Impressions Release Date Announcement
Originally published January 17th, 2020
February 4th, 2020
Impressions on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220330/Impressions/?beta=0
Impressions on Itch: https://prof-smash.itch.io/impressions
It's been a long time coming, hasn't it? Actually, I find it funny how I revealed Impressions in February of 2020, and now one year later the game is approaching its release. I didn't do that on purpose, I swear! You can see the game now on Steam and Itch.io as “coming soon.” This dev blog is primarily intended to drop the release date, provide a recap and explanation of what Impressions is for those not in the know, and give a little info as to how development plans to go from here. We'll cut straight to the facts, starting with the release details.
Impressions is expected to be available to all on February 4th, 2020. Because Impressions is a short story (can be played to the end in about thirty minutes), I've decided to make the game free. After all, it'd be hard to sell a game that is only intended to be played once and only for thirty minutes. Because of this short length I've kept certain marketing materials such as the trailer intentionally vague. The idea is to go in fairly blind to the game's story. If you must know anything, it would be a quick synopsis of the main plot of the game.
So what is that plot? And by extension, what is Impressions? This game puts you in the role of a news pundit for the popular news stream show, Stream 47A. Your job is to simply comment on the news of a given day. And what a story you have to discuss. For you see, it's been confirmed we're not alone in the universe. Aliens exist, and humanity is speaking with them now. Before the show begins you'll have a chance to review the news stories of the day and see how other people are taking this discovery before giving out your own opinions. Along for the show is Patricia, who is excited about alien contact and thinks a new age for humanity has begun. In addition there's Clark, who has a more pessimistic view and believes this could mark the beginning of the end for humans. So where do you fall in this discussion? Can either character or some other outside force convince you to change your mind?
Everything you say will be broadcast out to the world, and people are hanging on to everything you say. So for example, if during the show you declare that the aliens are coming for conquest, people will react accordingly. Before the next show you'll see people talking about stocking up on weaponry and setting up their defenses in preparation for war against the aliens. On the flip side, if you think the aliens may be willing to share their technology with humanity then you may see some people speaking out optimistically about the technological advancements we're set to make. Now that you know how much influence you have on the world, I have to ask...how will you use it? By the way, the aliens will almost certainly see your comments as well.
Naturally, at this point in development the focus is on fixing as many bugs and other issues as possible. So far the process has been going really well. The routine so far has been to have both myself and my wife do a playtest and then fix all the issues that came up. Then I just do that all over again. Of course, I've been dealing with other responsibilities as an adult so there's not as much dev time in a day as I would like. What often happens is I do playtests during one day, then fix the issues found in the next day. Of course, if there weren't many issues or I'm on a lucky streak then I can maybe do both in the same day. In addition, I may add a couple things if there's time such as some additional text and background animations. But the focus is on the actual game first and foremost. Make sure it works and is fun, add bells and whistles later.
I'll do another dev blog on February 1st for my monthly dev blog like I usually do, and I'm planning on focusing it on recapping the history of the game's development. Then the game will release and...well, we'll see what happens after that. I hope you're as excited as I am about Impressions. It's been a long time coming, but the end result is finally upon us. I look forward to hearing what people think of the game on February 4th! In the meantime, wishlist the game so you’ll know exactly when it drops.
Until next time!
-Lance T.
Impressions on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1220330/Impressions/?beta=0
Impressions on Itch: https://prof-smash.itch.io/impressions