开发者聊《暗影格斗3》的开发和宣传过程

开发者聊《暗影格斗3》的开发和宣传过程

原文作者：Dmitry Terekhin & Nikita Korzhavin 译者：Megan Shieh

Nekki游戏公司创始人Dmitry Terekhin和业务发展总监Nikita Korzhavin讲述了3D格斗手游《暗影格斗3（Shadow Fight 3）》的关键开发阶段和发行过程，该作近期刚在2018年的“移动游戏大奖（Mobile Games Awards）”上获得了提名。

为什么会做《暗影格斗3》？

《暗影格斗2》大获成功，全球下载量突破了2.5亿次。在这之后，我们就立即开始寻找下一个项目。当时我们有很多不同的想法，但最终还是决定再做一款《暗影格斗》系列游戏，因为这似乎是最好的选择。

《暗影格斗2》已经被许多玩家通关了，而这些玩家正在等待着故事的继续。而且通过市场观察我们意识到，手游的营销成本越来越高，要重新建立起一个品牌会非常困难。所以我们觉得与其从零开始创建一个品牌，不如再做一款续作，因为后者的风险会小很多。

认准市场新趋势，决定做3D

就这样，我们决定着手制作《暗影格斗3》。与此同时，我们还注意到了一个新的市场趋势：随着移动设备容量的增加，越来越多的新游戏都是以3D的形式呈现。

这是一件非常好的事情，因为从我们10多年前进入这个行业开始就一直梦想着有天能做款3D游戏，而且《暗影格斗2》和游戏中格斗剪影的动画效果之前都是用3D公式计算的。不过除此之外，我们在3D游戏制作方面并没有太多经验，因此这将会是一个极其艰巨的挑战。

当我们推出《暗影格斗2》的时候，市面上的格斗手游还不是很多，有的基本上都是一些旧主机游戏的移植版。但没过多久，市场上的竞争就变得越来越激烈，在这期间还出现了不少出色的格斗游戏，比如《真人快打X》、《漫威格斗：冠军之争》和《不义联盟2》。

这些游戏的图像质量都非常高，但大多都修改了传统格斗游戏的操作设置：玩家必须点击并滑动屏幕。但我们觉得这种操作方式限制了格斗动作的多样性，而且也有不是很有趣。对我们而言，“格斗”意味着玩家可以随自己的意愿自由战斗；所以我们保留了传统的摇杆和按键操作。

不过为了过渡到3D，我们不得不放弃前作所采用的剪影图像风格。我们很清楚，这种转变对《暗影格斗》系列的现有粉丝而言可能会有些突然，他们心中肯定也会产生疑问——没有了“暗影”的《暗影格斗》还是《暗影格斗》吗？

为了防止这种尴尬情况的发生，我们研发了一个非常重要的部分：当一个玩家使用“暗影能量”时，战斗背景会变得模糊，这时玩家的角色就会变成一个暗影。

开发团队大幅度扩充

一开始的时候，我们还不需要担心用户反馈的事情。当时的首要任务是学习3D动画方面的专业知识并培养一些这方面的人才。当初在做《暗影格斗2》的时候，几乎有一半的开发人员都还是处于边做边学的状态——当时我们开创了一个专门招募年轻人才的项目，所以许多团队成员的经验都还不是很足。

幸运的是这个项目做得非常成功，所以当我们开始做《暗影格斗3》的时候，许多成员都已经累积了经验，成为了专业的高技术研发人员。不过随着《暗影格斗3》项目的开始，他们也面临着职业生涯中的下一个挑战。

一开始在制作《暗影格斗3》的原型时，制作团队的人还不是很多。慢慢地，越来越多的人从《暗影格斗2》项目转向了这款续作的开发，而且在这期间我们还聘用了一些新的员工。如今《暗影格斗3》的团队成员已经超过了70人，这些人被分成了10个小团队；作为比较，当初《暗影格斗2》的项目团队只有30多个人。

决定采用Scrum

随着团队人数的增加，项目的管理方式也发生了变化。为了更好地分工合作，我们决定采用Scrum式的研发方法（游戏邦注：Scrum是一种迭代式增量软件开发过程）。

在此之前我们使用过类似的研发手法，但由于当时知识有限，所以没办法做得那么完善——我们保留了自己理解的部分，不懂的部分被放在了一旁或随着时间的推移被我们忘掉了。正是因为如此，所有才会有那么多人批评Scrum，但我认为他们只是不懂怎么用罢了。

