Early Access has just begun! The time has come to explore the procedural worlds of Soulash 2!
The road so far
It's been such a wild ride to get to this point, with so many difficulties and challenges related to getting procedural generation to produce something workable and figuring out a development pace that would be quick enough and not make me burn out after going full-time indie, but seeing the game as it is right now and where it is still just locked in my head, I'm so glad I decided to take this journey.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the Soulash fans who made it possible, those who played the first game and shared their enthusiasm with me, those who followed Soulash 2 devlogs for almost 2 years and shared their excitement about the new direction, all the Patrons who were patiently waiting for the sequel, players who offered so much of their time to help catch bugs in the demo, and all of the fans who stayed on our Discord even when it wasn't very active at times. The game would not exist without your support. I appreciate all of you and hope to continue building exceptional gaming experiences for you all. Thank you so much!
Since the first Soulash release, I've spent 4,500 hours completely rebuilding the "murder hobo simulator", as many liked to call the first Soulash game, into this new direction of a sandbox RPG roguelike that many players, including me, craved. I've introduced procedural worlds and regions, history simulation, and interactable NPCs, completely redesigned the progression system to be skill-based and detached from killing, added a new building system, and redesigned and deepened the crafting system, among many other things. It's a significant shift towards a sandbox experience where we can adventure and be a part of a changing world rather than the more typical roguelike formula of killing everything that moves, although that direction is still available.
After all that work, this is just the beginning of what I have envisioned - the fundaments underneath a unique dark fantasy game about worlds on the brink of destruction. A tale of our ascension to become a new god of this world if we so desire. Soulash 2 takes place after the end of Soulash 1, and the story continuation will be introduced once the game matures to a 1.0 version in about a year.
Where do we go from here?
The start of Early Access marks a second significant milestone for the game's development, with the first one being the release of the demo back in October, which fortunately found its way to many old and new fans alike. Since then, I've kept the pace of a weekly update, and I plan to continue to do that every Thursday with occasional exceptions to take a breather from the grind. Aside from weekly updates, I plan to hit a major milestone update every 3 months, as listed in order in the EA announcement.
During December, I will prioritize polishing and fixing what we already have, according to your feedback. I'll also flesh out modding tools, which I plan to release this year alongside Steam Workshop support. The modding tools require some GUI work, and we plan to do video tutorials to explain step by step how to introduce new things like races, civilizations, procedural portraits, items, resources, abilities, and animations and hope to invite many more players to give it a try because it's so easy and fun that my six years old son is having a blast making new maps.
While I have a strong vision for what I want to build, and it will revolve around those 4 major milestones that I mentioned before - adventuring parties, settlement management, conquest, and story, I wanted to start with Early Access to provide you an opportunity to tell me what you would like to see in the game. Because of the problematic development history of the first game, we only had a full release and ASCII alpha on Itch alone before it. Many players who discovered the game on release were very vocal about how they like participating in games that continue to develop in public so they can affect their shape and have a reason to return to them as they grow, so this Early Access is such an opportunity.
As things unfold in December and I gather your feedback and suggestions, I will provide a more detailed 2024 roadmap in January. I would also like to invite you all to our Discord Server, where we have a great place to leave your suggestions and discuss them with over a thousand other fans.
For those who like soundtracks, the OST will come to Steam with a bit of a delay, as I didn't manage to set it up on time, but it will come.
Thank you for taking an interest in my game, and I wish you all great adventures and many memorable encounters,
