The Hidden Ones Pre-Alpha Playtest Delayed to February

At Morefun Studios, we’ve decided to push back the pre-alpha playtesting for “The Hidden Ones” to February 27, 2025. This news has been shared on our official website, Discord server, and all our social media outlets. The reason behind this change is a result of feedback received from our community across various social platforms, as well as responses from the media and participants at our gameplay preview event.

Initially, our planned pre-alpha testing session was set for the 7th of January, 2025. However, due to various internal and external considerations, we’ve decided to prioritize three key areas: localizing the game, developing effective tutorials, and ensuring overall high quality.

Localization

The global launch of “The Hidden Ones” is emphasizing regions in North America, South America, and Europe. As for which languages will be included in the dubbing, that’s yet to be determined. However, the English voice-overs are already set. Despite a well-written script, there seems to be some discrepancy between the subtitles and the audio, particularly with lip-syncing. The subtitles require more attention due to possible missing words, incorrect sentences, or variations from the original script. Nevertheless, the subtitles generally convey the main ideas of the game.

To guarantee that every regional adaptation of the game “The Hidden Ones” effectively and convincingly portrays its overall narrative, the team is working diligently. Although “The Hidden Ones” presents a unique storyline, the world of “The Outcast” has been well-established over many years. Given that most players might not be familiar with the complete history of “The Outcast”, the game aims to provide an exposition of its past.

New Tutorials

In their announcement about the postponement, the development team also provided an additional explanation for the delay by sending out a clarifying message.

The statement intends to share that they plan to reevaluate and enhance our fresh onboarding procedure, aiming to provide players with a clearer understanding of the game’s mechanics and an initial grasp of the combat system.

Based on my personal observations, the combat in this game is exceptional, with minimal flaws when it comes to execution. However, the nuances of combat can be tricky to articulate through written words. It’s highly probable that the development team will create tutorials for every facet of combat – basic attacks, abilities, ultimate moves, blocking, dodging, and interrupting – and spend time expanding on each concept. Essentially, it’s a game of rock, paper, scissors with an extra seasoning.

Overall Quality

Ultimately, the team intends to prioritize “quality of content.” It’s likely they will concentrate more on the game’s settings and immersive experiences rather than the characters and gameplay. Notably, a great deal of effort has been put into perfecting the characters’ combat animations, which were created using motion capture technology. Each character is skilled in a unique martial art, such as Kung Fu or Tai Chi.

Despite the effort put into the storyline, there seems to be a mismatch between it and the combat gameplay experience. The single map previewed appeared to heavily rely on visible obstacles, which are typically represented by invisible walls. In an era where games strive to create immersive open-world environments, these barriers that limit character movement to specific paths can be jarring and disrupt the overall feel of exploration.

It’s likely that we’ll discover additional chances to venture off the beaten track in these game settings, such as entering structures or reasons to revisit earlier zones. At present, though, it’s still uncertain.

Fundamentally, the goal of our development team is to create a product they can take pride in. To wrap up, let me share this final thought:

(Or)

Ultimately speaking, our development team strives to produce something they can be genuinely proud of. In closing, allow me to share their sentiment:

As an ardent follower, I deeply regret the necessity of delaying the pre-alpha playtest. Emulating the meticulous essence of The Hidden Ones, years of dedicated craftsmanship is a crucial step towards mastering Martial Arts, as stated in our announcement. However, this delay will enable us to present our very first encounter with the gaming community, embodying that spirit, through an extraordinary and satisfying pre-alpha experience – a testament to the two-year wait since the initial unveiling of the game.

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2025-01-08 01:10