AI War 2

ledshok · February 28, 2017, 9:45am

Other than the sluggish camera controls, primitive UI, and retina-searing neon glow to the units, I’m finding a lot to like.

KevinC · November 10, 2018, 1:56am

I hope Chris is alright. I saw this posted as a news update on Steam.

Why the Change in Schedule?

Last time I did a release, 17 days ago, I said this: “Expect more tomorrow, and each day this week. We’ve been maintaining a schedule of roughly 3-5 releases a week for a while now, and we don’t expect for that to change anytime soon.”

That… obviously had a sudden and unexpected stop. I posted about this a few days ago, in general terms, and unfortunately I can’t be more specific for privacy reasons. I want to assure you that I’m not going anywhere long-term, but my life has been absolutely turned upside-down unrelated to anything with Arcen. One way or another, my life is very different from now on, forever, compared to what it was 17 days ago.

I appreciate the words of comfort that folks have had, and those that have reached out in various ways, and overall the lack of speculation of what it is. I swear I’m not trying to be a tease about this. My natural instinct is to share and over-share what is going on with me, but there are times in life when that’s not possible or advisable.

I’ll be OK. And I plan on finishing the 1.0 of this game on schedule, and then to continue developing this game after that for a long time to come. Expansions that are paid, plus free post-launch updates, for maybe a half decade again, like what happened with the first game. But my schedule is going to be all over the place because of these recent developments, and I’m not going to be reliable on a day-to-day basis in terms of when I can do what. So expect larger releases a little bit further apart. A fair number of you have said that’s what you prefer, anyway, so I guess that’s good.

I’ll be honest: this has been the darkest, scariest time of my life. Meanwhile, things with Arcen and AI War have been going pretty relatively great, go figure. I may talk about what happened sometime in years to come, but not in any capacity sooner. At this point I have the specialists lined up who are able to help with this situation, and now it’s a matter of putting in the time and getting used to my new and sudden reality.

But please don’t let this put you off of picking up the game. I promise I’ll do right by all the fans and customers, as has always happened in the past. People freaking out that the game suddenly won’t get completed or something would only take my life from rock bottom to somewhere even lower. Please do trust me to finish what I’ve promised you, and I won’t let you down.

I apologize for being such a downer in this post, and I don’t expect to be discussing it much publicly in the future. But I’ve got roughly a 6 month period before I know at all what the shape of my future life is going to look like, so that uncertainty is going to be there chewing at me for at least that long. Despite that, I’ll do my best. I’ve been a bit slow climbing back on the horse so far, but I intend to get some proper work done this week and get a bit more momentum of my own going. Again huge thanks to Badger, Puffin, and Quinn for holding down the fort while I’ve been away. If there are other folks who want to volunteer to dig into things in that way as well, that sort of help is welcome, although I have nothing to offer in return.

jpinard · November 10, 2018, 1:58am

Crap. That sounds bad. Sounds like he just found out about a disease for himself or someone he loves who is close to him.

Mark_L · November 10, 2018, 2:29am

god, I hope it turns out better than it sounds. He needs to put his and his loved ones’ health first.

BrianRubin · November 10, 2018, 2:35am

Send him all the good vibes you have.

SlyFrog · November 10, 2018, 5:15pm

Feels like an unexpected divorce demand or something similar like a family member with issues; he could easily disclose a disease or something similar. No reason to bring that up, be secretive about it, but talk about disclosing it once it’s over.

I hope whatever it is works out for him, and I am also happy that he has a team in place that is helping to carry the ball. I just hope that they can do right by it.

Otagan · January 25, 2019, 11:41pm

Bingo. A video just went up explaining what has been going on.

KevinC · January 26, 2019, 12:19am

Thanks for posting the update! I’m so glad it’s not a terminal illness of some sort. I’ve been through a bombshell/complete surprise divorce beforehand, so I can understand what that can completely upend his life. Especially since he’s been married his entire adult life.

Hopefully he can move forward and get things back on track with his life now.

SlyFrog · January 26, 2019, 12:25am

Yeah. I was afraid of that. Having gone through it myself, I went a little nuts back when it happened in studying these sort of surprise marital break-ups. Read a ton of books on it, internet forums, etc. There are things that happen that you originally think must only be in your case, that when you look at others’ experiences you suddenly realize are part of a very recognizable pattern (literally down to the words that people say, how people react to it, etc.). I have my guesses as to some other things that may have happened, but I’ll keep that to myself.

I feel for the guy. He’s clearly still trying to process it - being blindsided by something like this is to this point the worst experience I have ever had.

AWS260 · January 26, 2019, 12:47am

I’ve been pronouncing Arcen wrong this whole time.

JD · January 26, 2019, 1:00am

Oh good, it’s not just me.

BrianRubin · January 26, 2019, 2:14am

Glad he made that video. He told me about it a while ago but I kept it quite, of course. Poor guy.

Scotten · January 26, 2019, 2:18am

This makes me want to finally buy the original AI War games to support him. Dang, you can tell how hard this hit him and how hard it was to make that video.

Kolbex · January 26, 2019, 10:59pm

I’d be interested in hearing more about this.

KevinC · October 15, 2019, 11:03pm

Wise fwom the gwave!

Release is scheduled for October 22nd. Arcen Games has been downsized to basically a one-man operation and the game has seen a redesign or two in its three years of early access so I have no idea what to expect.

SamS · October 15, 2019, 11:08pm

I’ve tried some of the latest build. I think Arcen nailed the brief of being “AI War but better”. Will it be the success the first one was? Chris is understandably very nervous about the release.

kerzain · October 15, 2019, 11:09pm

I don’t know much about Arcen games, but I always thought they were a 2-man operation anyway.

KevinC · October 15, 2019, 11:12pm

They had expanded to a handful for a while, then it was him and Keith, then Keith part time, and now it sounds like just him. I think, anyway, I didn’t document it or follow that closely. :)

robc04 · October 15, 2019, 11:57pm

You sound like the priest from The Princess Bride.😀

vinraith · October 16, 2019, 12:03am

(sigh), children.

Wait, he lost Keith entirely? That would be… bad. I’ve just installed this - not sure when I’ll get to it. I’m certainly in favor of the “back to basics” approach, though.