When a game on our production board says Revamped, it means we have returned to an existing game and made changes to it. That can involve technical repairs, better Steam integration, clearer instructions, or additions to the game play. It is a description of work performed, not a promise that every game has been rebuilt from scratch.
Our intention is to improve the experience while respecting the game people originally bought. Two projects help explain both sides of that ambition: Project RPG Remastered, where a focused set of changes addressed practical problems, and SMACKHEAD, where adding something exposed a mistake in how we thought about completion.
Acquiring a game means taking on an existing history
Alongside our original productions, we acquire games from other independent developers. An acquisition gives us the rights agreed in that purchase; it also puts us in contact with an existing game, its contributors, and its players. Those relationships matter as much as the files we receive.
Refurbishing is the work that can follow. We look at what is broken, what makes the game harder to use than it needs to be, and what can be improved without disrupting its identity.
That is why a useful update announcement should say exactly what changed instead of generic titles like "fixes and improvements". Generic pledges like "we're committed to continuously improving your user experience" aren't much better either, as it says nothing and still manages to use many words. A smaller download size, a repaired save configuration, and a new difficulty mode have very different effects on a player. Calling all three an improvement does not explain the change and does not honor the developer codex.
A focused revamp with a positive response
We announced the acquisition of Project RPG on 7 January 2018. Six days later, our 13 January update announcement, “Recent changes,” recorded the work completed:
- reduced the game file size by approximately half, retaining its content
- improved the configuration of Steam Cloud save synchronization
- fixed a problem with Steam playtime tracking
- disabled a frame-rate option that had not been harming performance
- recreated a video sequence and introduced automatic healing after the character was wounded
- revised the store description and updated the hardware requirements to be more accurate
- lowered the price to $0.99 🎉
The original adventure remained the reason to play. The work concentrated on making it easier to install, run, and understand, while retaining its content. Automatic healing did change the balance of play, so that belonged in the patch notes just as much as the technical fixes.
When an addition changes what “finished” means
Our experience with SMACKHEAD taught a different lesson. We acquired the game from a developer who later asked not to be named. We respect that request, although that desire was only expressed to us through a bogus copyright claim based on taking offense by still being named as the original developer. That is the studio's account of the dispute.
The 17 May 2018 update announcement listed two difficulty settings instead of one, Linux/SteamOS support, two new achievements, controls displayed in the menu, switching between fullscreen and windowed play, and revised presentation and store information. Sounds harmless, right?
Our intention was to enhance the game. We did not remove playable content. But one of the achievements initially required completing the hardest difficulty mode. For achievement hunters who treat 100% completion as the finish line, the addition created a new obligation: Players who considered their achievements done now had to repeat some steps they may already have completed.
The harder mode's wobbling screen makes a precision platformer particularly difficult to control. The regular mode was more manageable. Asking completion-focused players to return to the difficult one caused frustration, including objections to the visual discomfort of playing it. The community discussion “Please, remove hard mode achievement” records that backlash.
The discussion began on 12 May 2018, before the formal update announcement. On 13 May, we said the achievement was intended to unlock after just one hard-mode level and that a correction was imminent. Reducing the requirement addressed the immediate complaint, but it did not erase the frustration already caused.
We had thought of the achievement as an extra reward. For those players, it changed the terms of finishing a game they already played. Keeping every level intact was not enough to preserve their experience. Their time and their sense of completion were part of that experience too.
What we will do differently
We will not repeat that approach of treating a new, demanding completion requirement as an uncomplicated bonus. Future revamps should also account for the people who have already played, finished, and put the game aside.
- Explain the effect of a change.
- Respect completed playthroughs of achievement hunters.
- Preserve the game's identity.
These are lessons for future work that every developer/publisher should consider. To us, a successful revamp improves the game while showing care for the people who already have it. The positive response to one update and the backlash to another both belong in that story.