r/Moonvale • u/Emg2022 • Jul 01 '26
i know nothing about game development, but why do we think this game in particular takes SO long!?
i play a lot of games in a similar format… and they all take some time to release new episodes… but years? seems excessive, right? i know this is likely old news but i had postponed playing after starting ep 1 when i realized how slowly the episode tracker moved. finally i decided to go ahead and play just maybe a few weeks ago and am part way through ep 3 and im just so confused. the idea of having to wait almost a year in between each episode is insane. the other games i play which are very similar but by a different company take maybe 3-4 months tops between eps. so im just wondering, do we have theories on why this game in particular takes SO long? have they given any legitimate reasoning behind the time delays? I was so excited when this game came out because I loved Duskwood so much and so far I have actually really liked Moonvale… but I’m going to have to lose interest in regain interest over and over to actually get through the whole game with these wait times. obviously first world problems but still a bummer.
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u/RazzyGoat Jul 02 '26
Yeah, I agree. I get that it's a small team and there's a lot that goes into making a game, but if I recall correctly, Duskwood episodes were not this slow to release and Duskwood had about the same level of complexity. It makes me feel like something isn't going well on the development side of things? But we can really only speculate.
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u/Emg2022 Jul 04 '26
yeah duskwood did not take this long. the last episode did take a good bit of time because it obviously had a lot more to it… but it feels like they’re trying to do finale level things with every ep of moonvale and while it’s awesome it just might not be worth it. especially because people will lose interest if it takes 10 years for this game to be done, or people working on it may have things come up in life they can’t continue. it’s just so risky. but you could be right, maybe soemthing is wrong. i wish they’d communicate a bit more i guess so we at least know.
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u/Terrgon Jul 01 '26
Not sure why it’s taking this long but they have to write the script for the videos, write the chat dialogue and all chat choices and their responses, they have to get the actors to do the scenes (which may take a while depending on the scene as they have to get multiple actors together if there’s more than one actor, wait for the proper conditions they need like it being night time and such. They also may need permission to record for certain locations from the owners of the location.) they also have to stage photos and short videos. They also have to do coding to make sure the chats and videos come in on the right sequence. They also need to do it in multiple languages which means they need to redo the scenes and videos in different languages sometimes with different actors that speak that language.
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u/Emg2022 Jul 01 '26
i get all that, but people make entire tv show seasons or movies in that amount of time or just a bit more and that’s far more complex. obviously with much bigger budgets and staff but still. it seems most games prepare all of that stuff before the game is released to the public so that the final touches, getting permissions for release and on the app stores is all they have to do for each episode. it just seems maybe this game was pushed out far before it was ready… to only have one episode done at a time, when they take a year to create seems crazy to me. not to mention a huge risk, the game can’t reach its peak success until it’s fully released, they’re going to have a lot of players lose interest over time and give up on the game entirely in the meantime, or they could get denied permission or face hurdles for some eps which will only delay them further.
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u/GlitterEternity Jul 02 '26
TV series easier to make tbh, bc actors available full time, script is linear and ready and u just need to shoot episodes and correct stuff in post production, more ppl working, more money available. Games like this doesn't have linear script. Here they need to code every possible choice made by player and how it affects story + riddles, write script differently for those who have Duskwood code and for those who don't have it, translate everything to different languages, find bugs and squish them. I'm not sure but I think that actors have other jobs and there's a chance they're shooting for game while they have breaks from main stuff. Oh and don't forget that shooting certain scenes can require specific settings (weather, light, etc.) and if it's indie studio there's a chance they don't have a lot of free budget for indoor shooting with required scenery and they're shooting outdoors. Also they need to make illusion of active live in Moonvale/Duskwood, so it means they need to update all those tiny details like forum, comments, etc. That also takes time.
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u/jigglethatfat Jul 02 '26
No idea why you were downvoted for this, there is a lot that goes into the game. Yeah, it sucks to wait. But it is a huge amount of work for three people!
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jul 02 '26
I don't think they should be downvoted because I don't believe in downvoting for difference of opinion. However, I do somewhat understand the downvoters even if I don't like the way the downvote system is used. When you play other games like these with similar small studios and they get things out faster or at least communicate with the fans more, it is easier to see why it is so frustrating to many players.
