It's been a long time coming, but we're finally ready to announce that on July 29th, Paint the Town Red will leave Early Access and transition to full release. [previewyoutube=Fi7NM_kVpsI;full][/previewyoutube] This doesn't mean the end of updates and new features, in fact it will likely mean we'll have more updates than before. This is because we're also releasing Paint the Town Red on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S on July 29th also, and the workload in both developing those versions of the game and self publishing them has been enormous over the past year. Now that they will be completed and published, we'll again be able to spend our time focused on new updates for the game. The key differences with the Steam version compared to the console versions is that the console versions are single player only and don't have Level Editor or Workshop/UGC support. These were outside the scope for console for performance, regulatory and technical reasons. On Steam with 1.0 we will now have a more stable ground on which to build upon and expand the game, particularly the Steam-only aspects like the Level Editor and multiplayer.

What to expect between now and launch

There are still some parts of the game that need to be brought up to the release state and the most obvious of these is the final music. Most notably for the Biker Bar, Disco and Main Menu. We'll have an update in a couple of weeks that adds the final music. Otherwise we've not been holding things back. That said the 1.0 update and any updates leading up to it will still have improvements, fixes and additions such as Steam Trading Cards, some new Scenario modifiers and Level Editor improvements like the ability to create custom text props (no more letters made out of pool balls) and a range of fence and wall props.

What to expect after launch

1.0 is far from the end of development on Paint the Town Red. We've already been working on improvements to core aspects of the game such as recreating the doors to be more stable and allow for better interactions with attacks and enemies as well as a lot of changes and improvements based on hundreds of great suggestions we've collated. Our main focus for the future will be adding new features to the Level Editor, but beyond that we're looking at additional mod support and further expanding the possibilities of Workshop levels. One of the features we'll be adding is support for after launch is Campaigns. This will allow exits in a level to lead to other levels so you can create a series of connected levels to form a linear or branching story. Another feature we plan on adding is support for NPCs to use guns and other ranged weapons in Workshop levels to expand the range of gameplay possible. We're also continuing to work on new props and weapons for use with the Level Editor that will more easily allow for levels of different themes to be created. One of our goals with the new Level Editor and mod features is to have enough options for players to create new game experiences that could be nothing like the core PTTR levels, or to be able to recreate their favourite games PTTR-style. Besides those types of additions, we'll have the time now to explore features that were outside of scope, but nice to have if possible. During main development we couldn't dedicate the time to these non-core tasks. Some of the features we'll be looking into adding after launch if viable are:

• Adding VR support to the game with full hand controls and object interaction
• Importing custom 3D models for use in the Level Editor for props and possible weapons
• Importing custom voxel objects to replace body parts on enemies to change existing enemies into new ones

These aren't necessarily going to be viable either due to technical limitations or Workshop limitations, but we have the time now to try. We'll have more to say on July 29th, but I just wanted to say that the opportunity Steam has provided with Early Access has been huge for Paint the Town Red. The game is orders of magnitude bigger than it was ever originally planned to be because of the enthusiasm and support of the community.