Hey everyone. I'll cut to the chase. I'm pausing development on The World Is Drowning to focus on other projects.

Why it's being paused

It's been a year since I announced the game and I haven't been able to get any progress since then. The main reason is that I lost my vision for the game. Initially, I wanted to make a cool multiplayer dungeon crawler that fixes some of the issues I played in other similar dungeon crawlers. I knew this was a big project but I started developing a prototype and iterating its design. I came to the conclusion that I alone was not enough to make this game happen, so I removed the multiplayer component to make this more manageable for a solo dev/small team. Removing multiplayer was the right decision to reduce the development scope, but it was my first mistake that led me to lose sight of what I wanted to make. I kept working on the prototype, redesigning it to be fun as a single-player game. I had a lot of cool ideas, but I started hating the combat system. It was too similar to the combat system in games like Dark & Darker and Dungeonbourne, and that combat system is one of the things I wanted to improve upon. I wanted it to be a game about finding ways to climb up so you won't drown, so I started wondering if having combat would only make the game lose focus I considered removing combat entirely, and that's when I realized I no longer knew what game I wanted to make. Without a clear vision, I can't make a good game. And if I can't make a game that players will LOVE then why make it at all? I wasn't sure if I wanted to stop working on the project, so I took a long time before deciding to announce it. I had hoped that if I postponed the announcement I would eventually find motivation to work on it again.

What now?

For now, I'm experimenting with other unannounced projects. I have a bunch of other ideas, many of which get dropped early, but that's the nature of prototyping. Eventually, I hope to find an idea I like enough and stick to it. It's also possible I'll return to working on The World Is Drowning in the future, which is why I'm PAUSING development instead of canceling entirely. I know many of you want an Outcore sequel. I don't know if my next project will be one, but do know that some of the ideas I have are related to Outcore. Regardless, I hope whatever I announce next will be something many of you will be able to enjoy.