Greetings Founders,
We have big news for you this week, so take a seat and consider this information as there's a lot in this DevBlog Extra. So, as part of CardLife's preparation for launch on Steam Early Access next month, we will be withdrawing the game from sale later this week.
The reason we're taking the game off sale is that we need the whole development team working on bug fixing 100% for the next month due to the Steam launch. The easiest way for us to do that is to allow us liberal time to take the game down intermittently over the next few weeks so we can deploy fixes, note your feedback and confirm the fix is good before moving onto the next game breaking bug. Essentially this process allows us to make sure the CardLife launch goes smoothly and this is critically important for the game's long-term development.
We're currently targeting Wednesday, 12th September for taking CardLife off sale but that is dependent on when we put out the new build we're working on, as detailed in the previous DevBlog. If you already have a copy of CardLife, don't worry! Everyone who has access to the game will continue to do so in perpetuity and you'll be able to play just as you have before.
This week will also be the last opportunity to purchase the CardLife Founders Edition before we withdraw it from sale (Founder's Edition won't be available on Steam) so be sure to grab it this week if you haven't already. When we launch on Steam we will only sell the CardLife : Vanguard's Edition which will raise the cost of the game to £15.49 and we'll detail the cost of this edition later. The good news is that all founders will receive every in-game item we produce for any pack going forward and that includes anything special we put in the Vanguard's Edition.
You may have noticed that we've upped the price of CardLife twice in the past two months, which for a game that has been available since 2017 is significant. The reasons for this rise are two-fold really;
- Our development team is now 25-strong, that's twice the size of the team previously so we're able to do more meaningful content for the game more regularly
- Our goal was always to sell CardLife for around $19.99 / £15.49 on Steam as we felt ultimately that was the right price for the game in its Alpha state.
The fact that we did these two prices rises so close together meant that we could keep selling the game for $6 / £5 for longer. We don't have any more price rises planned until we add substantial new content and features.
So, this leads to the inevitable question - what is in the Vanguard Edition? Well, honestly, we're still finalising that and we'll let you know the edition's contents as soon as we finalise the plans. All those who have the Founder's Edition will get whatever goodies are in the Vanguard Edition for no extra cost.
Additionally, all those who have purchased the Founder's Edition will be able to claim a Steam key to transfer their account across as soon as CardLife is available on Valve's platform. Don't worry we aren't leaving anyone behind in the Steam launch, if you want to keep playing CardLife via our launcher, you can absolutely continue to do that and your experience won't be impacted.
The Steam Early Access launch is a big moment for us as a development team and marks CardlIfe's next stage of development as we move into Alpha. We wouldn't have gotten this far without your support. We massively appreciate everyone who has shown faith in our cardboard survival game thus far.
Thanks all!