这一次我们想要把它做好。首先，我们查阅了相关文献并找出了其中奥妙、了解了某些过程和程序的必要性。接着，我们派了几位管理层到身处慕尼黑的Scrum创始人之一Jeff Sutherland那里接受培训。

这次培训成为了整个研发过程的转折点：工作人员在去慕尼黑的路上还是半信半疑，但回来以后对这一研发方法深信不疑。后来我们又派了几位工作人员去接受培训，而且这次我们准备了满满一箩筐的问题好让Jeff为我们解答。

比如，其中有个关于美术和动画工作的问题，按照Scrum的方法，我们只需要给每个工种酌情安排一个截止日期就行了。对于有明确要求的技术任务而言，这种做法还是蛮有效的，但是对于像图像这样的任务而言，这种做法就不是很现实了，因为你不能预先知道要多少个步骤（花多长时间）才能把一个图像做到非常好看。

针对这个问题，Jeff建议我们把它分为几个阶段。首先创造出符合明确要求的第一张草图；然后就开始进入调整阶段；调整之后又会有新的要求，接着就一直这么循环做下去，直到图像达到我们所期望的水平为止。

为了使其更好地适应我们的特定需求，随着时间的推移，我们逐渐修改了Scrum的一些既定概念；因为Scrum本就允许甚至鼓励使用者灵活地应用这一概念并根据自身需求适当进行修改。例如，项目中的不同团队可以尝试不同的研发方法：

一个团队整个项目做下来，只有一个Scrum Master（敏捷专家）；而另一个团队则每周更换一位Scrum Master。如此一来，不同团队间就可以互相分享心得并找出效果最好的方案，然后将它们组合到一起成为一个完整的研发系统。

最大挑战：3D制作

在整个项目的研发过程中，最主要的挑战要属3D制作。我们需要创造出酷炫的角色、地点、武器、盔甲和特效，同时还得考虑到各种手机设备的性能，并想办法将这些内容适配到尽可能多的移动设备中。

第一次做的3D图像其实还有很大的进步空间，我们使出了浑身解数，但做出来的效果仍然有些不尽人意。当时的图像看起来太过卡通化了，不同势力（派别）间的区别也不是很大，因此很难一眼区分出角色所属的势力。于是我们请教了一些来自团队外部的专业人士，多亏了他们，我们对很多事情都有了更清晰的理解，图像内容的工作也因此变得更有条理。

我们定下了3个帮派的人物轮廓、个人色彩和视觉风格，这样一来人们一眼就能分辨出每个游戏人物所属的势力。规范了帮派色彩和人物定位以后，我们便开始提高图像质量。经过各种调整，游戏中的角色不再那么卡通化，而是越来越偏向写实风格。

最初我们向玩家承诺2016年秋季将会发布《暗影格斗3》，但是由于后期改动用了很多时间，所以我们不得不推迟到2017年才发布游戏。但做出来的游戏效果真的很不错，所以我们认为为期一年的等待是值得的。

开场动画

为了让玩家更好地理解三方势力间的关系以及游戏中的故事情节，我们决定打造一个电影短片作为背景介绍。在制作《暗影格斗2》和《Vector》的时候，我们在这方面就已经累积了一些经验，不过它们都是2D游戏；而在制作《暗影格斗3》的时候，我们需要掌握一些更为复杂的东西。

尽管3D电影短片的制作既耗时成本又高，但这是我们梦想能够做到的东西。我们一直都很渴望在这类项目中锻炼自己的技术，而《暗影格斗3》的制作就是实现这个梦想的绝佳机会，因此我们成立了一个规模较小的CG（计算机动画）部门，想出了一些情节并将它们组成了一个粗略的故事，部门中有几个专业人员在做全职工作，也有另外一些成员偶尔会帮帮忙，还有其他一些职员有时会通过远程操作的方式加入CG工作。

故事围绕着三方势力的代表：军团（Legion）、王朝（Dynasty）和密使（Heralds）。他们来到了一个破败的神庙，企图占有庙中神物——暗影球，在争夺的过程中导致暗影球破裂，暗影能量随之爆发。接着，这一片段暗示了三个可能发生的结局，不过最终结局还是取决于玩家们在游玩过程中所做的选择。

这段视频的制作并不轻松，我们花了大约2年的时间才把它给做了出来。不过最终我们对制作成果感到非常满意，而且也从中收获了许多乐趣和宝贵的经验。我们希望这个过场动画能够起到如虎添翼的作用并且可以成为后期营销和推广的素材。

