So… our next blog post was supposed to be about how we've submitted Word Fighter to the App Store, along with updates on our future plans with the game post-launch. Instead, we have a letter from our co-founder Kris.

It sucks for everyone. No other way to say it.

I do appreciate Kris's transparency and sincerity on the matter. There is nothing I want more than for Word Fighter to be out there for people to enjoy. It breaks my heart that it's not, and I wish there was something I could do to change that. But the code starts and ends with Kris. Word Fighter is his baby, as it is mine. So I'm standing by his side until our baby is ready for the world to see.

I understand if you decide not to follow the game anymore with all of these delays. I'd probably do the same if I was being teased like this for half a year. For that, I am sorry. But we must move on and focus on what's important.

From this point forward, no more updates until the game is done and ready for App Store submission. We are indeed close, and we're going to "heads-down" mode to finish this first release. And to that regard, no more promises on new release dates either. They never did anyone any good, and we obviously weren't good in keeping them. Word Fighter will come out when it is finished.

See you on the other side, friends!

-Gian

Hey guys,

This is Kris, the dev for Word Fighter. I usually like to stay behind the scenes and let Gian shine in the spotlight as he does, but in light of recent events, I really felt like I needed to step up and personally let you guys in on what's been happening with the game. So as you know, we made a few promises to you and to ourselves to finally get this game released, but have failed to follow through on those promises. Probably worse is that we've not been keeping you guys in the loop. I'd like to shoulder much of the blame for this, especially for our no-show at GDC this past week. Just to give you a little background, Gian and I have a fairly exclusive share of responsibilities with respect to each other. We are the kings of our own lands you might say, and rely on keeping each other in the loop as to the state of our respective kingdoms. With that said, during the weeks leading up to GDC, we had been working REALLY hard and given the progress that we were making, I personally believed that we were going to be able to deliver a product. I communicated this to Gian, and he in turn communicated it you guys, which was basically the last time you heard from us.

As GDC crept up, and the closer we got to a finished product, the more and more unanticipated issues kept popping up to hinder progress. If you've ever experienced diarrhea while stuck in traffic, you can probably relate. You know for a fact that you're making progress towards the finish line, but at the same time it feels like it's getting further and further after every passing moment. And then I found the "showstopper", and it just hit the fan from there.

From that moment it became clear that it was an underlying architectural issue and that there was no quick-fix for that. In short, multiplayer game logic is easy to implement, difficult to perfect, and the hastened pace really did not help. I'll try to document the issues I ran into later for the devs that might be interested. On top of this, I had already taken a crap on the existing code base from a similarly fast-paced cycle to get a product out for our PAX10 debut. Bad_code + limited_time = timebomb.

And even knowing this going in, my stubborn/cocksure/reckless self still kept believing that it could be done and done "soon". Basically, day after day, I kept telling Gian this as he was at GDC prepping to debut the finished app. My "Give me a few hours" turned into "I'll have it by tonight" which turned into "Maybe tomorrow", until I finally realized that it just wasn't going to happen for GDC. Meanwhile, Gian with apparently unwavering faith in me, kept taking my word for it, which in turn put him in a bind. I was in denial that I had failed, and for this I apologize. Not for the failure, but for the miscommunication to Gian and to you guys. Although the failure was very disappointing, I know that we really tried our absolute best and I can take consolation in that.

Which brings us up to the present... Gian and I are still working really hard to get this game out. We did take a hit and had take a few steps back to address the architectural design issue, but I am now 99.99% confident that the right solution is in place. We still have some tweaking to do, and really one of the hardest things about pouring one's soul into a game like this is finding a place to stop. After putting in so much effort, and being so attached to it, the game can never have too many features or be too perfect. But in the end, we have to realize that it's a just game and what good is a game if it never gets a chance to be played.

Finally, I want to personally acknowledge all you guys that have been amazingly loyal and have been patiently anticipating this game. THANK YOU. You guys have really been one of the driving forces for me, and I'm sure Gian as well, to finish. Knowing that someone out there might still possibly want to play WordFighter even after all the delays helps put to sleep all those doubts as to whether all those sleepless nights, and pulled-out hair were worth it. I hope the sentiment doesn't change once you actually get your hands on the game. It might not be perfect at first, but we will surely be looking to you guys for feedback on ways to improve the game. Meanwhile we will keep you guys better updated on the progress...

-Kris

TL;DR: I royally screwed up, apologize for keeping you guys in the dark, and promise that we are close and REALLY working hard to finish, really.

And we're back! Hope everyone is having a lovely 2012 so far.

