The Long Dark -- Two Year Anniversary

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Admin

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Dear community,

Two years ago -- on September 22nd, 2014 -- we brought The Long Dark to Steam Early Access. It was a newer platform back then. Survival games weren’t truly a “genre” unto themselves yet. We were still hitting our stride as an independent developer, about 18 months into development and only 11 months after we wrapped up our successful Kickstarter.

We had released an early version of the game to some of our Kickstarter backers, and we were thrilled to have some feedback. The notion of community-informed development was still pretty new to us back then, with the team mostly coming from traditional “triple-A” development backgrounds. We were used to working on games for years without being able to talk about them, pushing them out the door when they were as ready as we could make them, and crossing our fingers in hope that people would like them.

The idea of releasing an early, unfinished, unpolished version of the game was both tremendously exciting, and scary as hell. What if people hated it? We knew The Long Dark didn’t really fit into the traditional mold -- which was precisely the reason we had embarked on creating it. But really, apart from 7000 Kickstarter Backers who trusted our vision enough to give us their money, we had no idea if anyone would like what we had made.

Launching on Steam, in Early Access, was a turning point for us. On our first day, The Long Dark appeared in the #4 slot on Steam’s Top Sellers list. In the first month, we sold over 40,000 copies. We thought that was pretty good. By the end of January, 2015, we had sold over 250,000 copies. Today, across Steam and Xbox One, more than 950,000 people have contributed to the development of The Long Dark.

We know we’ve missed promised Story Mode dates. We’ve not always been able to get updates out as frequently as we would have liked. Not everything we’ve added to the game has been universally loved (*cough* intestinal parasites *cough). We’ve produced nearly 300 builds and over 75 public updates. Our team has grown from about 8 developers in September 2014, to nearly 25 today. We have a studio on Vancouver Island and are about to open a Hinterland Outpost in Vancouver. Tens of millions of play hours have been logged. Millions of people have watched the game played on YouTube and Twitch. The Long Dark has been analyzed critically by academics, has been incorporated into philosophy and literature curriculum as a case study of “vulnerability”, it’s helped people suffering from anxiety issues find some peace, while also managing to challenge veteran outdoorspeople and survivalists. Seeing one game be so many things to so many people is one of the most rewarding things in the world.

It’s even attracted the attention of some notable Canadian icons, like Margaret Atwood! (One of my personal high points on this project, so far!)

AtwoodTweet600.jpg.f079775f2ce29bf204fdf

I’ve been fortunate to see this game grow from the kernel of an idea. What started as a deeply personal journey about striking out to the proverbial “hinterlands” of the games industry, has evolved into an artistic survival experience that has touched many people’s lives. It’s also provided the team at Hinterland with meaningful work and a way to provide for our respective families and dependents. For you, it is $20 and (hopefully) dozens of hours of escapism. For us, it is a calling, a livelihood. For me, it has become integral to the very fabric of my being.

Thank you for the faith you have put in us. Every day we strive to live up to it. We hope you have enjoyed the last two years of The Long Dark. Here’s to many more years! (But not too many more without Story Mode.)

You are the best of us.

- Raphael

RaphNew.jpg.db1276e1915a180f4e4c8a2099ad

 

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ANNIVERSARY BUILD

To celebrate this anniversary with us, we’re giving all of you the exact version of The Long Dark we launched on Steam Early Access on September 22nd, 2014. For one week only, you can access it on Steam, by the following:

 

  1. Right-click The Long Dark in your Steam library

  2. Select Properties

  3. Click the Betas tab

  4. Enter the code: h1nterland2014

  5. Select the build from the dropdown: build_sept22_2014

Steam should automatically update to this old 2014 build. To revert back to the current build, simply Opt Out of Betas from the Betas tab, and Steam should update back to the current Main Branch build.

REMEMBER! Gameplay has changed substantially since 2014, so things may not work the way you are used to. Please help each other out! Also, please note that you will not find current saves in the old build.

We’ll leave this build live for about a week, and then will shut it down. So enjoy it!

We’ve also put together a little video to commemorate this anniversary. We hope you like it!

 

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aurora Pathfinder

aurora

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TLD is my favorite game. I've never ever played any other game as much as TLD, so far. Playing this game now for almost two years (bought it in December), great to follow it growing up. Thanks for the video ... impressive to see how it evolved over the time. And great to see that apparently so many people love this game, too. Looking forward to what is coming in the next two and more years. Keep up the great work! ;-)

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epitaxial Survivor

epitaxial

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Congrats!  I've only been a backer for about a year now..so this is pretty awesome to be able to play an early version.  It's pretty amazing to see what's changed and how far the game has changed and improved since then.  I'm also impressed at how much has not changed - very impressive early version.

Every frikken time [well. only twice so far].. Fluffy gets me in the same spot inside the Dam and I can't seem to win the battle and die. :(:D

Couple of things I like:

- I can run a lot farther before getting tired :)

- the "warmer" and "cooler" messages

- Deer noises make me paranoid - this is something I hadn't heard before.

- rock textures look more natural than the rock textures in the latest update.

 

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cekivi Pathfinder

cekivi

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On 2016-09-23 at 6:26 PM, Blinkin said:

I loved the old alpha versions! Great to see them released. I'm definitely going to try this! :D I wish I had more time though.

Happy Birthday TLD! This is one of my best backed projects ever, along with the Thunderbirds 1965 project. :D

Same here. I'd love to see the early alpha (looks like v.118) stay around for at least another week. As it is, my gaming PC is still out of commission and I don't know if I can get it running in time for a trip down memory lane! :D

Even better is if the early alpha is released as a DLC (free or paid) with the final game for nostalgic gamers like myself! :winky:

Just imagine: you could play the story mode and then year 0, 1 and 2 of the alpha! :love:

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Blinkin Pathfinder

Blinkin

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On 28-9-2016 at 9:19 PM, cekivi said:

Same here. I'd love to see the early alpha (looks like v.118) stay around for at least another week. As it is, my gaming PC is still out of commission and I don't know if I can get it running in time for a trip down memory lane! :D

Even better is if the early alpha is released as a DLC (free or paid) with the final game for nostalgic gamers like myself! :winky:

Just imagine: you could play the story mode and then year 0, 1 and 2 of the alpha! :love:

If you can download it in time I think you can still play it without launching Steam... I'm not sure how the DRM is working so I could be wrong. Too bad it hasn't been released on GOG, then it wouldn't be a problem.

And yes I would love to see it as DLC. Normally I'm anti-DLC (the EA way that is) but this is so nostalgic! :D

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