Initially slated for a 21st July release, Wayward Strand has been delayed until later this year, as the team decides to focus on their health and happiness, and avoid crunch.
Here's a quote from Ghost Pattern Games on the delay, posted on their Steam page:
"This delay means we can release Wayward Strand at a level of quality that we're very happy with. Importantly, it also allows us to do it in a less stressful way for the team. Wayward Strand is a game about care, and it would make no sense to make this game without caring for each other. From day one, we’ve been rigorously committed to empathy, openness, and anti-crunch. Game releases are almost always stressful and difficult for the teams behind them, so we're trying to find ways of approaching our release that reduce some of those pressures."
As the devs say in the quote above, Wayward Strand is a game all about caring for the elderly in a flying hospital — you can read our interview with the developers here — so it makes sense that the delay is part of caring for people.
The new release date for Wayward Strand is September 15, 2022.
[source twitter.com]
Comments 12
Good move. Carry on my wayward strand.
Nice to see. At the end of the day, if the game’s good then the game’s good, and we can always wait to play it. Their health comes first.
Obviously the right call if they can accord to delay. Hopefully it proves financially successful for doing so.
I am really looking forward to play this game, bit I will wait patiently and I am happy they are good enough to not rush things.
This is the best way. I hope more companies will make team's health a high priority in the future
Much respect for this decision, wishing the whole team success!
I never heard about this game before now, and it wasn't even on my radar.
But this news of a game developer that treats its employees like human people, rather than just number crunchers, has already piqued my interest. Definitely keeping my eyes on this game now.
(Even though I'm a little sad that stories of developers like this are exceptions to the rule, rather than the norm.)
Saul Goodman with a handlebar? It is on brand, elder law is his specialty.
The negative impact of Covid is that no one wants to work anymore. I work in an office type of a job, not video game related. Everyone wants to work at home and people can't even make half the numbers they used to do, while working from home. Restaurants can't find people willing to work and have to close some days during the week due to staff shortages. I imagine that all employers in other sectors are dealing with this. This is in US, probably Europe as well. I do want better work life balance and I am all for it, but people got lazy during Covid.
'Crunch' should only be driven by passion, not greed, and even then people need to realize it is ok to slow down.
Many people who are passionate work harder and more hours to finish what they started yet once exploited it drains all the soul out of the product.
This could be the world’s first anti-crunch flying-hospital strand-type video game.
they made the right decision
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