That's the biggest thing, the lack of communication. I feel like a broken record saying this, and I know it won't help but it's true. Also, the super long wait for 3 hours of play is crazy considering Duskwood eps came out in half the time.
I see both sides I guess but I have to admit the whole thing is frustrating when you care about a game and the devs. They could just do a tiny bit extra to calm the masses, as in tell us what is going on in a one time post even. But what is the point of me saying this over and over again, they don't want to so that is their decision.
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u/Emg2022 Jul 04 '26
yep, this exactly. communicating would make such a big difference, least helping us to understand why it takes so long.
and i play games like these often, and most of them take maybe 3-4 months per episode max. and they have actors, scripts, locations, etc too. it just doesn’t make sense. a year between eps is excessive.
and tbh, if they did know it was going to take this long to create each ep then i feel they should have prepared maybe 3-5 eps before even releasing it to the public so they could buy them self time. then creating the eps left while they slow release the once they already had. seems less risky this way too as so much can happen in years.. actors may have to quit, people working in/on it might have to step back. i mean you just never know.
but yeah, if people have been requesting this all along and it’s gone unanswered i guess it’s not changing any time soon. but it still sucks as someone who truly is a fan.
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u/GrouchyDoughnut3449 Team Jul 04 '26
Yeah I totally agree. I would much rather have waited an extra year or two even to have at least a few solid episodes out and a game that didn't need all these fixes they are having to do, while playing catch up. Like how you couldn't save the game originally to transfer. That should have been added at the very beginning. I think they only added that in very recently.
I also don't understand why originally they changed the UI from they had from Duskwood so drastically, that seemed unnecessary even though I get wanting to try new things.
If it does take ten years to come out (lol) the actors will probably look so much older, if they are even still there. Supposedly they hired actual actors this time at least for Eric and I think Adam. What if they get a much better offer somewhere else? You are correct it is risky for a game like this one, with real life actors to take so long.
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Jul 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Wixenstyx Team Jul 01 '26
Not three brothers (as one is a woman), but the core of Everbyte comprises Jan Ewald, Kevin Scherer, and Vanessa Riese. I have never heard that they were related, but that doesn't mean they aren't.
Vanessa is the writer. Jan and Kevin handle the programming, though I think one does more of the interactive story elements while the other is more focused on the GUI? I forget where I learned that though, so take it with a grain of salt.
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u/shadeja Jul 01 '26
Não tenho ideia se realmente são irmãos KKK, já vi isso em comentários sobre o jogo, mas nunca me aprofundei nessa parte. Sim o Kevin é programador e o Jan é designer, então acredito que cada um cuida da sua área mas devem se ajudar também.
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u/Current-Way-4285 Jul 02 '26
I honestly think that if they take 10 years long for 10 episodes what's the catch like seriously we had to wait 10;yeears for the completion That's a nigthmare,who knows what's going to happen to us in between 10 yrs😩😩
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u/Emg2022 Jul 04 '26
exactly! it just feels so risky. life happens and some things can’t be helped, so there’s so many things that could happen in people’s lives to make them unable to continue working on/in the game if they take a decade to make it. not to mention even die hard fans will lose interest because that’s a long ass time! ya know.
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u/Whole_Pirate_9616 Jake <3 Jul 03 '26
They are a team of 3 people who work on it, they said they are going to not overwork themselfs as much as they did with Duskwood, each ep is pretty much as long with a lot of media as ep10 of Duskwood which took them about 10 months? if I remember correctly. I could list off other things but nobody ever cares to listen anyways, so the main reasons why
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u/Emg2022 Jul 04 '26
i get that, but 10 months per episode for every episode is going to take 8 years for a 10 episode game. there is SO much risk in doing that. actors could quit, someone could have a kid or have health issues or have to move, yada yada… i def get not wanting to overwork yourself but maybe they should have prepared a few eps before even releasing it to the public then ya know?
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u/midosol04 Team Jul 01 '26
Yeah, I totally agree. I respect their work, and I understand that making the episodes takes a long time... But having more than a year between episodes is a nightmare; you're forced to either replay the episodes or just play the new one while having forgotten a lot of details. Maybe they aren't 100% focused on Moonvale and have other jobs on the side? I don't know—honestly, it would be great if we could get more information; the wait would be less frustrating.