I don't even know where to begin. I barely slept this weekend due to being 24/7 wired on the dopamine rush of an early access launch that obliterated all of my expectations. Sure, we had a few bumps along the way supporting hundreds of users, but I worked through it and everyone was quite patient as I worked on putting out fires. By the way, keep in mind that this has all been accomplished with zero legitimate marketing effort. The only reason it shot off like a rocket was due to gamers finding exactly what they were craving in Nevergrind Online.

If you don't have time to read everything, here are the metrics throughout the first four days:

• Easily clearing 1,000 copies sold
  
• 118/118 positive reviews for a "Very Positive" 100% rating
  
• #3 Hot Release on https://steamdb.info/ and still trending UPWARD

Without a doubt, my favorite part is the 118/118 positive reviews! I want every player to feel that every penny was money well spent! I know that, for many, finances are tough right now. I have been there, so I understand how difficult that can be. That's why I have complete respect for every dollar that is spent on Nevergrind Online. That's why I will never put microtransactions in the game. That's why I pack so much content, features, and replayability into an online game that costs a mere $20. I will never sell out to the outrageous monetization practices in the gaming industry that are destroying my childhood hobby. Once you buy Nevergrind Online, it is yours to play forever. I want my customers to think that my game is underpriced.

My passion is to design a multiplayer world where players socialize, make friends, organize, and overcome challenges in the game. I love watching players theorycraft in Discord and seeing "lfm", "lfg" in game chat. The game world feels so vibrant and alive with players that are excited to tackle the next challenge. It reminds me of the early days as a player on Fennin Ro when EverQuest was released in 1999. And that's exactly the kind of excitement that I wanted to generate with Nevergrind Online!

I also want to say THANK YOU for all of the incredible support. I believe in Nevergrind Online. I know how hard myself, the artists, and the testers have worked on polishing it to its current state. I know all of the nitty gritty details that required strenuous attention to detail to get certain key features engineered to perfection. However, even I did not expect the overwhelming support and positive responses that the game has enjoyed on Steam in its first four days. Thank you for taking time to write those reviews, to stream the game on Twitch, to join the Steam group, and to share it with your friends. Remember, almost all of Nevergrind Online's success has been via Steam Store presence and by word of mouth. I haven't paid a dime for advertising or promotion.

Also, I would like to say thank you for your patience. I easily could have earned a negative review with a few of the bugs that players endured throughout the first four days, but players have been very forgiving and understanding about the complex nature of running Nevergrind Online, the world's first multiplayer blobber with real-time combat (I may need Snopes to debunk me on this).

Last, but not least, yes, a road map is coming! It is all in my head, but I will create a dedicated steam news release with all of the planned definite (and potential) changes that I would like to have in the game upon full release! That way players can bookmark it and I can update it at intervals whilst players check on the progress and hold me accountable 😉

If you are enjoying the game in its current form, then you're going to love what I have in store!

A mere day before launching Nevergrind Online on Steam, I was planning to do a regular release. I figured that the game was in pretty good shape. The core systems were in place. And I knew that the multiplayer netcode was working great. Deep inside the command center at Neverworks Games, we were in a heated discussion about whether it should be an Early Access release or not. Initially, I was not convinced, but Trench laid out the case for Early Access, and I began to see the strategic value therein.

Just hours before its planned release, I was dealing with some last-minute bugs, which started to stress me out a little bit. And then I started thinking about the long-term plans that I already have for the game. I want to add talent trees, make the level cap 99, add nightmare and hell difficulties, exceptional and elite item tiers, and crafting systems. So why not make that the ultimate 1.0 release—the completed game!? And as much as I would like to pretend that this game is bug-free, that is only a meme. This game is far too complicated to be bug-free! It's online multiplayer with real-time combat! Dozens of complex systems all integrated together! Surely there are bugs waiting to be found, but I would like its full release to be as bug free as possible.

That's the beauty of Early Access! It helps small developers like Neverworks Games roll out a complex game along with the inherent understanding that we are still building toward Valhalla. One of my commanding general suggested that this game probably could have been in Early Access six months ago, and maybe he was right.

So far it seems to have been the right decision. We attempted to release on 6/9 @ 4:20, as the meme Gods demanded, but when I tried to start the release, I discovered that Steamworks was down! 😒 I couldn't believe it! Surely this was a sign that Activision and/or Amazon were attempting to thwart my claims to RPG market share. This unseemly outage delayed the release by 25 minutes. We resigned ourselves to release at approximately 4:45 p.m. EST.

Despite the chaotic conditions adding stress to an already stressful situation, we managed to have a successful first day! Back in the Neverworks command center, I boldly prognosticated that we would sell 150 copies. I tried to stay conservative with my estimate. I know that Steam is full of amazing games and our marketing budget is tight. As of right now, we have sold many more than that in the first nine hours! I saw as many as 66 concurrent players on at once, an all-time record for any game that we've ever produced! And we achieved one of our key goals to have at least 10 steam reviews as quickly as possible. At this time, we have 15 reviews and they're all positive! We are incredibly grateful for that!

That said, we are aware of some freezing issues and we are looking to resolve it as quickly as possible! See in you Vandamor!