制作这个视频的另外一个目的是希望能用到由我们内部研发的动画制作工具“Cascadeur”。《暗影格斗》和《Vector》系列的所有游戏都曾使用到这个工具，它帮助我们创造出了许多活灵活现的动画，所以我们希望在制作《暗影格斗3》的时候也能用到它。

游戏动画始终是我们的强势，也是游戏中的主要特色。有了Cascadeur，我们不使用动态捕捉就可以手动制作动画，而且也能创造出既流畅又自然的移动效果。当然，光有技术是不够的。更重要的是动画师们的眼光，为了能够制作出动人心弦的格斗画面，他们观看了上百部武打电影并细心钻研了其中的多个格斗场景。

发行前的准备工作：营销推广

当初发行《暗影格斗2》时，我们没有花钱做过广告，它的成功完全归功于口碑传播。我们认为《暗影格斗3》也具备同样的病毒性传播能力，尤其是考虑到这一品牌在多年来累积起了大量粉丝和人气。但是市面上的竞争越来越激烈，要想获得新用户的注意真的很难，所以我们想说得多做点功课来保证这次发行的成功。

2017年初的时候，我们开始为《暗影格斗3》准备各种营销活动。首先，我们在社交网络上进行了宣传。Facebook和VKontakte上的《暗影格斗》粉丝一共有600多万人，但我们基本上只用这些社交账号来宣布游戏内活动，还有就是回答粉丝们“什么时候能发布《暗影格斗3》”。

但从2017年初开始，我们会定期在这些社交网站上发布一些关于新游戏的信息，比如游戏人物、武器、盔甲、帮派以及各种格斗风格，偶尔也会组织竞赛。最近我们还开始尝试游戏直播，而这些游戏直播也激起了人们对这款新游戏的兴趣。

在与社区互动的部分，我们决定不另外雇用工作人员，而是先使用项目内部的员工，因为他们参与了项目的开发并对相关信息了如指掌。如此一来，社区粉丝也更能理解我们所要传达的消息。

除了社交网络方面的宣传以外，我们还采用了视频推广的方式。游戏视频和直播已经成为了如今最为强大的游戏推广渠道之一，这已经不是什么秘密了。首先，我们在Youtube上发布了一段短片，然后推出了完整版的CG和试玩视频，而正式预告片则留到最后发布。

CG引起了最高的关注度，目前该视频已经被观看了550万次，而这还只是其中一个频道的点击量而已。许多游戏博主和《暗影格斗》粉丝都纷纷评论并转发了这个视频。从中我们认识到视频传播可以带来惊人的关注度，于是我们开始与影响者合作。此前《暗影格斗2》的粉丝们在Youtube上创作了大量视频内容，游戏视频的点击率甚至超过了1000万次，但当时我们并没有把Youtube列为宣传渠道之一。

2017年夏天，测试发行《暗影格斗3》之前，我们联系了一些Youtube主播并邀请他们优先对游戏进行评测。尽管没有提供任何宣传费，但许多主播（有些甚至有100多万粉丝）都接受了我们的邀请。而这一切最终也都证明是值得的，《暗影格斗3》的首个评测视频点击率超过了250万，并且在很长一段时间里成为了这位主播发布过的最受欢迎视频。

整个开发团队都觉得与影响者合作能够帮助我们获得成功，于是我们决定进一步加大合作力度，组建了一个小团队专门负责Youtube方面的事宜，开发了一个发行前的交流推广计划，然后开始定期为这些主播们提供新内容让他们进行评价。

此外当我们在准备Gamescom和IgroMir展会时，负责与影响者交接的这个小团队成为了一个关键环节。这是我们首次参展，而两次活动我们都与媒体和Youtube主播进行了合作，这些合作伙伴们在许多出版物和视频中都提到了我们。

展会结束后，我们开始努力制作发行前需要用到的宣传内容，比如推广网站。在正式发行前，这个网站就相当于是一张名片，上面有一个宣传短片和《暗影格斗3》的正式发行日期。后来我们重新设计了这个网站并添加了许多《暗影格斗3》的相关内容：视频、截图、图像、动画GIF和可供媒体直接下载的宣传资料。

我们希望这些内容能够帮助游戏媒体、Youtube主播和博客作者们更好地理解《暗影格斗3》背后的故事，了解不同派系之间的差异以及它们存在的原因，而且影响者们还可以摘取网站上的官方内容来设计他们自己的博客和视频。此外我们还制作了一个发行预告片，阐述了《暗影格斗3》的主要特点，这样一来《暗影格斗2》的粉丝也可以大概了解到两部作品间的差异。

