With a little over a year since this mod’s release (already), I feel it’s good to give everyone a little heads up on what’s cooking.
First of all, when will development continue?
As of yet, I’ll disappoint the new fans and unsurprise the veterans. I honestly can’t say at the moment. During my hiatus I had the opportunity to explore some other hobbies, of which some need some finishing up to do before I can set my mind back to this project.
But I’ve also had the unfortunate reminder of how time flies, and how no one has any guarantees on how much they have of it. Just to clarify, I am just fine. But this did however prompt me to re-evaluate my life’s goals. And one of which is to dive deeper into the world of game development.
The Titanic Mod, as much as I love working on it, won’t contribute further in achieving this goal, so I’ll be working more on portfolio pieces instead as well.
That said, this is far from any cancellation. I love this mod, its audience and the modding community. I love working on it. And will most certainly continue once these current ends are tied up. Portfolio work or not, it will always remain a creative outlet and a nice change in something to work on. There are loads of ideas already on what to do with Part Two, and the continuation announcement is already written.
But I think no one would argue that if I want to do more with game development, that solely working on this mod would yield very little result, especially considering the amount of time put in and how limited the audience is. It took all but two weeks after the release for interest to die off and for the download count to flatline. I could wish all I want that carrying the reputation of the longest mod in development ever would somehow make the project well renowned and be the stepping stone into a prosperous game development career. But the fact of the matter is that it doesn’t. There is no honor in excessive dedication, and keeping at it hoping for things to change is what a certain FarCry character defined as insanity.
The message may sound a little bleak, but I do wish to end on a positive note emphasizing that this project is thus far a part of my life that I’d never intend to give up on it. Again, I love it and everyone involved with it. With this message I basically want to say that the development will continue at some point, but that I may be limited in the time I can spend on it compared to the faster development prior to Part One’s release.
So, stay tuned for when the boilers are once again lit up.
Wait, it's already been a year? Time does really fly.
It's been a very long time in development, but I'm sure, there are Mods, which are longer in development. The best example, which I can quickly think so, is the Stronghand, which started some time ago before your mod. Originally, it was for Gothic 1, but in February 2006 the new content made for Gothic 1 was ported to the Gothic 2, since it has a way better engine.
Also, good luck with developing your own game, and I hope, that you will have some time for modding as well!
Thanks! I did not know that there were other mods with even longer development times. I suppose that it's even more proof on how little that relates to a mod's success.
You welcome!
It really depends on what you mean by success. When a success is, to have a release with a lot of feedback, but rarely any bugs, then it is a success. However, if you mean by success a lot of feedback, media attention, huge Discord server and so on, then that happens only in huge communities, like with the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, which used to be much smaller. Mainly because of Mods like Call of Chernobyl or Anomaly, which became famous very quickly, so it's easy to have a lot of fans, for a game like that, which has over 47 000 members on its Discord.
I know that you don't want to be famous, but also it would be great, if this mod would get a bit more appreciation, than it has. Surprisingly, even the Fallout 4 has a lot of big Mods with a ton of fans, or even the Gothic I & II community, where are mostly German, Polish and Russian fans. So, I do hope, that the StrongHand will be released one day, and I believe, that it will be an amazing mod, and that your mod will get a much more positive attention in the future.