We are overjoyed by the response we received, and were delighted to meet many of you backers in person. To sum up: almost universally, people who playtested the game enjoyed it and had no trouble seeing the game's potential. Players especially like the writing and dialogue, the melancholy mechanic, the plant discovery mini-game, and the sense of openness and exploration that the level provided. We also received excellent feedback as well, and took tons of notes on what players had to say. On Friday in particular, Carlos would demo the game while Josh and Kyle were editing it on the fly, incorporating the notes from each playtester into a new build to put in front of the next one. Some of our notes will take longer to implement and so we couldn't test those immediately. In all, we feel like, even at this very early, months–away–from–beta stage, the game is shaping up tremendously well.
So what's next? We will be concentrating on nailing down the Travel levels, as well as filling out the part of the game that will feature the Shoshone (Sacagawea's tribe). Jim Welch will continue to work on the game's music, and we will have new art including an improved Lewis model to show you. We also will report on our visit to the New York Historical Society, where we were able to examine spyglasses. Not only will our spyglasses make good mechanical sense in the game, but, as always, we are going to great lengths to ensure historical accuracy — and in this case, we can do both without sacrificing either. But the story of our spyglass research is a story for a future update. Until then, proceeding on!
