We are just finishing up with round 2 of alpha testing, which was a great success. Unfortunately, the success of Alpha testing was that it showed us there is still a lot to do before we can talk about beta testing and release dates.
Our most recent release window estimate was “Holiday 2013”. In order to avoid being lost in the chaos of Holiday Sales on Steam and other distributors, we would need to have the game out in early December. That’s a little over four weeks from now, which is simply unfeasible. We refuse to release a product until we feel it is finished properly, which means making a slight adjustment to our release window.
The best time to start beta testing will be after the holiday frenzy has worn off, since it’s not likely that we would get substantial feedback from testers during the weeks around Christmas. That puts beta testing in mid-January with a release date of 4-6 weeks after that.
We do apologize to everyone who has waited so long for the third Eschalon game. We thank you for being patient with us, and hope you know that this extra development time will make the game better in almost every way.
Saxon Finch
The information on this shows the reserved perfection that makes a good Solo-RPG. The posting about Alpha 2 testing turning into nov of beta than an early dec. left me thinking zero room for set-backs of any kind, which left me thinking is that news post a prank by dev-team. Thankfully with this information i`ll see the amazing solo-RPG that is known as Eschalon.
Brassknees
Waiting is hard, but I’ve been burned by too many games that were released too early. Kudos to the Basilisk Games crew for not trying to score easy bucks with a Christmas release and instead choose to work a bit longer on BOOK III! But how about offering pre-sales??
Steven K.
No worries Thomas! Thanks for the update.
Michael Anderson
I think it is a smart move – we might want the game sooner, but it is wise of you to hold off past the Steam sales and so on, let people refill their accounts and recalibrate their sense of ‘value’ before releasing! 🙂
Cord K
A good game can’t be rushed! Since the game won’t be out as soon, perhaps we can expect a nice Christmas package of new screenshots instead? 🙂
Redspark
I’m going to be buying no matter what time of year you release it at. 🙂 Thanks for the update.
Shawn D
Thank you for the update, and a BIG thank you for the honest appraisal of the situation. Like the others who have commented here, let me add my support for your choice. Make the game GREAT, please do not rush it. I’m looking forward to this 3rd installment.
Bry
You guys are so darn awesome, I could darn near wait forever to play your games! Well… forever’s a tad optimistic, but you get the idea. I LOVE YOUR GAMES!!! WHAT A TALENTED BUNCH OF PEOPLE! EVERYONE, GIVE BASILISK GAMES A HAND… (much deserved applause) 😉
Nagumo
Take your time. Book I & II are amazing games so waiting for Book III is really hard but i believe in you.
So stop reading …back to work 😉
Kenny
Trilogy DVD! Whoooo!
Hamster
I appreciate you taking the time to make the game right! The wait is fine, although it is agonizing for my 5-year-old son who plays along with me on Books I and II!!
vlnet
I do agree in taking time is ok and everyone would like to get a great game, but one thing suxx again and again: why do you name a date if you can’t deliver it then? It’s your decision to name a date, nobody forced you as an indie developer to do so. That is something that gets on my nerves, because you are not the only one with this sucking behaviour. The only thing you do is disappoint people which were looking forward to the named date to get hit in the balls again and again. So, take your time, but I’m pissed nonethless about the way this happened … again.
BasiliskWrangler
@vlnet – We have never named an exact date, only given out time windows. First it was Summer 2013, and then that window was pushed to Holiday 2013. Now, we are forecasting February 2014.
We make these predictions based on our ToDo list and a timeline for finishing that list; we make every attempt to meet that goal, but when we don’t, we have to reset our prediction. Our Alpha test showed us a lot of areas that needed to be re-addressed, and that takes time.
We are working crunch-mode hours now: as I write this, it is 4:30am local time. We are working very hard to meet this February release window, and we will give you an exact day once we are confident we can finish it up in time.
CugelTheClever
Thanks for the update! I agree that you should hold off the release until you feel happy with your product. Obviously, as a fan I am anxious to play it, but I understand these things take time. Thanks heaps for the first two games, and thanks for your continued work.
RRGamer
I love this series, and waiting for a while doesn’t hurt. Gives us all a little more time to decide which build to play first 😉
Kathryn
BW, as an engineering project manager, I fully understand and sympathize, and I would much rather have the game when *you* feel it is ready!
Andrew
I think it’s great you’re taking this approach rather than rushing things. I’ll definitely buy it whenever it’s all done.
Eberhard
As long as we get info, we have no problems with waiting.
Trying to be as perfect as possible, enjoying christmas times an holiday, taking enough time for beta testing …. all good things worth waitnig for.
As far as I’m concerned I see the Release in march/april 2014, and that’s okay since I haven’t enough time to play it in december/january.
So, thank you for the info-update and don’t worry.
@vlnet: You seem to be very young, but even you made for sure the dissapointing experience, that your very personal time-table wasn’t as consistent as you wished it to be. Even you in person dropped a appointment date in the past, I’m sure.
Not to give a announcement for a special date isn’t a option, because many people want such a announcement.
Your mistake is: You see a announcement as a fix date. Don’t do that. Consider it as a milestone which to reach the developers are trying really hard and add three additional month. That’s more realistic and wou won’t bi dissapointed … again.
Suman Eldrich
I love the series and can’t wait to play. It’s also good to see to take the quality of your product so seriously.
But…it’s been how long now since you’ve been promising the this 3rd release of the game? As tough as this might sound, there has been a failure at some point. I am the consumer after all, and I would not say your track record on this 3rd installment has been commendable.
Karin
A possible release date for February? My birthday is in February and what an awesome present that would be! Don’t you worry about these ppl wanting book III sooner, you just go ahead and take your time perfecting. No sense in putting it out there just to have problems and issues that need patches and plug-ins to make it work properly. Take as much time as you need. Dedicated Basilisk gamers, such as ourselves, will be patient. Anything good is worth waiting for! 🙂
Dmytro
I respect your move to not release untested game as much game developers do.
It is absolutely no problem to wait for me (and for many of us, I believe) another couple of months for proper release.
And thank you for quality! U best:)
Hakea
Good news that the testing is going well. There’s good side to our waiting too. If you’d released it a month ago some of us would probably have finished it by now. But as it is, we’ve still got it all to look forward to in February. Please don’t change it to March though.. 🙂