Launch Day With A New Name

It's the day we've been working towards, looking forward to and also dreading, the day we announced our Steam launch of GameGuru, the new face of game creation and our new home for the next decade.  I could not sum it up better than the press released from Develop, linked here:

http://www.develop-online.net/news/gameguru-teaches-players-to-develop-3d-titles/0203041

The ball is now in motion, and if there was ever a day one, this would be it. The world has been informed and it's now our responsibility to deliver on every single grand design we ever hinted at over the last two years. The current build which is being hammered, ready for Steam Early Access, is focusing on getting the basics very solid and the basics covered. The process is quite ruthless, but not much has been dropped and in fact we've added quite a lot of content in a short amount of time in terms of stock assets you'll get out the box.

By now all pledgers will have received the email containing details of the goodies you will be getting as an honored member of our pledge based development. You get the full Steam product for free, extra keys for your friends and family, plus if you are Silver or Gold, some great DLC vouchers which will allow you to get new model packs we will be releasing on Steam. One of our strategies is to commission content on a rolling basis so you will get new assets all the time, in addition to any assets created by third parties through the built-in store.

Not only have we added medieval buildings and scenery objects but also characters and weapons too, so you'll have a great place to start your own fantasy game (and if you want ye' old' rocket launchers in 7th century England, that's fine too).

Deciding on a name for our game creator was extremely difficult, if not impossible, and I am also pretty sure not everyone will like it. The simple reasoning behind it is that we have to move beyond FPS and the 'shooter only' constraints of the old title. Within the next few years we'll have expanded the product to include third person, driving, flying, deep diving, space adventures and everything in between. For this we need a brand name that is simple to remember that can over-arch all the genre's we plan to support, and speaking personally, I am a little sad to see the old name go, but our future is as much about Third Person and Adventures as it is about First Person and Shooting, and we're making a bold statement to the universe that this is what we want and we're going to do it.

Of course there is no rest for the weary, and I must dive right back into the code and continue the last of the tweaks before some seriously intense testing next week ready for the countdown to the actual Steam launch.  I hope the new pledger installer works for everyone, but don't worry if you get the occasional issue, chances are we've already fixed it for the Steam build, and rest assured our internal alpha team will be giving the Steam pre-build a blast before it goes live.

More than my usual two sentences, but no ordinary day you will agree. Might post a little more on Friday but for the next two weeks there will not be much more than 'tested the product today, it was better'. Standard stuff, but absolutely essential for a successful and trouble free launch. If anyone is attending GDC I will be there for all five days, on the GDC show floor for four of them and doing my fair share of Guinness tasting throughout. As always, you are welcome to track me down and join me for a few swifties, always a good time at GDC!  I will post my schedule and locations closer the time :)

And finally, as I cannot say it enough, a huge thanks to the entire community who have helped us get this far, and I hope you will join us on our continuing mission to explore strange new genre's, to seek out content and new model packs, to go boldly where no game maker has gone....before.

FOR THOSE WHO DID NOT GET THE EMAIL (YET), HERE IS THE TEXT SENT TO ALL PLEDGERS OF THE PROJECT:

Welcome to FPS Creator Reloaded Version 1.01

Today we are releasing V1.01 of FPS Creator Reloaded. You will find this new build in the My Products section of The Game Creators website;
http://www.thegamecreators.com/?m=my_products

With this release we’d like to tell you our news!

Announcing GameGuru
With the technology developed to date we are launching a brand new game creation tool called GameGuru - an easy to use game maker that allows anyone to make, share and sell any kind of game on their PC. You can see it listed here in the Steam coming soon list;http://store.steampowered.com/app/266310/

Heading to Steam
From 2nd March we’ll be distributing GameGuru exclusively through Steam as an Early Access title. The main reasons for this are:
* The multiplayer code is built on the Steam networking system
* GameGuru will be much easier to manage through Steam – for example, the taking advantage of the Steam Workshop makes sharing and playing multiplayer levels much easier
* A single build means single focus, better for everyone
* We’ll widen our customer base which in turn will strengthen the community and allow us to bring you more features
* The Game Creators will be able to help you publish the best games made in GameGuru onto Steam

Thank You to our FPS Creator Reloaded pledgers!
Your support has helped us complete the project and we are very grateful for your backing.
On launch day we will be sending you all a set of Steam keys based on the pledge level you made:

* Gold: 5 GameGuru Steam Keys + 4 Model Pack DLCs due in 2015 (total value over $120)
* Silver: 4 GameGuru Steam Keys + 2 Model Pack DLCs due in 2015 (total value over $90)
* Bronze: 2 GameGuru Steam Keys + 1 Model Pack DLC (total value over $39)

You’ll be free to share your Steam keys with friends and family and then play against each other in your own multiplayer maps!

GameGuru is now our main game making project here at The Game Creators and we have lots of developments planned for 2015 and beyond - you will get lifetime updates for Free :-)

One Steam Price
Our aim is to make GameGuru a mass market product and as such it will have a price that appeals to the Steam community - $19.99. 
Plus GameGuru is royalty free so if you create the next Skyrim or COD the revenue you generate is all yours!
All the original FPS Creator Reloaded model packs will be merged into the main Steam product. This means anyone who buys GameGuru will receive:

* GameGuru
* Modern Day Model Pack
* Horror Model Pack
* Zombies Model Pack
* Vegetation Plus Pack
* The ability to save their single player games as standalone exes

We’re also working on some new fantasy and cartoon models that will be part of GameGuru. The benefit of adding all the media into the core means that users can make multiplayer levels and easily link up with friends and only have to send their map file before a multiplayer session begins.

Over the coming months and years we plan to add many new features so our community can effortlessly design the games of their dreams.

We hope you enjoy GameGuru and as always please keep sending us your feedback and suggestions.