Hi everyone, David here again! Believe it or not, it's almost been a year since I revealed We Harvest Shadows to the world at gamescom 2024. It honestly bums me out a bit because I had been working on this game for about three years prior to the announcement, and I'm realizing there's a lot left to do. I really wanted the game to be out by now, but unfortunately I need more time. I wanted to explain the situation, because ultimately it all comes back to one big decision I made a while back.

So, the demo came out, it was a hit, my dreams were coming true, and I was super grateful for that. But I really didn't know if the game would garner any attention before that moment. My other games and online school were barely making money, so we were withdrawing tens of thousands of dollars from my retirement account. It was a pretty stressful time... and luckily, the gamble paid off. My game almost has 300,000 wishlists now. THANK YOU! 🙏

Even with the insane hours and money I poured into the demo, there were still critical bugs and performance issues we could not figure out (the demo currently runs at a blazing 10 FPS on Steam Deck). It took three years to get an imperfect demo released, and I knew the full game would have to be better in every conceivable way. I desperately did not want to release a half-finished, bug-ridden game. There's a famous quote that describes the situation: "I didn't come this far to only come this far."

I was also super burnt out. This was by far the biggest, most ambitious game I could ever imagine making, and I just didn't have a lot of gas left in the tank. I needed help. Or I needed to compromise the full vision of the game, and hope players wouldn't be too disappointed. I really didn't like the idea of Early Access because the story and ending are so important to the whole game... I wanted it to feel like a complete experience on day one.

Kickstarter was considered, but I talked to other devs who ran successful campaigns and they convinced me it wasn't ideal. It would hurt my launch momentum due to Steam keys not helping the algorithm, it would take a lot of time to fulfill rewards (instead of working on the full game), and it still wouldn't be enough money to hire the right people. It made more sense to keep scraping by with my own retirement funds.

So anyway, it eventually boiled down to a big crossroads:

1. I use the rest of my retirement and finish the game as fast as possible. I would be happy with a "Mostly Positive" from player reviews on Steam in that case.
   
2. I go with my dream publisher, get a large budget, work with the best people I'd always wanted to work with, and make this the best version of itself possible... but I would need to accept that it would take much longer to finish.

As you can probably tell, I went with option 2! And I don't have any regrets! Having enough funding to hire talented people has made this so much more enjoyable for me. It means we can update the engine and rendering pipeline so that a simultaneous, optimized PC/console launch is possible. It means the game will be the most cinematic, gorgeous, memorable experience I always wanted it to be. Speaking of talented people, check out this sweet animation made by Bradley P.

So thank you for your patience! We are making progress. Here is the first screenshot of the game with a new environment, rendering pipeline, weather system, and much more. I'm so excited for the future, and to make this game the best it can be.

Sincerely,
David

Hi everyone, David here with a new update. There are so many cool things happening with We Harvest Shadows, but unfortunately I can't share anything yet. BUT just know that we're working hard and some amazing things are happening that will make this the best game I could have envisioned. I need more time though, but the wait will be worth it.

I wanted to talk about my goals for the horror and atmosphere in We Harvest Shadows. I always wanted this to be a story and character focused game, but the psychological horror elements are key to Garrett's journey. His inner-demons and greatest fears physically manifest on this farm (but why does that happen? You'll have to play and find out 😉)

I always wanted this game to be a totally different type of horror experience. A24 films have popularized a new subgenre called neo-horror (and I love those films), so I thought "why can't there be a neo-horror game?" I really think gamers want something new when it comes to horror, so I'm trying to avoid as many clichés as possible.

So first off, I play a lot of indie horror games, and I watch a lot of horror movies. I personally am tired of death cults, zombies, demons, etc. Not to crap on those games, but they don't really scare me much. Nowadays, I'm more interested in why the cursed video tape in The Ring is so terrifying, even without the typical gore or jump scares.

Do you know what truly scares me? Feeling totally alone in a forest, and suddenly seeing a normal face hide behind a tree. Disfigured creatures which look human but aren't really scare me. I think catching a glimpse of something you can't make quite make out in the darkness is the scariest thing of all.

Most of the great horror films like The Shining or Hereditary are very restrained or "slow burn". There's not really much horror in finally seeing the monster that's following you (that's actually the release), but it's in the build-up and the tension. That's also because the scariest thing to you is what your mind imagines when it fills in the blanks.

That doesn't mean you can't have any payoff or release in a horror game... that would be just boring. But I really want We Harvest Shadows to be an elevated, beautiful type of horror game which takes it time and marinates in the atmosphere. I want the monsters and entities to look like something you've never seen before. I want them to be narratively rich and to symbolize the deep trauma that Garrett's going through. You can probably guess that Silent Hill is a huge inspiration for me. It's those creature designs and industrial soundscapes which really sell the horror in those games. It's almost pure atmosphere!

Below is my mood board I'm using as inspiration. Some of the sculptures are actually beautiful but still unsettling. There's lots of nature-themed materials. I really love these examples:

From a gameplay perspective, we have an advanced dynamic horror system that takes into account lots of different factors. There will be dozens of unique events, and every playthrough will be different. Some entities are more dangerous than others, but even I can't know what exactly will happen to you when the sun sets and the forest darkens.

Now, this does mean that players who typically like sudden jump scares or tons of gore will probably be disappointed in this game, and I'm totally OK with that. I want this game to feel unique and that means taking a risk. I do however want this game to as scary as possible, but it might not be exactly what you're expecting... which can be pretty scary on its own!

If you loved the gameplay in the demo but didn't like the horror elements, the good news is that there will be an "endless mode" which allows you to customize those types of things since it's more of a sandbox mode than the story mode. I want to give players the choice!

I hope this all made sense, and I'm excited to keep working on the game and share more with you soon. Thanks for the support, and until then, watch your back the next time you find yourself in a dark forest.

Sincerely,
David