I wanted to take this opportunity to write a bit about us and our story because I think it is the right time for it.
We started working on this game 6 years ago and we had a dream to make a game that we wanted to play, a game that did not exist yet. It was baby steps first but it snowballed into Captain of Industry.
I often see comments that we are like Anno, Banished, or Satisfactory. And being associated with so many different and successful games is very flattering. Our first prototype was nothing like what the game looks right now. We were actually thinking of making a 2D management game with lots of tables and numbers, similar to a good old Capitalism game. That evolved into 3D where you could mine terrain and build a factory, instead of just having a “mine” tab. Over the years we have experimented a lot with different mechanics, more than you probably think! We have scrapped so much of our work because it didn’t feel right. I would really love to write a separate blog post about this because this is going to be a huge topic.
Early prototype of a mine in 2D from 2015. The game had multiple locations like this, including a factory, farm, etc.
In this post I want to focus on something else. I’d like to describe my and Marek’s emotions which we are going through right now. I think anyone can imagine that committing to something like this for 6 years is not an easy task. Both me and Marek worked day & night. Day in our regular jobs and overnights on this game. We worked over weekends as well. It was an insane commitment.
We also had to pour our earnings into this project and it was not a small amount. All the models and animations took thousands of hours from our freelance artists. They are absolutely awesome and talented people by the way! But as we have seen more & more of these great models, we just couldn’t stop.
You might be asking: So why didn’t you go out earlier? Or didn’t get funding? Well, it’s not that easy. Things need time. Ideas need to settle and be prototyped. Going out too early can lead to constraints and can reduce the overall velocity. Some things just can’t be rushed. Like a good whisky.
Captain of Industry in 2016
After we came out with this project we had offers from lots of publishers and even some triple-A studios. It was definitely uplifting and we really appreciated all the interest but we just wish to do things our way. We love to talk to our fans and content creators.
However, there is one thing missing in this picture. While we liked our game a lot, we were not sure if others would enjoy it too. We stabilized all the core mechanics approx. 1.5 years ago and from that point, it became a cocktail of anxiety and excitement. Will folks like it? So we felt a huge tension during the launch of our crowdfunding campaign.
But after the launch with the initial press, things ramped up super quickly. It wasn’t really due to our Kickstarter but It came all from the content creators and the community that is growing with us. Without these folks, we would be nowhere near this. And I must say that when I saw all the different channels playing our game and excited fans talking in discussions, it touched me. And that’s probably an understatement, I was in fact close to tears. Because the build-up from the last 6 years turned into a sudden realization that the game is not that bad :) And that all of this was worth it. Reading the nice comments from folks means a lot to us. And I really want to say huge thanks to all the content creators who helped us. I don’t want to put specific names here as I might accidentally omit some, but they know! :)
I also want to say many thanks to all the folks who supported us via Kickstarter or our website. We will do everything we can to make it up to you!
We used to support fully-dynamic liquids on the terrain, including their mixing. This was later dropped due to complexity and performance, 2016
I would like to close this with the following. No matter how much we will raise in the end, we will put everything we can to get the game to the next level and prioritize what is needed the most. But rest assured that we are committed to this more than ever because we are simply not going to throw away 6 years of our life down the drain. This is our child, so let’s not just build a game, let’s make this legendary. And thank you community, we love you!
Captain Filip out.