Reset release date reset again, sad robots slip into 2017
Still not across the Finnish line
We certainly have lost track of Reset [official site] since its just-about-successful 2013 Indiegogo. Overwhelmingly beautiful in screenshots and early footage, then even beautifuller in a second trailer, it sank into a long stretch of development with multiple delays. And now, two days short of its most recent release date, the huge project from just two people has slipped again.
Let's catch up. Christmas 2014 was aimed for and missed, months went by without updates (which is fine, of course), then by April 2015 a backer demo appeared. Followed by three months of silence... Weekly updates became a thing for a couple of months, then Greenlight happened, and weekly updates stopped. Five months of silence were only interrupted by the peculiar choice to write an April Fool, then another two months of nothing. (DEVELOPERS! Don't do that!) Come June this year they reappeared with suggestions of a Christmas 2016 release then in September a release date with a graphic for the 20th December. Another three months have passed and we now know it won't be this Christmas either. Boo.
It's all very understandable - especially for a two-man team - but obviously far more tricky when public money was raised and spent. And as someone who starts and forgets projects more often than an amnesiac cannon (forgive me, I've been up since 6.30am and have quite the head cold), I entirely understand how many months can pass between writing updates. It's not like they've got a community manager - they're coding flat-out. Still, it's a bummer that we're still not going to get to play the game three years on.
They've, perhaps wisely, not set a new date - frustrating, especially for backers - but less frustrating than being over-optimistic and having to slip again. Let's hope this isn't "finishing creep", and some nice tight goals are put in place. (Passive-aggressive much, John?) I just want to play the gorgeous-looking thing.
Oh, and having just spent a few days in Finland where the game is being made, I'm surprised anyone can get anything done when outside looks so incessantly beautiful and covered in snow. To tide us over, there are some new 4K screenshots to not be able to look at properly on your not-4K monitor.