Romancelvania

Happy holidays to the amazing Romancelvania community!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Dec 24, 2020 at 10:43:55 AM

We wanted to take a moment and update you on a few things!

First off we want to welcome all the wonderful BackerKit backers to our community! We are so happy to have you along for the ride! We do want to communicate a few things just to the BackerKit preorder store backers. (Kickstarter backers you can skip ahead***). We at the moment are not collecting funds from your purchases, but we promise your orders are live. We will be collecting funds some time after the holidays. We will send out an update here on Kickstarter and our social media pages to give you a heads up on when we will collect, so make sure to check in :)

We also added the perks name in the credits and access to our private discord channel to anyone who orders the digital or physical copies on the Backerkit pre-order store. We are working to streamline the process with Backerkit on collecting information for fulfillment. We appreciate your patience and assure you we see all your orders. It makes us smile everyday!

***OK now I am talking to our Kickstarter backers. I know some of you may be expecting surveys, but we are going to send those out later in 2021. We know there is time between now and when we release Romancelvania so no need to send those out just yet. We want to make sure everything is perfect!

Ok so now onto the super fun stuff! Our art team has been working a bit on the game’s look. One piece of feedback we got was that the character portraits and the in-game models were inconsistent. This was by design, however, given the feedback, we thought we should revisit it. We wanted to share a shot of our progress and would love to hear your thoughts! Hop on into our Discord and let us know! We want to make the best game possible for you, the fans and would love your feedback!

Before and after; A work-in-progress glimpse at some of the modifications we are playing with.

We have been putting a lot of work into a lot of our core game - the camera, the depth of field, animations, etc. In short, we’re looking for lots of polish as we continue to plan for a big 2021.

As 2020 comes to an end, we know just how challenging the year has been for so many. We truly feel honored that each and everyone of you has supported our dream! We wish you all the most wonderful and healthy holiday season! If you have any questions hit us up here, on social media, on Discord or at [email protected]

Lovers of the Night,

The Deep End Games

Thankful for you all!
over 3 years ago – Thu, Nov 26, 2020 at 11:06:23 PM

Hard to believe that it's been almost a week since we all geared up and created such a mind-blowing rally. We have not stopped gushing about what an amazing ride that was. We're elated that we were able to find such a passionate audience.

Over the past week, we have spent a bit of time recovering from that final push (and a month of super hard work!) We have also been planning, organizing feedback, talking with partners to help make the best game possible, and just gearing up again. 

A bit about Fenton

We thought about the spirit of giving thanks and thought it would be a good time to talk a little bit about Fenton, our Were-Human. That's right, though he may appear to be a werewolf, he is actually a wolf who is cursed with a human form. Under the right conditions, Sully, Fenton's alter-ego comes out. And when he does, all hell breaks loose. More on Sully down the road. With all our characters, we like to take the tropes you're used to, add a bit, but also twist a bunch. We're never satisfied with telling the same old story. While we draw from all sorts of inspirations, we do our best to enrich the world and its inhabitants. 

Let's take a look at some of Nat Kay Cochrane's concepts for Fenton's home turf, a place we have called "The Scentual Subterrain".

We will have a lot more on Fenton, Sully, and all our characters down the line.

Backer Kit

Logistically, we have had a few people ask for friends if they can still be part of the campaign. It took us a little bit, but we did create a Backer Kit page to allow for late pledges. We are still working out the kinks in a lot of it, so bear with us. You can take a look here.

And speaking of Backer Kit, we are excited to have them as partners to help with fulfillment. We will work with them to send out all your codes and physical goods. Best of all, should you need to do something like adjust platforms, or add on items, you can do that when our surveys go out down the line.

Our goal is to keep you up-to-date on development. We plan on sending updates once a month, with lots of additional concepts, screens, etc to appear in our Discord server. 

Fan Art!!!!

Speaking of, we have already had a ton of AMAZING feedback, conversations, and even some mindblowing fan-art. I have to say, this is one of the most exciting aspects of working on this game so far. The energy that goes into creating these pieces really inspires us.

