A Jam About Time is now well and truly over, and all of us part of the team wish to congratulate the winners! While we didn't get to play all the (100+) entries, we tried to get through as many as possible. As always, it's wonderful to see so much creativity and imagination on display in these game jams. 

Like a lot of developers participating in these events, we learned a little something about scope creep. The project was always ambitious - especially for a two-week jam - and it's all too easy to lose sight of how difficult something is to implement when you're excited about a new idea and want to throw all these elements in there to compliment mechanics and design. Time manipulation seems so simple on paper before you have to factor in time stamps, level streaming, AI placement, and how to communicate complex ideas to players. Unfortunately, we had to scrap a lot of assets to make it on time, but that also means we have a good foundation to start from.

After taking a short break to collect and discuss feedback, each member of the team has now returned to their respective work stations to bring The Bargain from demo build to a full release more in line with our original vision. Thanks to everyone who left a comment on our game (and friends forced to playtest), especially constructive criticism that will help us build a better experience. For our next release, expect to see a complete narrative, larger locations, tighter gameplay, and more great music. We're still aiming for a short game (so as not to fall victim to the creep again), but we'd rather have it be brief and polished rather than trudge past its ideal runtime. 

A sneak peek at the courtyard and alley serving as the game's starting point in the final release.

It's great to be able to breathe a bit easier now that we're not constrained by such a tight deadline, but that doesn't mean we're about to slow down the progress any time soon. We've set 31st of August as the release date, with some small wiggle room for bug fixes following release, if needed. The point is to avoid getting lax so that we can walk away with a product all of us can be proud of at the end. 

We thank you for your continued interest in The Bargain, and we'll check back in soon with more updates as the project takes form!