Hello everyone, this is Steve, the Project Lead for Natural Balance: Chronicles. First, I would like to apologize for the large gap of time since our last update. After the successful launch of the pre-alpha demo, the project was significantly impacted by the loss of key contributors and unanticipated financial burdens brought on by covid. For the best interest and well being of those who were still assisting us on the side, and for the overall cohesiveness of the project, I decided that it was necessary to pause its active development and contributions until the situation stabilizes.
The good news is that the project is not closed. The positive response and feedback from the community has given us more to consider regarding the direction and composition of the game. Therefore, to make the best use of this pause, I will be using that time to improve on the existing mechanics in order to bring more value to the unique energy system and design additional innovative systems to give new life to the isometric ActionRPG genre.
In addition, this unexpected interlude will indirectly provide the project with an additional benefit. The Unreal Engine 5 (UE5) was recently made available as a preview release. With our project being in the early stages of development, our delay will give UE5 time to reach a full release status while we learn how to take advantage of its new features (which will aid us in development and improved design options) and migrate the project (which would have been more costly to do if we were further along in its development). Net effect: win-win!
In conclusion, I am very pleased with what has been designed and delivered within the time and limited resources that were available to us up to this point. While delays are never desired, I am taking these steps to help ensure that the project will continue. Because our principle goal is to provide innovative and unprecedented ActionRPG mechanics, and not to rush a game onto the market, we will be taking a slow but steady path for advancing the project. We greatly appreciate the interest and support from the Natural Balance community and we will keep everyone updated as important news becomes available.
Maintaining the balance…
- UUCyberSteve
