2021 Roadmap

First of all, yes, we know it’s July. We’re sorry. Publishing a roadmap when half of the year is gone is not high on the, “keep your community engaged” list.

Let me to explain.

No, there is too much.

Let me sum up.

We ended 2020 with a huge update to Unicorn Tails bringing full voice over to the game. We wanted to take that momentum into 2021 with a big announcement. What we discovered is that some things in the gaming industry move slower than one would hope. We also had to navigate the wonderful world of non-disclosure agreements for the first time. So, bear with me as I attempt to share with you what happened without violating a signed NDA.

Our highest priority in 2021 was to port Unicorn Tails to a small, handheld device that is black in the middle with interchangeable colors on the sides and rhymes with Tintendo Ditch. We spent from January to May trying to make this a reality. We feel, as developers, that one thing potentially holding Unicorn Tails back is platform. We developed for PC because we love PC, but our target market probably spends more time on platforms like the aforementioned handheld device. Getting the exposure of Unicorn Tails on that platform was a business move because the sad reality is that if these unicorns that we love so much don’t pay the bills, then there isn’t a lot more we can do with them. This is a sad truth for a young development company.

In May, we determined once and for all that porting Unicorn Tails to this new platform was not going to be possible. We do not have the resources that these magicians making incredible ports of AAA games have. To port Unicorn Tails ourselves would have meant rebuilding the game and removing so much of it that it wouldn’t have been the same game anymore. We toyed with the idea of Unicorn Tails: Ditch Edition (again, NDA), but that didn’t feel right to us either.

We found ourselves weighing two options. What’s best for RavenFist and what’s best for Unicorn Tails. This should not even be a question. What’s best for RavenFist is automatically what is best for Unicorn Tails, but we didn’t want to let any of you down. We didn’t want to let down the incredible cast of voice actors who made Unicorn Tails come alive in ways that we never anticipated. And, darn it, we like these unicorns.

Without further ado (even though you have already waded through much ado), here is our 2021 RavenFist Studios Roadmap:

1. Update Unicorn Tails with a new major quest.
2. Release RavenFist’s second game, hopefully before the end of the year.

Let’s speak about the update to Unicorn Tails first. We wanted to add something to the game before 2021 leaves us, so we have written a new quest and are in the process of developing it. It is a quest unlike anything you have ever encountered in Unicorn Tails. Our goal was to create something that brought a little more explanation to some of the odder aspects of Unicorn Tails. If you have enjoyed pouring through every book in the game and thinking about every piece of lore that we’ve dropped, then you will enjoy this quest. To set expectations, this will not be as long or involved as the main quest of the game. It is a self-contained story within the world of Unicorn Tails. I estimate that it will be about two extra hours of content, but we will know for sure when we start play testing. This will be a free update to Unicorn Tails and we expect to release it before the end of the year.

We will also be bringing back our Halloween seasonal event and our Winter seasonal event. Speaking personally, those were two of my favorite pieces of content. We added many players after those events had run last year, so it will be nice to revisit them.

Now, let’s talk about our second game. We want to keep updating Unicorn Tails, building on it, and bringing new players to the world. To be transparent as developers, Unicorn Tails has not sold the numbers we need. Believe me, we were being very conservative with our sales goals, but we still haven’t reached them. So, we have devoted time to designing and creating a second game from RavenFist Studios. Our hope is that having two games for sale will help sustain us and let us continue improving those games and creating more. We are not ready to announce this game in full yet, but here’s what I can tell you:

• It is a brand-new IP.
• It is not “made for kids” but it is still mostly kid friendly. (Think Looney-Tunes level of content.)
• It is a physics-based platformer.
• Our goal is to simultaneously launch the game on Steam and mobile platforms.

We are excited to share more about this game when the time is right.

There you go, that’s our roadmap. Feel free to post questions or comments here. You can always reach us at support@ravenfist.com or @RavenfistGames on Twitter.

Thanks to everyone who has purchased and played our game. It really is wonderful and humbling. We love hearing stories of young kids playing games for their first time. We love seeing fan art, gameplay guides, and speedruns. We may be a small community, but the love is surely felt.

Until next time,

RavenFist Studios