AVWW 1.0 Now To Launch On April 23rd

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/04/avww-10-now-to-launch-on-april-23rd.html

Just a couple of weeks ago, we announced that we'd be launch on April 16th on Steam, and that we were lowering the price of the game.  All of that is still true, except that we've shifted the release date back a week to the 23rd instead of the 16th.

Why the shift?  Well, to be perfectly frank: PAX East.  We're super excited about finally having a booth at one of the PAXes (I've been a Penny Arcade reader since a few months after they started, actually), but the simple fact of the matter is that this is on a whole other scale than Minecon.

Our focus over the last few months has been on getting the game into the state it needs to be for both 1.0 and PAX East, and in getting everything all lined up with the press.  That meant that Erik and I both found ourselves a bit flat-footed this past weekend in particular, and we've had to majorly scramble to get all the PAX stuff set up.

That's finally all resolved, but now PAX itself is about to actually start in a couple of days, and that's going to make 3/5 of our fulltime staff completely unavailable for the better part of a week.  There's still enough polish and last-minute content additions that we want to cram into AVWW 1.0 that an April 16th release just didn't make sense anymore.  That rash of memory leaks last week didn't help, although that wasn't the real cause by any stretch.

Anyway, we're still launching in April and we couldn't be more excited about the way the game is shaping up!  If you're coming to PAX East, make sure and stop by to say "hi!"

[Kregoth]

I know this was probably a pretty hard decision to choke down, so I just wanted to offer my support and let you know that I am in no way offended by your decision. Sometimes you just have to do what you know is right.

Although to be honest I think this is no big deal, you do something not many other indie games do. I am talking about how you handle your demo even if its only up to tier 2 and has no multiplayer, it still gives access to the most up to date version and a decent chunk of content. That's something you RARELY see and I wish more did it this way.

Also have fun at PAX east!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Starting to feel like Valve Time(tm) now...

 

Jk, have fun at Pax! 

King

[Mánagarmr]

Good luck and have fun at PAX!

[TechSY730]

Speaking of PAX, its happening right now, right?
Too bad I couldn't make it, I would of liked to see what other kinds of awesome stuff is there.

Hope you are having fun (or at least as much fun as standing around, advertising, and demoing your stuff can be).

[tigersfan]

Speaking of PAX, its happening right now, right?
Too bad I couldn't make it, I would of liked to see what other kinds of awesome stuff is there.

Hope you are having fun (or at least as much fun as standing around, advertising, and demoing your stuff can be).

Yeah, it's happening. If you check our Facebook page, you can see some pictures of our booth and stuff. I think they are on our twitter feed as well.

[x4000]

It was a blast; I'll try to update our blog with more pictures and some post-PAX thoughts.  Right now still playing catch-up after coming back!

[mrhanman]

How come the game isn't on Steam's "coming soon list", and why isn't there already a game page?  Do you have to be in a special club to get that treatment?

[x4000]

How come the game isn't on Steam's "coming soon list", and why isn't there already a game page?  Do you have to be in a special club to get that treatment?

A combination of reasons: we got them assets later than they probably would have liked; they were out of the office some; and there's a lot going on for them and us.  I'd hoped to be on the coming soon page, and they meant to put us there, but obviously it didn't work out.  These things happen!

In terms of the game page itself, if that existed we'd be on the coming soon page.  Right now that actually does exist, just not yet publicly for whatever reason; I imagine that will go live at the same time the game actually goes on sale tomorrow, at this point.  Which is, in the end, cool with me; we've not been hurting for press response at all despite this.

[Hyfrydle]

Today's the day I'm starting to get excited hope everyone enjoys the game as much as the beta team do. Guess we'll need to be prepared to help out all the new comers and show them the ropes.

[tigersfan]

Today's the day I'm starting to get excited hope everyone enjoys the game as much as the beta team do. Guess we'll need to be prepared to help out all the new comers and show them the ropes.

We'd appreciate all the help in that department we can ge. If things go like we hope, we're not going to be able to handle all the newcomers.

[Motoki]

Is there a way I can buy this game directly from you guys and still get a Steam key?

I like to buy directly from a developer when I can, but only if I can get a Steam key. I don't want DRM free and to make a Steam shortcut, I want a full blown, fully integrated key for the game that will register on Steam.

If getting that from buying it here directly is not possible then I will wait for Steam to post the game and get it there.

Thanks

PS - Please don't put the game in an indie bundle 5 minutes after it comes out and people have paid full (or discounted) price for it.

[keith.lamothe]

Is there a way I can buy this game directly from you guys and still get a Steam key?

Welcome to the forums

All of our other games have been set up so that the license key works to register the game in steam (with all the benefits of having bought it directly from steam), and we're working with Valve to get that set up here, but we cannot guarantee 100% that that will happen (and it typically doesn't happen right at launch).  I can't think of why it wouldn't happen this time, but if being able to register the key in steam is a 100% absolute requirement for you, don't buy the game directly from us until we can confirm that the process to allow that is complete.

[x4000]

Is there a way I can buy this game directly from you guys and still get a Steam key?

I like to buy directly from a developer when I can, but only if I can get a Steam key. I don't want DRM free and to make a Steam shortcut, I want a full blown, fully integrated key for the game that will register on Steam.

If getting that from buying it here directly is not possible then I will wait for Steam to post the game and get it there.

All of our other games' keys can be registered on Steam from our CD keys, and Valve plans to do the same with the AVWW keys and has the list from us.  However, I will say that all 5 other times we went through this process there was around a three-week delay from launch to when the external CD keys could start being activated on Steam.  I don't yet have a timeline from Valve on when that integration will be done, and in the past I've never had such a timeline until "okay, it's done."

PS - Please don't put the game in an indie bundle 5 minutes after it comes out and people have paid full (or discounted) price for it.

No plans for bundles with this one anytime soon unless something really drastic happened.

EDIT: Ah, ninja'd.

[Nodor]

I am concerned that Valve is so busy working on the Ricochet sequel that they will not have an opportunity to get this posted today.