We are finishing up our development for the first release of Word Fighter, and we're getting pretty excited about it. While we'll miss our February deadline, we are set up to submit to the App Store within the week! We're looking to make a strong impression with the first release, but we did unfortunately have to cut a few features out of the game for the time being. We didn't want to delay even further than before, so that's just how it goes. BUT, the best part about the App Store is how easily apps can be updated. So right after Word Fighter 1.0 is released, we'll be working to pump out updates as quickly as possible, which includes new characters, new game modes, and improved gameplay. Speaking of new characters, we have some interesting news on that front post-launch. Keep an ear open for it!

In the meantime, I want to show you some of the fantastic settings our artists have created for the fighters to do battle in. Can you figure out which stages belong to which characters?

We must thank you again for your continued patience and support while we work towards finishing our game. Thankfully you don't have to wait much longer! Look out for more updates in the coming week.

It sucks to be writing this, but I might as well get straight to it:

We're pushing back the release of Word Fighter to February 2012.

Simply put, we need more time. We very much wanted to launch this fall, but we would never be satisfied with releasing the game in its current state. It would be a disservice to give the players a mediocre experience out the gate, especially with Word Fighter being a multiplayer-focused game at launch. In order for the online community to thrive, the network play needs to be great, with minimal lag, and finding someone to play a match with should be very quick and easy. It simply isn't there yet, so the best decision for us is give ourselves more time to get it there.

I'm going to pull back the curtain a bit on how our team operates. While FEY is an independent development team, we all still have full-time jobs. I do interface design work for mobile products, and Kris does full-time iOS development in Washington, DC. The rest of the team includes a consultant, a bartender, and a teacher. Our full-time gigs pay the bills, and we work on Word Fighter on every available night and weekend we have. It's not an ideal situation, but we deal with it as best we can. If we were lucky enough to be working on Word Fighter full-time, the game would have already come out. But it is what it is.

We love what we do, and we are incredibly proud of what we've accomplished so far with Word Fighter. We just need a little more time to make the launch release as awesome as it can be. We promise it will be worth the wait.

Thanks,

Gian Cruz
Co-Founder and Designer

Digo, Gian, Raf, and Kris in front of the Word Fighter booth

Hello, one and all! It has been two weeks since PAX Prime 2011, and I think we've finally recovered from the madness of it all. It was an amazing experience for all of us, and we could not have asked for a better response to our little game.

Four people from the Word Fighter team represented at PAX -- Raf, Digo, Kris, and myself. Our trusty composer Whitaker Blackall was there in spirit, especially since his soundtrack was looping the whole time we were manning the booth! And speaking of booths, it was quite exhausting to man our Word Fighter booth for three solid days, even though we were 4 men strong! We were demoing the game nonstop the whole weekend, which is really nothing to complain about. Having lots of people wanting to play your game is a great problem to have.

Unfortunately, manning our Word Fighter booth meant that we barely had any time to do much else during the show. We wish we could have seen more of the floor and attended more panels, but alas, showing our game was top priority. We hardly had any time to play the other games in the PAX 10, which is a damn shame! We had an absolute blast playing the few that we could, like The Splatters and Jamestown. But regardless, it was such an honor to share the stage with those wonderful games. My biggest regret was not playing FEZ, despite their table being right next to ours. I think I was just too intimidated to approach the almighty Phil Fish during the show. Next time, I hope.

With the guys from The Splatters, Atom Zombie Smasher, and Vanessa Saint-Pierre Delacroix 

Even though the PAX 10 booths were located on a separate floor from the main exhibit hall (some dubbed it as the "Indie Floor"), we still got a lot of foot traffic coming through the area. I'm pretty sure it helped that we were right next to the Minecraft booth, though! We were also quite thankful a number of podcast panels recommended that people seek out Word Fighter at the show, including the Giant Bombcast and Weekend Confirmed. Attendees would approach our booth the next day saying that "Giant Bomb" or "Weekend Confirmed" told them to do so. Sincerest thanks to those panels for their kind words about our game!

My favorite thing to take away from the show was finding people that I was already a fan of approaching our booth and becoming fans of Word Fighter themselves! Fellow developers from PopCap, Bungie, and Supergiant Games showed us some love, and I could not have more respect for them. Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, writer of Penny Arcade, immediately became a fan after playing a VS match with a fan (interestingly enough, he never got to see the game during the judging for the PAX 10). A number of media personalities also came by to play the game, including the awesome guys from The Totally Rad Show and the crew from Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin. Even the illustrious Felicia Day stopped by with her pals, and she could not wait to get her hands on it. Can a fanboy-turned-developer really ask for more?

Gian with Jeff, Dan, and Alex from The Totally Rad Show

It was an incredibly fulfilling weekend for us, and it made the months upon months of allnighters worthwhile. It took a while for us to recover from it (with sprinklings of PAX flu permeating the team), but we are now recharged with more drive and creative fuel to push towards our launch this fall. Thank you to everyone for coming by and showing their support, and we can't wait to show you the final product in a few months!

Your friendly neighborhood game designer,
Gian