Update #24: PART 2 RELEASED NOW!
almost 4 years ago – Sun, Dec 06, 2020 at 02:30:03 AM

We're here!
 The day has finally come: the second and final part of The Hand of Glory is now officially available on Steam (Itch.io version coming tomorrow!)

You all have your keys, so in order to play Part 2, you will only need to:

1- Update your current version of the game (relaunch Steam if the update doesn't start automatically)

2- Start it and click on “new game”

3- Select Part 2

4- Enjoy the journey!

What are we going to do now?

Well, even if the game is out, we still have some tasks ahead of us:

1. First of all, we'll be busy producing the physical rewards for the campaign: T-shirts, themed flash drives, the art book, the mysterious scroll and obviously the DVDs and the Big Box Editions (we can't wait to get one of these ourselves)! We hope to be able to deliver them within the first quarter of 2021!

1. In the meantime, our German translators will be working on the translation of the game; this may take a while, since THOG has got a HUGE amount of texts, but we will aim to a Q1 2021 release for the German version, as well.
2. We'll also continue to work on some minor fixes (especially on the voice volumes, small bugs, pauses) as well as adding new stuff (some animations, facial expressions, and other things)! Make no mistakes, the game is complete and already enjoyable now, and we absolutely wanted to deliver this year. 
3. During the next weeks we'll test thoroughly the MAC and Linux versions of the game. Follow us to know when they will be ready! We're also preparing a rich folder of digital extras for all the backers who pledged for that category.
4. When the night comes and everybody go to sleep, we stay in front of our computers and work on the Switch porting. How cool is it going to be?

Special thanks

And here we are, at the end of the most important update of this project, ready to draw the conclusions.

The development of The Hand of Glory was long, tough, sometimes exhausting, especially considering the strange times we are all living. In the end, we managed to do it.

But the reason we managed to do it, it's YOU.

Yeah, you, dear backer, because one year and a half ago you decided to give us your trust, and you allowed us to live our dream. We hope The Hand of Glory will repay you, and that you will enjoy it as much as we enjoyed writing it.

The End of Glory?

So... we reached the end, eh?

We came, we saw, we developed.

But tomorrow is a new day, and we have absolutely no intention of stopping now. We have tons of ideas for future projects, games that we can't wait to start working on, new crazy characters and locations we want to write about!

The future is full of adventures, dear backers.

See you again soon!

Update #23: Last pre-release update!
about 4 years ago – Thu, Nov 19, 2020 at 07:55:11 AM

Hey, guys, here we are again with our monthly update. This one's special, because it's the last pre-release one!

We're very excited to share what we've been doing, so let's begin right away!

We listened to YOU

The first part of The Hand of Glory received great reviews both by the press and by players all over the world (you backers included)! Not only the feedback we've collected was fulfilling, but it also helped us improving the second part. Here's the major changes you will find:

•  Balanced difficulty:  Many of you suggested that the game would be better without too many hints by the main characters. We listened and removed some of those hints in part 2, or we changed them making them less explicit. Keep in mind we want THOG to be accessible to any kind of player, but you'll definitely need to use your brain!
   
•  Animations:  We don't want to brag, but let's say it: THOG is full of animations and videos. Despite this, some reviews claimed there were few of them and we just couldn't ignore it. We decided to try to animate everything (yeah, everything) our main characters will do, improving the quality at the same time. Did we succeed? You'll find out soon!
   
•  Alice:  We were pleasantly surprised by the comments regarding Alice and the relationship between her and Lars. Some of you asked for more space for her, and you know what? We did it. You will use kinesics again, of course, but not only. We really dig playing with Alice, we hope you'll like her game sections too!
   
•  Death scenes: One of the criticism we received was about the death scenes in the game. We admit it, maybe we exaggerated a little as far as difficulty goes. This doesn't mean we regret having death scenes in THOG, as we feel they are necessary for the kind of atmosphere that we want to obtain. For Part 2 we will have new, truculent ways of dying, they'll just be easier to beat;
   
•  Easter eggs: We had thousand of crazy ideas for Easter eggs, but we weren't sure if you guys would appreciate them. Now we know you all love them as much as we do, therefore we added new, funny moments in the game. Some of them are just random acts of stupidity by Lars (he can't avoid them), some of them are real secrets hidden in the game (how many of you have found everything in Part 1? Let us know)!
   

Our work in the last month

As you can imagine, things have been dramatically frenetic during the last few weeks. Here's what we've been up to:

•  Voice over: One of the toughest challenges of our lives, considering the amount of texts we have in THOG. Despite this, we wanted to bring you a quality, professional dubbing. Matthew Curtis (Lars) and Maya Tuttle (Alice) are obviously back, but we're happy about the complete cast we had the opportunity to work with. We can't wait for you to meet them all!
   
•  Backers: During our Kickstarter campaign, some of you purchased the longed-for “Part of the cast” pledge, which gave you the chance to be a part of the game. We were able to give each and every one of them a role in the story. Mind that, not a simple appearance: every backer will have a role, helping Lars some way or another (or trying to stop him, even)! The work with these backers was just great, and we had tons of fun while doing it;
   
•  Scenes, characters and stuff: We always had a rule, while developing THOG: no boundaries. This is one of the reasons we had a few delays, but we think it eventually paid back. We want the game to be rich, full of characters, animations, special shots, and so on. As a result, we continued adding stuff to the game until the very end (and we'll probably keep adding something after the release). Here's a new scene for you, enjoy!

Release plans

We're so close to the release of the game we already can't sleep at night! Here's our official plan for the months to come:

•  Official release date: December 4, 2020 (yeah, we have one last slight delay, be patient please)!
   
