve got a stable game with a ton of content. We’re very proud of it, and players really like it too (leave a review!). We don’t feel like we need particular lenience with regard to reviews etc. We know exactly what our design goals are and have achieved most of them already. The bugs that exist are minor and can be taken care of in short order.

Also, just 3 weeks ago Steam released a video explaining how games are featured, and Early Access games are largely excluded from the algorithm. This made Early Access really actually quite bad for us! Our whole marketing strategy was planned around our EA launch.

Crazily, by accidentally launching as a full release, we found ourselves at #2 on the New and Trending list, which we would not have seen with an Early Access release. So my mistake started looking like quite a happy accident. Failing upward, baby!

How does this affect our players? We’re continuing with the development as scheduled. Technically, instead of an Early Access title in development you’re getting a Full Release Game with a bunch of awesome (and free) updates in the future.

We’re asking for understanding when updates do come out, particularly in regard to saves. In Early Access it’s much more the norm that updates will have major implications on existing player profiles etc. Well, we’re Not Early Access, but this may still happen. We’ll be discussing if/how we can mitigate this, but are asking for patience. Take lots of pictures of your favourite tanks, have fun, but don’t get too attached (even though one of our design goals is to get you attached :P).

We had planned to increase the price on full release, which we probably can’t comfortably do anymore. That’s our problem to solve.

Thanks for playing!

Fish On,

Gord