总结

整个研发项目花了两年多的时间，除了缺乏经验之外，还有一点是时间不够用。这个项目太大了，而且我们对质量的要求也一直在不断提升。先是延长了开发周期，将发布日期推迟了一年，后来整个测试发行的过程也不是很顺利。

2017年夏天的时候我们在加拿大测试发行了这款游戏，然后马上意识到有很多东西都得重新做。但我们还是一直在给玩家推送一些相关信息，不过那时我们已经意识到之前提供给玩家的确切发行日期已经是不可能实现了。

因此我们全力以赴，并宣布将在2017年11月16日正式发行游戏。考虑到我们需要重做的东西，其实这个发行日期还是非常紧迫的。举个例子，就在正式发行前的几个月，我们几乎更改了整个用户界面。

幸运的是，最终我们按时发行了游戏。游戏中还是存在一些需要调整的星星点点，但总体而言，我们完成了之前计划的所有事情。正式发行后，我们每天都在优化游戏内容，而且差不多每隔两个月都会发布新的剧情章节和模式。

尽管困难重重，但我们还是成功地交付了这款游戏，也圆了自己的一个梦。更重要的是，在这个过程中我们也已经成长为了一个强大的团队，成员的技术提升到了一个新的水平，内部质量标准也在无形间提升了很多。此外我们还期望能够进入主机平台，将《格斗暗影3》带到Playstation、Xbox和Switch上，并加入我们梦寐以求的多人对战模式，甚至尝试一些电竞方面的东西。

本文由游戏邦编译，转载请注明来源，或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Nekki founder Dmitry Terekhin and director of business development Nikita Korzhavin discuss the key development stages of Shadow Fight 3, a 3D fighting mobile title that went on to receive a nomination at the Mobile Games Awards 2018.

Before starting the project

After the great success of Shadow Fight 2, which racked up more than 250 million installs around the world, we immediately started thinking about a new project.

We had a number of different ideas, for example, to make a nice cyberpunk samurai slasher. But in the end it was clear that a continuation of SF was the best bet.

Players had fought through the second part and they were waiting for the story to be continued. In addition, observing the market we realised that with increasing promotion expenses, brand recognition is one of the most important issues.

Therefore, we felt it was much less risky to release a new sequel compared to creating a new brand from scratch.

Trends

So, we decided to make Shadow Fight 3, and then we saw another trend in the market: with the capacity of devices increasing, more and more games were released in 3D.

This was really good for us, because when we entered the industry more than 10 years ago we were already dreaming about creating 3D games. In addition, SF2 and the fighting silhouettes – all of their animation is already calculated in 3D.

However, apart from that, we did not have a lot of experience in creating 3D games, so we faced a very complex and unpredictable challenge.

When we launched Shadow Fight 2, there weren’t many mobile fighting games yet, and mostly just mobile versions of old console games.

But after that the competition increased dramatically and games such as Mortal Kombat X, Marvel: Contest of Champions and Injustice 2 appeared.

These games set a high standard in graphics, but they maintained the classical control scheme: the player must tap and slide around the screen, but we feel the choice of actions is limited and for us this type of control isn’t too interesting.

For us, fighting means the freedom to fight as you want; so we have kept the classic control of stick and buttons.

But one change was inevitable. For the transition to 3D we had to give up the black silhouettes for the fighters that we had previously used.

We were perfectly aware that this decision might shock the fans of the series and would lead to many questions. Without shadows the game would lose its style, which was its main feature.

To prevent this, we developed the most important part of the game: the so-called “shadow regime”. When a player accumulates energy, the location is obscured, and the character takes the shape of the shadow.

The team

At the beginning of our journey, fan feedback was still far away. We needed to develop expertise in 3D animation and train specialists. When we did Shadow Fight 2, almost half of the staff were trainees – back then we actively developed a program to attract young talent.

And we are happy that it was such a success. By the time we started working on SF3 we had a lot of cool professionals and skilled people. Now they faced the challenge of taking the next step in their careers.

Initially, only a few people worked on the prototype of Shadow Fight 3. Step by step, that number increased as people switched from SF2 and other projects to the game, as well as new staff hires.

Today, the SF3 game project employs more than 70 people, divided into approximately 10 teams. For comparison: Shadow Fight 2 was developed by 30 to 40 people.

