Crema tease new Temtem game with fresh combat system alongside plans to remove all Temtem microtransactions

Crema, the creators of much-liked Pokemon-like Temtem, are teasing a new untitled game set in the same universe - the mystifying Project Downbelow. It isn't Temtem: Swarm, aka Temtem Vampire Survivors, nor is it Temtem 2. But it will "try out new things we would love to see in a hypothetical Temtem 2", including a new combat system running on a "stronger" game engine. The tease accompanies news that Crema are making significant changes to Temtem as part of the game's update 1.7 - for one thing, they're getting rid of the whole microtransaction system. Temtempestuous times indeed!

All that's from a very long, but quite interesting Steam blog in which Crema discuss the rockier parts of Temtem's development, respond to a recent Steam user reviews backlash, and look to the future. The game was original envisaged as an "MMO-lite", but in the absence of an MMO-lite tag on Steam and other storefronts, the developers called it an MMO instead, which has caused some players to go in expecting a kind of monster-catching World Of Warcraft.

The developers also discuss current plans for adding to the game. They won't be adding any more islands and Tems due to a shortage of resources and team members, with the post noting that previous additions have not resulted in a "permanent increase in the playerbase" that would justify the labour. An excerpt:

Development time is limited for a studio our size, and new islands are a major undertaking. It took the team many months to develop each island that was launched during Early Access: Kisiwa, Cipanku, Arbury and the Endgame Island, Tamer's Paradise.

Everytime we set out to create a new area we invest a lot of resources from all teams, and a lot of time. Whenever a new island came out to the public it was received with cheers and excitement, but we all noticed how fast the players would consume the content and leave once more. Understandably, the community wants new islands to enjoy and discover, and hope they will make the game call out to more people, but after thorough study through Early Access we never noticed a permanent increase in the playerbase after the release of a new island. While islands are terribly enjoyable, many players would finish a new island in around 6 hours, when it had taken our team 9 months to make. And thus the cycle where players come back momentarily for new islands, then leave again continues...

The developers have thought about adding new Tems to the game as paid DLC, but fear this would create a pay-to-win issue without really addressing the resource and team size difficulties described above. The post also touches on the complexity of adding more multiplayer functionality to the game, which "creates a waterfall of side effects", and the on-going battle to stop cheaters and hackers. Again, a lot of this seems aimed at complaints that Temtem shouldn't have ever been called an MMO.

The next major Temtem update, Temtem version 1.7, is due in early June. It will introduce the Arcade Bar, a minigame emporium promised during the game's Kickstarter. It'll also do away with the game's microtransaction systems, including the controversial Tamer Pass, which lets you pay for cosmetics.

"The monetization system was put in place so we could provide all the cosmetic content it included," the post notes. "The entire team working on purchasable items and the Tamer Pass were hired explicitly for this purpose, and would not have existed without these features.

"With this, we want to reassure you once again that no content was robbed from Temtem by having this MTX system in place, but we do understand that the displeasure goes beyond this, and have come to understand your position on Temtem having microtransactions as it drifts further from a live-service game. For this, we sincerely apologize."

The developers add that "while it's still very early to talk about monetization for future projects, we have learned from this situation and the lesson is clear, and will keep these learnings in mind for the future." Speaking of which! Let's talk about Project Downbelow. Here's another excerpt:

We're aware of the community's desire for a Temtem sequel: our communication channels are often filled with questions about a possible Temtem 2, expectations for it, and more. We hear you! The team has debated on the creation of a sequel for some time, but unfortunately the stakes are high and there aren't enough resources to achieve what the team would desire the sequel to be, and the sequel you would deserve.

After hearing so many opinions on what you'd like a possible Temtem 2 to be; we feel like we shouldn't rush ourselves and make the same mistakes we've made in the past, and even in the present. If we ever were to do this, we'd need to be able to produce a product and flow of content that all of you could enjoy and love to the maximum. Such a product is still out of our grasp and reach: we're simply not ready. We are, as a studio, too small to embark on the feat we'd like Temtem 2 to be; we don't currently have the technical knowledge, the time nor the ability to bring those ideas to life.

As we look towards the future of the Temtem IP, we have expanded our team to focus some of our development resources on an unannounced, untitled, new game in the Temtem universe. This project is being developed fully in-house by our dev team, and we're keeping our aspirations fresh, big and grand. We're also developing this project on a new engine, so foreign and uncharted territory which is both exciting and scary! This is not Temtem: Swarm, and not Temtem 2. This is Project Downbelow.

Our intentions for Project Downbelow are to build new foundations and try out new things we would love to see in a hypothetical Temtem 2. By exploring a new combat system, a stronger engine and more things we can't unveil yet, we hope to learn the proper bases, and have enough preparation and experience to put us closer to the materialization of something as precious to us - and you - as Temtem 2 would be.

There's also some discussion of Temtem: Swarm and non-videogame Temtem projects, including a previously announced animated adaptation. The post concludes with a promise that the original Temtem isn't going to be taken offline anytime soon - as an MMO-lite with a significant single player element, it costs less to run than yer WOWs and yer Eve Onlines, and doesn't rely on mustering thousands of players daily.

That said, there are no plans to do the obvious thing preservation-wise and implement an offline mode. "One of the biggest benefits of Temtem's foundations and initial design is that server costs are slim, meaning we can take care of its costs for a really, really long time," the post reads. "With the game servers perpetually online, we're not contemplating an offline mode. That said, we completely intend to uphold our promise that we will always provide a way to play Temtem."