Hello everyone!
As you may have seen at the PC Game Show, we are finally ready to talk about Griftlands. As always we try not to say too much until we're reasonably sure we have solid information to give you, but we're feeling confident with the status of the game and want to fill you in.
We have a lot to discuss here: Alpha on the Epic Game Store, Early Access on Steam, and a big change in gameplay.
Griftlands, the RPG
Every time we make a game, we set out to make a new experience that's never been made before. Over 4 years ago, we set out to make a new RPG, and the development of the game twisted and turned in many interesting ways.
After a couple years, we thought we were close, and announced the game. It turns out, we were premature in the announcement, and after another year of development, we realized that we were not delivering the experience we had set out to. Specifically, we wanted a world where you had the freedom to do what you wanted, and the world would respond systemically to it; where you could build relationships and the nuances of them would come back to haunt you. We wanted to let you wander a large expansive world, build out your party, and backstab your own party members when they least expected it.
We wanted the story to be systemic, but it felt either robotic or too linear. We built a full trading simulation, modeling supply and demand, we built a fully featured crafting system, and a dynamic faction simulator. Unfortunately, the whole was never better than the pieces; we found that each piece of the game felt disconnected with the rest, and that actions often felt inconsequential. We built large worlds that felt tedious to travel around, and as designers we knew the systems were not working to provide a holistic experience.
What we did see was the people loved the world, and loved the premise of negotiation and manipulation. In short, we focused our design, and over the last year, we've been working on something new in the same world.
The New Griftlands
Today, we're announcing a reboot of Griftlands, a single-player deck building game where you negotiate, fight, steal or otherwise persuade others to get your way. We put aside the huge simulation and RPG elements and focused on negotiation, combat, and manipulation. You play the game as one of three characters, and each decision you make is important -- which jobs to take, which side to choose, and which cards to collect.
In Alpha, you play as Sal, a freelance adventurer out for profit and revenge, and you do the dirty work that other people won't. As you play, you build two separate decks: one for negotiation, and one for battle.
The world of Griftlands is harsh, and death can come quickly. Each time you play offers new jobs and situations to encounter, and a chance to rebuild your strategies. A successful run will require a sharp wit, a sharp blade, and enough cunning to know when to use each.
Alpha and the Epic Game Store
As with our previous games, we will be running an Alpha period in order to iron out the kinks. We have partnered with Epic to bring the Alpha of Griftlands to the Epic Game Store exclusively for one year, and will launch in Early Access on Steam next June.
Klei has a history of partnering with new distribution platforms when starting new projects, for example the Don't Starve Alpha was only available on the Chrome Webstore, and the Invisible Inc. Alpha was only available through the Humble Widget as a direct download. After rebooting the game, Epic approached us as a partner and we felt that this fit well with our process of going from Alpha to garner feedback before putting it on all platforms.
On July 11, we are going to launch the Alpha version of Griftlands for $14.99.
Early Access on Steam and Early Roadmap
In June of next year, we will be releasing Griftlands into Early Access on Steam. Anyone who purchased on Epic will get the game on Steam for free, and vice versa.
Griftlands has taken a long time, and it's gone through more twists and turns than any of our previously released projects. Making new experiences is never easy, and if nothing else it's guaranteed to work out differently than we anticipated.
We have quite a bit of work ahead of us. Our expected timeline is:
- Alpha: The Sal campaign (days 1 through 4) is released
- Fall: Character 2 campaign (days 1 through ?) is released
- Early Access: Character 3 campaign (days 1 through ?) is released
- Launch: Full campaign for all characters released
We expect the full game to launch in the Fall of next year, and we're looking forward to taking that journey with you, from Alpha to Early Access to launch.
Best,
Jamie.
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