A new faith in Scrum

With the growing number of people on the project, the approach of how to manage it also changed. To better cope, we decided to implement the Scrum methodology.

Before, we already thought that we were working by the Scrum method, but actually it was pseudo-Scrum, more of a cargo-cult.

We used those parts of the technique that we understood, and the rest was thrown away or simply died off with time. It’s clear why there is so much criticism about Scrum – they simply “do not know how to cook it”.

This time we wanted to do it right. First, we looked for the right literature and figured out the methodology, understanding why we need certain procedures and rituals. Then we sent several of our managers to Munich for the training with Jeff Sutherland, one of the creators of Scrum.

This was a turning point: The staff went to the training full of skepticism, but upon return began to convert others to a new faith. Later, we sent people to this training again and came prepared with questions for Jeff.

For example, one of the issues was the work on the Scrum process for artists and animators. Scrum advises the scheduling of tasks for each sprint and assessing their timing.

With technical tasks that have formal requirements, everything is clear. But in the case of an image, for example, this is impossible: you cannot predict in advance how many steps it will take to make it look beautiful.

For this particular question, Jeff advised us to break the problem into stages. The first sprint includes the task of creating the first draft of the image for formal requirements. After its completion, the correction phase begins. The requirements for corrections are defined and a new task is set up. This is repeated until the desired level of quality is achieved.

Over time, we modified the Scrum concept by adapting it to suit our specific needs. Scrum allows and even encourages customisation and flexibility.

For example, different teams tried different instruments and different approaches. Some were Scrum hardliners and some were softer. In one team there was a fixed Scrum master while in another the master changed every week.

As a result, the best solutions were exchanged among the teams and became part of the overall system.

Going 3D

During the development process, the main challenge for us was 3D. We needed to create cool characters, locations, weapons, armour and effects, and somehow squeeze it all into a phone while considering a wide range of supported devices. In the end, we think we made it happen.

The first iterations of 3D graphics left much to be desired. We did everything we could but the results were no good; the graphics looked cartoonish and the characters of different factions were difficult to distinguish.

We had to turn to external consultants for help. Thanks to them, we gained a much clearer understanding of a lot of things and as a result we then had a guideline, and with it the work on graphic content got much more organised.

We defined the silhouettes of the characters for each of the three factions, their individual colour scheme and visual style, so that you could clearly tell who was who at first glance.

In addition to standardising the characters and locations, work was underway to improve the graphics.

Gradually we managed to get away from cartoonishness and made the images more realistic. The first models of the characters and locations had to be redeveloped and the artists set up the “cemetery of discarded models” on one of the walls in our office.

We had promised the players to release SF3 in fall 2016, but because of all the changes we were making, we couldn’t meet the timing at all. We had to postpone the launch and eventually the game wasn’t released until one year later. But we believe that the result fully justifies the delay.

Cinematics

To introduce the plot and present the three factions, we decided to make an intro movie for the game. We already had some experience with creating cool intros for Shadow Fight 2 and Vector, but these were two-dimensional games. For SF3, something more sophisticated was needed.

It was of course clear that a full-fledged 3D cinematic piece is a very time-consuming and expensive project, but it was also our dream. We had long wanted to try our skills on such a project and now there was the opportunity. Therefore, we decided to create our own CG department.

We set up a small CG team, came up with a plot for the video and developed a rough storyboard. Several specialists were in the office on a full-time basis and additional staff also worked remotely or on a temporary basis.

The story is built around representatives of the game’s three factions: Legion, Dynasty and Heralds. They come to a destroyed temple to take possession of the artifact – the sphere in which the shadow essence is enclosed. They get into a fight, during which the sphere is broken and the shadow energy bursts out.

The clip then suggests three alternative endings. What exactly will happen depends on the actions of the player thoughout the game, however.

Work on the video was not easy and took us about two years. But in the end we are really happy with the result, we gained invaluable experience from it and had a lot of fun.

We hope that the movie will be a beautiful “peacock tail” for the game and will support the development of marketing and promotional materials.

Animation

One of the goals when creating the video was to use Cascadeur, our in-house developed animation tool.

We used this technology to create realistic animations for all the games in the Shadow Fight and Vector series, and so we wanted to use it for the SF3 animation as well.

Animations have always been our main feature and pride. With Cascadeur, we do animations manually without using motion capture and are still able to create smooth and physically correct movement.

