After a profitable Kickstarter, Hinterland Video games launched hardcore survival sport The Lengthy Darkish by way of Early Entry in 2014, hitting model 1.0 in 2017. It is continued receiving free updates since, each to its episodic story mode Wintermute and its survival mode, however as director Raphael van Lierop explains on this month’s developer diary, that is going to alter.
Whereas beforehand The Lengthy Darkish’s survival updates needed to be be restricted in scope attributable to each modes being related, the crew has been working for the reason that launch of episode 4 to decouple them. That work is now full, making extra vital additions to survival mode potential—although not free of charge.
“Final yr we ran a neighborhood ballot,” van Lierop writes, “asking how you desire to us to dedicate our focus for the way forward for The Lengthy Darkish. Amongst different bits of helpful suggestions, we found that almost 80% of you needed us to start producing paid enlargement content material for Survival Mode.”
The Lengthy Darkish’s first paid replace, which van Lierop describes as resembling a season go, can be out later this yr: “It will be some sort of ‘season go’-type strategy (precise title TBD), the place now we have a ~15-18 month marketing campaign of updates that unlock for anybody who has bought the go.” Over the course of that marketing campaign, consumers will obtain “a mix of content material and gameplay system updates, together with new areas, new challenges, new mechanics, and many others., in addition to basic enhancements and updates to core programs within the sport.”
Those that’d reasonably not purchase a season go can have entry to the updates after the marketing campaign ends, once they’ll be repackaged as three or 4 separate paid DLCs. Free updates will proceed as properly. “These updates will usually be smaller,” van Lierop explains, “extra modest enhancements in comparison with what you will note being added to the paid content material stream, which appears solely honest.”
On the identical time, van Lierop is stepping down from his function as venture lead on The Lengthy Darkish. Katie Sorrell, lead designer of the story episodes and designer of recent areas added from Nice Valley on, can be taking up. “My last hands-on contribution to The Lengthy Darkish is the script for Episode 5,” van Lierop writes, “the place the WINTERMUTE story is dropped at its conclusion.” He’ll nonetheless be inventive director, and can “all the time have a hand in reviewing and guiding the experiences we make, so this doesn’t suggest I will not nonetheless have a look at each little bit of The Lengthy Darkish that goes out the door to you.”
Anybody who owns The Lengthy Darkish will nonetheless obtain episode 5 free of charge at any time when it is completed, and the plan is for paid updates to start within the second half of 2022.