We plan on sharing a lot of this art on our social media, updates, etc. For now, take a look at MissInfected's GOURDgeous (apologies for the awful pun) P.S. Elle art.

We cannot believe we did it. It blows our minds how we beat every expectation and overcame every odd. And we could not have done it without you all supporting us, cheering us on, and giving us hope. And for that, Drac is thankful. 

Love, passion, grit, determination, and community
over 3 years ago – Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 01:56:13 PM

This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.

WE DID IT!
over 3 years ago – Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 01:55:07 PM

That's the update. We actually did it and it's all thanks to YOU.

Lots to talk about, plan, celebrate, and create, but for now, know that we will be thanking you all for a long time coming. 

Today you have made dreams come true!

Wrapping up and the road ahead
over 3 years ago – Sun, Nov 22, 2020 at 10:55:37 AM

TL;DR - Thank you, so close, we can still make it, but if not...

Here we are, the final day!

First off, wow, what a wild ride. Thank you all so much for all your support! We can't tell you how much it means to us that you've been with us on this journey. The amount you all have given has emboldened, encouraged, and made all the long hours and obstacles seem miniscule. We will continue to find ways to thank you for many moons.

With just over 24 hours remaining, we are floored by the response. Look at what we've accomplished so far! That said, we won't pull any punches - we have a long way to go. You've all given so much already, so we aren't asking more from you aside from maybe telling a friend who might be into the game. If there is anything that might help nudge you to a higher pledge, we'd certainly like to hear it, but again, you've all floored us with how generous you are. We will not forget.

We are trying a number of things to push this over the finish line. 50k is A LOT but it is definitely within striking distance. The last day push is very real. 

Mind you, we do not do well with being told what is possible.  There's never been a game we've worked on that people didn't scoff at. I wish you could have seen the faces on the publishers when I was pitching BioShock with the Irrational crew :P

A lot of you have had incredibly useful feedback and for that we are also grateful. We have learned SO MUCH in this process. Part of why we love Kickstarter is not only because you get to build and connect with an awesome community, but also because it helps make the game better. With Romancelvania, we knew there was a lot to wrap your head around. That's the nature of mashups and charting new territory. There are so many things we would do differently to help people understand what makes this weird game  so special. As far as we know, there is no way to extend the campaign, which is especially difficult because, at the very least, we are going to get sooooooo close. Amazing considering we had next to no marketing and did not have the support of all those companies that churn out ads. Add to that 2 new console launches, the biggest election in our lifetime, social media algorithms crushing our outreach, etc. But enough excuses! :p We obviously are to blame for not communicating everything as clearly as we can. We have a bunch of things we'll be doing in the last 24 to get it in front of the right eyes. 

Which brings us to the question of "what happens if we don't pull this off and hit our goal?"

As much as I am a true believer that anything is possible, I also always think through the what if's. In the event that we do not hit it, we have a number of potential plans. I love this game more than any other game I've ever worked on. I've sacrificed so much to make it happen this far. Needless to say, I want to see it through. On the bright side, we are in talks with a number of different partners to help with funding. We also have a bunch built so we will continue to work on it as time and money allows. 

Based on a number of different factors (mostly reading the room and what our hearts are telling us to do), we will likely be reworking what we have and coming back with a very different approach for Romancelvania. We have some ideas that we feel you all will love. Something that captures what makes the game you see now so much fun, but also addresses a lot of the confusion and concerns. Lots to get into and our goal is still to make Romancelvania as you see it before you now. However, if we don't make it, you will definitely want to watch this space. We will take maybe a few days (or perhaps weeks) to get some things together and get right back to you with how we will return.

As always, happy to answer questions, keep the faith, and hang in there. The future of The Deep End is looking promising. The updates will continue, but the best way to connect with us remains our Discord channel (thank you to all the folks in there now and for sharing fantastic thoughts!)

https://discord.gg/wuue75uh

Now to finish strong!