•  Backer release: As soon as the dubbing is completely tested, probably one week before the official release;
   
•  Backer with beta access release: you will be contacted within the next few days with a code to join the beta. Keep an eye on your email!
   
•  German subtitles: Q1 2021. We're very sorry about this particular delay, but understand that we don't want to rush our translators. We want your experience to be as professional as possible;
   
•  Physical rewards: Q1 2021;
   
•  Switch release: TBA, but we're working on it!
   

Around the corner

It's a strange sensation, almost like being on the edge of a cliff, but we're almost there. This has been a great journey, full of joy, surprises (we'll never forget the end of the Kickstarter campaign), but also struggles and challenges. Let's be clear: we couldn't make it without you guys. Without all of you who supported us, tolerated our delays and believed in The Hand of Glory.

As always, we need to close this update by asking you one last push, some things you could do to help us even more:   

1- Follow us on all the social networks (except Tik Tok, we're too old for that!);

2- Share our game everywhere you can (social groups, forums, your rich neighbor, be inventive)!

3- PLEASE, leave a brief review on Steam! You have no idea how much help it is for us to survive in the market!

And that's it. As always, thank you for reading and for supporting.
Stay safe, everyone!

Update #22: September news
about 4 years ago – Thu, Sep 17, 2020 at 03:46:42 PM

Hi, guys!

Welcome to Update #22, probably the last one before the official release of The Hand of Glory – Part 2. We have some fresh news for you, so let's start right away!

Release Date

As you know, Part 2 was scheduled for September. Unfortunately, we need some more time to polish the game and test it properly. We are currently working on the voice-overs, and we want it to be as good as the first part of the game. While some members of the team are recording, mixing and polishing tons of audio files, the others are adding animations, details and close-ups. We want your game experience to be as rich and polished as possible.

The new and final release date will be November 18!

However, we will start giving beta access to Part 2 to those of you who purchased the Beta reward during the Kickstarter campaign. If you're one of those backers, we'll contact you as soon as we can!

New Stuff

At this point of development, the assets for the game are finished, and we would like to give you some information about it. The Hand of Glory will have:

• About 15 hours of gameplay (both parts included);
• 40+ characters to interact with;
• More than 100 locations to visit.
   

And here's a new scene directly from Part 2!

As you can imagine, the game style will slightly change from the first part. Expect some tomb-raiding, ancient puzzles and medieval legends, all surrounded by the wonderful landscape of Italy!

And... a big surprise!

This comes out of nowhere: during the last months, we obtained the devkit and started developing The Hand of Glory for Nintendo Switch!

The porting process won't be easy and it will take some months, but the first results we obtained are really promising. Here's a sneak peek!

Stay Tuned

That's it for now! As always, we'd like to remind you that you can follow us on our socials (Facebook, Twitter or Instagram) and you can also join our Discord server! Here's an invite link: https://discord.gg/gQVMspm

We're very close to the final release, and you could do two things to help us during this phase:
1. Please, help us spread the word around as much as you can;
2. If you liked part 1, leave a small review on Steam!

Both things would help us A LOT! See you soon!

Update #21: Part I is officially released...! And now...?
over 4 years ago – Fri, Jun 12, 2020 at 06:43:52 PM

Hi, guys!

We’re finally there (half-way, at least)!
The Hand of Glory – Part 1 was officially released yesterday and what a launch day it was! The response we received was just great, both from the people and the press.

Now we want to reach as many people as we can, but to do this we could need your help once again. There are some ways you can do that:

· By sharing our Steam page, our new trailer (see below!), or our social pages;

· By spreading the word in any way you can (Facebook groups, Discord servers, friends, acquaintances…);

· By leaving a review on Steam! This is very important, even a short one can really help us getting noticed, or convincing someone to give us a chance and buy our game!

And now, on with some updates!

Part 2 – Italy and... ?

As you know, Part 2 is coming on September. We can confirm you we already have all the graphic assets ready and we’re very proud of the result we achieved. Part 2 is going to be a great adventure in the green Italian hills, with waterfalls, ravines and a medieval, charming setting (expect some dark, ancient places too)!

Don’t forget that, thanks to you all, Alice will also play an important role, looking for help in the Eternal City, Rome.

What you don’t know is that Italy won’t be the last section of the Hand of Glory, because every adventure needs a final location, where everything will come to a closure. We don’t want to tell you exactly where the journey will end, but we want to share with you a screenshot nonetheless. Here you are!

Mac and Linux

Some of you were waiting for the Mac and Linux version of the game to be released the same day as the Windows one. Now, while we really wanted to, we couldn’t deliver due to some technical problems that emerged during development. Both versions work, but there are some things we’d like to finetune before officially releasing them, especially on the Linux port.

Despite this, you can already try the beta version (information here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/961010/discussions/0/2291716608427282599/). Our testers finished the game, they’re not incomplete, they don’t have major problems, especially on MAC. Just be warned that some minor bugs may occur.

New trailer

We’re so happy with the final trailer that we’d like for everyone to see it! Here it is!

Discord

Last but not least, we wanted to remind you that we have a Discord Channel waiting for you all. You can use it to ask for help if you’re stuck, report a bug or just chat with us!

Just follow this link: https://discord.gg/gQVMspm

That’s all for now. We just want to take another moment to thank everyone of you who already played The Hand of Glory, those who commented on our socials or via private messages, and obviously everybody who will play it in the future.

To the next update!

Update #20: Keys sent... with a twist!
over 4 years ago – Wed, May 20, 2020 at 12:47:50 AM

Hi guys,

we just sent out the keys to download Part 1 of The Hand of Glory through Backerkit! Sorry for the double email, but we worked so hard in the last few days that we choose the wrong option in the control panel and we had to ban the first bunch of keys!

Now everyone should have received the key: if not, please write to [email protected]!

Have fun and let us know your first impressions!