Episode 3 Release Date Pushed Back (but here's why)

[Cez]

In a previous post I made on the forums, I spoke of how certain we were of our January 29th date. I had my little plan with enough breathing room to get caught up if we fell behind. And it looked beautiful!

They say you shouldn't count your chickens before they hatch. And now we are here, with just under a week to the date we announced, and lo and behold, we've got a few unhatched eggs—in other words, a build that is not ready to be released to the public. Though Episode 3 is technically playable and does look nice, it still needs that extra layer of polish to really make it go from good to great. We want it to be really great, and more importantly, that's what you guys deserve. But to get it there, we need a little more time.

To make Episode 3 as awesome as it can possibly be, we've decided to move our release date to early February. We'll announce the exact date soon when we release our trailer for Episode 3, which I think is easily our most exciting and tantalizing trailer yet!

Episode 3 is a massive beast and it's been an interesting and very educational experience working on it. To give you an idea of the scope, Episode 3 is more than twice the size of Episode 2. We hired 20 new animators to crank out Episode 3 and work on the 1500 hours of animations that were needed to make this episode much bigger and much more exciting; Episode 2 only had around 350 hours of new animation and 5 new animators! To get this amount of animation done in the time we did them is definitely a new milestone for us and I'm really proud of the work that our team, old members and new, have put into this Episode. We are now down to about 100 hours of animations as we polish the work and make the animations as good as possible!

All together, this means you can expect a much longer episode, packed with more intricate and difficult puzzles, a centerpiece action sequence, more beautiful cutscenes, another Isle to explore with new scenes and characters, and much more! "My Only Love Sprung from My Only Hate" definitely holds a special place in my heart as probably my favorite episode of the series (yet!).

In an effort to avoid having any other pushbacks, by the time Episode 3 is released, our team will already be hard at work on Episodes 4 and 5. Some interesting things have been going on with the later episodes. Since we launched the series and have been getting feedback from the fans, we've rethought the game's grand finale and have made some changes to the ending. This means what was once Episodes 4 and 5 have been combined into the new Episode 4, and we're working hard to build almost the new Episode 5 almost from scratch. This new final Episode will bring the game to a much stronger conclusion, and it gives us the chance to incorporate pieces of the larger game we'd always hoped to make. And even more exciting? In Episode 5, we're adding a second playable character—but you'll have to wait until then to find out who it is!

And finally, to leave you with some good news, we have new screenshots of Episode 3, and we now have the free PDF version of the 2011 TSL Calendar available for download in the Fan Club, featuring some great artwork both by our team members and the fans! Some months even offer sneak peeks at places yet to come, so I hope you enjoy it, and even though you'll have to wait a little bit longer for the game—I promise it will be worth the wait!

[drunkenmonkey]

The screenshots look amazing, can't wait to play this. Do what needs to be done to produce the best game possible, we'll be eagerly waiting. Great news about the new episode 5, it's good to know the story isn't set in stone and changes can be made at this point.

[KatieHal]

Thanks monkey! Haha, well, we'd prefer to avoid a total overhaul, but I think the new Episode 5 will be stronger than it would've been before. Fan feedback always helps!

[Big C from Cauney island]

Look, take as much time as you need.  Much better to release a complete polished episode.  These screens look amazing, I'm pumped for episode 3. End a new 5? Seriously, don't rush yourselves.  You go above and beyond.

[dark-daventry]

Thanks for understanding, everyone! We're working as hard as we can to get this episode out to you as fast as possible. Believe me, episode 3 is a huge undertaking, but the team has outdone themselves. I've watched the episode evolve with each new build, and it just gets better and better. I promise, once Episode 3 is out, you'll love it! I'd rather have a delayed game than a rushed game riddled with bugs and imperfections. You won't be disappointed with the final product. I'm sure of it.

[Damar]

Too bad it's being moved back, but it's not like it will be that much longer to wait.  I'm a big boy.  I can hold out.

It's good to hear that episode 3 will be even longer.  That's really been the one complaint I've had over all, is the episode length.  And that's not really so much an issue with the game as it's that I just am not a fan of episodic releases.  I'd rather have a substantial game that I play straight through.  So a longer episode is fantastic news for me.

And those screenshots, so awesome!  Love the last one.  It's got to be Hagatha!  I just know it is!  Wicked sweet!

[dark-daventry]

And those screenshots, so awesome!  Love the last one.  It's got to be Hagatha!  I just know it is!  Wicked sweet!

Or is it? You'll have to wait and find out!

[adventurer210]

Take your time with the game! Screenshots look awesome...I wonder how riding the horse will work. 

[waltzdancing]

And those screenshots, so awesome!  Love the last one.  It's got to be Hagatha!  I just know it is!  Wicked sweet!

Or is it? You'll have to wait and find out!

You took the words right out of my mouth. 

[MusicallyInspired]

Wow, ambitious. That's cool. Good luck.

[writerlove]

The screenshots look amazing! Don't worry team, take the time you need. We all will be eager to play once it is done with

A side note: The Graham and Valanice one is now my desktop picture

[Sslaxx]

Is that an arcade sequence I see there?

[dark-daventry]

Is that an arcade sequence I see there?

I don't know. Is it?

[KatieHal]

I dunno, but I bet Graham would do well to get away from that scarr dark thing. 

[dark-daventry]

I dunno, but I bet Graham would do well to get away from that scarr dark thing. 

"Ohh graham, watch out! It's a POIsonous dark thing!" I'm sorry, but you walked right into that, Katie! I had to.

[Sslaxx]

I dunno, but I bet Graham would do well to get away from that scarr dark thing. 

"Ohh graham, watch out! It's a POIsonous dark thing!" I'm sorry, but you walked right into that, Katie! I had to.

The scary dark thing... IS Cedric!

[Cez]

It's Graham riding a horse!!! Because he's effing awesome!!

[StormSpirit86]

I would have liked to play the game next weekend but anyway, if the product is going to be better then there's no need to complain or worry. 

Great to know that you will be putting more stuff into the game Is the new Ep5 getting stuff from the rejected TSL stuff or am I going to be told to suffer?

[dark-daventry]

I dunno, but I bet Graham would do well to get away from that scarr dark thing.  

"Ohh graham, watch out! It's a POIsonous dark thing!" I'm sorry, but you walked right into that, Katie! I had to.

The scary dark thing... IS Cedric!

Now that you mention it...

It's Graham riding a horse!!! Because he's effing awesome!!

That he is! I don't think I've ever seen graham ride a horse in any of the KQ games, so this is definitely nice to see!

I would have liked to play the game next weekend but anyway, if the product is going to be better then there's no need to complain or worry. 

Great to know that you will be putting more stuff into the game Is the new Ep5 getting stuff from the rejected TSL stuff or am I going to be told to suffer?

Actually, Cez would have to answer that question. I don't actually know the answer You may still get as your response, but he's the one to ask.

[Cez]

Not rejected, more like cut when re-scoped.

After how successful the Episode 3 endeavor has been (I can't insist enough how this game is a beast), we realized that we can do more in less time, so, we decided to save material that was cut, and then make for a more epic ending.

the great thing is that Episode 5 will actually be our first product done with the new Phoenix Online reestructure, and it will be a great way for us to measure how long will it take us to do a game, how big can we go, how much animation work can we put it in and what will be our timelines at the end. This is information that will be very valuable for us to manage the scope of our games as we dive deep into the production of C9 and other commercial projects.