Matt here, and I’ve got some development news about Streets of Rogue 2.

• 🎮 The Streets of Rogue 2 Island Alpha Demo is OUT NOW, just in time for Steam Next Fest!

  Download it from the game's 👉Steam page👈

• 📅 Streets of Rogue 2’s Early Access release is moving from October 22 to some other point in the near future. Keyword “near”, we don’t intend for this to be an enormous wait. The exact date will be announced closer to launch.

We had previously announced a large-scale playtest of the game. The demo release will essentially be replacing that since it includes the same content that I was planning for the playtest.

So first off, why the delays? Well, the TL;DR is “Big Open-Ended Game + Solo Programmer = Unpredictable Timeline.” October 22 seemed like a viable date back in July, but ultimately despite my best efforts, I felt the game needed a bit more time in the oven. My sincere apologies for the delays, I fully understand how annoying it can be to look forward to something only to have the rug pulled. That’s why we won’t be announcing any more specific dates until it’s a 100% lock.


All that said, you can play the alpha demo right now! Here’s what to expect from it:

• The demo includes a small chunk of the game world featuring content that may or may not be included in the full release. You’ll be playing on an island away from the main landmass where the game takes place.
  
• The goal of the demo is to take down the Mayor or otherwise gain their favor. However, you’re free to pursue other goals if you please.
  
• You’ll have access to a small selection of character classes, allowing you to tackle the content from multiple angles.
  
• The world is randomly generated, though the key features of the island will be similar on each playthrough.
  
• I will try to slip in some mutators before release or shortly after.
  
• The demo doesn't have controller support, but it will be added to the demo later.
  
• Local co-op support is also not in the demo initially but will be added after release.
  
• Online multiplayer is also not available in this demo.
  
• I’ll continue updating the demo up to the Early Access release based on feedback from players and other changes that I’m making to the full game.

Prior to the Early Access launch of the original Streets of Rogue, the game had been available for free, which allowed me to take in community feedback and launch the game in a state that I felt very confident about. I’ve long felt the absence of this back-and-forth during SOR2’s development, but given how much larger and more complex of a game SOR2 is, I feel like much of the feedback would have been something to the effect of “I launched the game and was immediately sucked into a black void where I was eaten by Cannibals who are missing their eyeball textures. Then my graphics card blew up, and you owe me for my ER visit.” In essence, it wouldn’t have been much fun for anybody.

At this point in development, I’d consider the game to be a lot closer to being Early Access-ready, as the game’s foundations are pretty solid. However, polish is still needed in order to bring the core game loop and progression system to where they need to be, and bugs are still a little too prevalent for my liking. For me, that’s a very exciting place to be. There are just enough not-super-well-defined elements in the game that I feel like pre-release community feedback would be very beneficial.

So basically, consider this demo to be a fairly rough (but hopefully pretty fun) taste of what’s to come that will give you a sense of the systemic/gameplay possibilities of SOR2. But also, don’t be surprised if the initial questgiver gets mauled by a bear 🐻 before you can get your bearings (no pun intended) because they decided to spawn on the beach where you start the game for some reason. (To be fair, I fixed that one last night, but you get the idea!)

Thanks again for your patience, and stay tuned!

Matt D

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