Of course, technology alone is not everything. We think what is most important for animators is what we call the “inner eye”. After watching hundreds of films about martial arts and a lot of fighting scenes, the animator develops an intuition to tell what posture and movement will look spectacular.

Preparing for launch

In early 2017, it was time to think about marketing. When launching Shadow Fight 2 we did not invest in advertising at all, the game simply became popular by word of mouth.

We believed that SF3 had no less potential for going viral, especially as the strength of the brand has grown significantly over the years. However, the competition for the attention of users has multiplied as well so we started to think about what else we could do to make the launch a success.

First, we took up revitalisation of our social networks. The Shadow Fight groups on Facebook and VKontakte had more than six million subscribers, but our activities were basically limited to announcing in-game events and answering the question: “When will you release SF3?”.

From the beginning of 2017, we began to regularly post information about the new game’s characters, weapons, armour, factions and the different fighting styles, as well as organising contests.

Recently, we also started to conduct trial streams and in general they heated the audience’s interest in our new project.

For the interaction with the communities we decided not to hire special staff but to use our own people first, our game designers and script writers. That is, people who participate in the development of the project and who know it inside out. That way we ensured that we were talking to the community in a language they understand.

Millions of views

In addition to our social networking activities, we turned to video content. It’s no secret that reviews and streams are a trend today and one of the most powerful channels for promotion.

First, we posted a short teaser on YouTube, then the full cinematics, thegameplay video and finally the trailer of the game.

The cinematics attracted the most attention. At the time of writing it had been watched 5.5 million times already only on our channel. Bloggers and fans of the game picked up the video to share and review it.

We got the message that there is a great potential in video, so we started working with influencers. For Shadow Fight 2, a huge amount of video content was created on YouTube by fans. There are videos that got more than 10 million views, but we still did not use the platform.

Working with YouTube

At the beginning of the summer before the soft launch of the game we reached out to bloggers and offered them to be the first to review it.

Despite the fact that we did not offer any money, many – even bloggers with over a million followers – agreed to cover it. And it paid off, the first review got more than 2.5 million views and became the most popular video for this particular influencer in a long time.

We all agreed that the experiment of working with influencers was a success and decided to scale up this experience. We assembled a small team to work with YouTube, developed a plan for pre-release communication and began to provide bloggers with new content and builds for review regularly.

Participating in exhibitions

In addition, the team working with influencers became a key link when preparing for Gamescom and the Igromir expo. It was the first time we exhibited at the shows and for both events we worked with the press and YouTubers.

At Gamescom our booth was in the closed business area and we had a lot of successful meetings with partners and the press which got us mentioned in various publications and videos.

Website and press kit

After the exhibitions we began to work hard on the content we wanted to use immediately before the release, such as the promo site. Before the release, it served as a business card site with a clip and the release date of SF3.

We later redesigned it and added more information about the new game: video content, screenshots, images, animated gifs and a press kit – everything is available for download.

We hope that the content will help the press and bloggers better understand the story of Shadow Fight, understand the differences between the factions and why they exist. In addition, influencers can design their material and videos using our official content.

Secondly, we created a launch trailer explaining the main features of the third part. With the trailer, fans of the original game can get a quick overview of all the changes in SF3 compared to SF2.

Finishing line

The development of the project took more than two years. In addition to the lack of experience, the main difficulty for us was the lack of time. The project was too big and our quality requirements were constantly growing.

As a result, we first extended the development period and postponed the release date by one year, and then the soft launch turned out pretty rough.

We soft-launched in Canada in summer 2017 and immediately realised that a lot needed to be redone. But to continue and feed players with tiny bits without giving an exact date was already impossible.

Therefore, we went all in and announced that we would release the game on November 16th 2017, to make it exactly one year. It was very risky considering the changes we implemented. For example, in just a few months we almost completely changed the user interface.

Finally, the release date was met. The game still had a lot of minor faults and edges, but in general we managed to realise almost everything we had planned. After the release, the game has become more and more precise and polished every day. And there will be a new chapter of the plot and new game modes released around every two months.

To sum it up

And so, despite all the difficulties, we have successfully launched our most ambitious project. We invested a lot in it, and, I think it’s not exaggerated to say, were able to create our dream game.

What’s more, we have grown into a strong team, brought our technology to a new level and set a very high quality standard. Now, new perspectives open up in front of us that we have already been dreaming of for a long time: to enter the console market. We plan to bring SF3 to Playstation, Xbox and Switch, add the long-awaited multiplayer fight mode, and even slightly touch upon esports. （Source: pocketgamer.biz ）