Telling them to get their stuff together isn't going to increase the speed of development. Keep in mind they're testing and trying to get rid of bugs they felt shouldn't be in there at release. Squish one out, ten more coming at you... What you want to believe or not is up to you. But please don't be treating other users like that. I do believe they're close, how close? I don't know, but all I know is that it'll come out one day or another.

There will be an option for streamer mode. But Town Square isn't released yet. Just the keys as it was said many times.

I got it right away after linking my Steam account. In the upper right, you should click your profile name (when logged in), then onto Account on the left. PS: Please do note the game will not appear in the game list yet, and you won't be able to download it until it's officially released. You'll get a popup error but you can disregard it.

Free... In the sense that you've got it as a reward for pledging at least $30.

@yakir77 You have the proof above that it is not fake and John did post the Tweet.

This exists by the way: https://www.identityrpg.com/community/forum/19-hangout/

John VanderZwet is the real name of Paratus, the CEO of Asylum. I'm surprised he didn't make the announcement on the Discord.

It does take away some time from one person that could be used on developing the game. And making such an ambitious game would certainly requires a good funding with talented developers. Also Asylum didn't have the luck that some other game developers did, to be able to work privately onto the project. Yeah he is in some way, especially when it comes to squeeze those game breaking bugs out. Also it's been said the funny jump animation will remain for a while because it's low priority. Fix one bug down, ten more showing up.

Some people can claim that, but is it necessarily true? Who knows. It's not working for me, it's not working for some moderators and they have said that you shouldn't do it until there's an official announcement concerning Steam linking. It's currently being worked on and we can expect it some time next week.

Yeah but as I already said, it's a module, with the basement of the game. But it seems you're not satisfied with the features it has to offer. You may as well wait until progress is done, maybe more things added to the module or when the beta will release. And I've already said in the message you quoted that they will leave small bugs to us, after fixing larger bugs that absolutely requires fixing. Also what it seems that you don't understand is that once they have the core mechanics in place, it won't take as long to make the other modules. Okay saying that they do nothing at all didn't make any sense to me. It's not because the tracker is sitting idle they do nothing... Just ask the moderators on Discord. Cyber mentions about spending 8 hours bashing the wall to fix bugs created by fixing other bugs, and that moderators have had a bit of fun in Town Square. Honestly, you should be lucky to even have moderators, a community manager and some developers answering questions. Because I've seen something I call a pure joke, *cough* New Life.

I mean they have reached their goal of getting $150k (CAD) on Kickstarter, that's what I call small budget, it was something to get things started. But it's quite obvious they would need much more to release an ambitious game like this. And many other crowdfunded titles have reached over a million dollars (USD). According to John during a very recent Q&A, he put a very rough guesstimate that he would need twice as much in the long run for the release of Identity, but that he's confident to get the funding as time goes by. But now I personally think they're not on a small budget anymore, but that they still has a low amount of money compared to the development costs of many other games.

I'll admit, many many TLDR... But I'll still reply to a few comments. If you think it's shady, that's your opinion. But don't forget they didn't start with a million dollars... I still remember when it was just a very few hundreds of thousands. I could look at the screenshots and say "hmm, nice assets, but where's progress?" But I know they've been saying a few times that they're not just working on TS... They're working on the base of the game too. The inventory, UI, object placement, elevators, all on a heavily modified Unreal Engine 4. Plus we've got task tracker (despite it was "stuck" on last task for a while), and Beach sometimes give us a few news from time to time. You can also see Paratus replying to some threads on the forum. Even if it's slower than it should, there's progress. And for the bugs... Well they have mentioned several and I mean several times about the one they found that was deeper in their engine and needed to be fixed ASAP. Right now it's up to some medium sized bugs, but I'm unsure why they're still waiting... Bit of a long quote and TLDR. I'm also patient but I find it have been longer than it should have been. The issue I see is that there's one task in testing that we visually see, but I'd rather see updates in a text format like explaining what bugs they've been fixing. All we know is about that deep bug in the engine causing a database crash (fixed) and the wonky elevators (I believe is also fixed). And the way I see it is that they want to polish out the main bigger bugs and leave the smaller ones they didn't find for the community to stumble across those. Also not sure about the reverse engineered (crash, hacks), but they did talk about that they've worked on having their own protection tool (along with VAC, yeah I know...), reason why they don't give any details is to prevent from it falling into the wrong person. I agree on some point on that. The thing is, people will say it's a module and they would expect a module to take less time... Err I hope they know it's not just a module, but the base of the game too. And it's also been explained they didn't have the greed and luck of some other bigger game developers. Some games will be hidden until they feel ready to be publicly announced. Identity didn't have that, it was publicized on day one, and they were quite small (it still is but you know what I mean). Couldn't have said it better. I'm more on the quality side than the speed side of things. They find big bugs? Fix them, don't drop a module that will crash on users too many times or have other game breaking bugs... I mean I don't mind to find some bugs, but too many at launch would certainly leave a permanent mark on some potential buyers. Impatience is a big lacuna nowadays. I see it everywhere... But I don't see it as making a game fail. Sure we'll see pointing out things they don't like, or that it's taking too long. Look, there has been riots in the Discord, but did it stop the development? Not at all. There's still new people coming in, and many others still interested to see Identity succeed. But what I'm heavily disappointed is the way some people phrase their opinion or state some facts (or lies). Sometimes it can lead to tense discussions unfortunately.

We understand the frustration of waiting for so long. But there's no ETA at the moment regrettably. They did discuss about the remaining task in the last developer blog, and mentioned about it on Discord and in some streams. Right now it's just down to medium sized bugs that the moderators and developers find. Last business day, Beach_Ball have said about him hopping on with Motown and others recording some footage (of some sort) and John getting assigned and collecting Prison related things.

@Beach_Ball has very well explained it. But I just want to add that John did explain some interesting things in another thread: Also @Hsmith24 you can't really stop someone from tagging you or quoting you in a public forum. When someone does so, it means the comment is directed at you. Although, actions might be taken if done in an abusive manner.

Okay things are getting a tad heated in my opinion. First of all, when we pledge, we should understands the risks and rewards. Also, pledges are for supporting the developers financially for working on the project. I'm pretty sure we all came here because we like the idea. But the issue I often see is that people pledge, then the development doesn't abide by their standards, and the content isn't delivered in due time. As for the game-play, it may not have been much, but they wanted to show off that Town Square was a thing. They also did show some sneak peak of a few features. Will it get boring after a while? Perhaps. I'm pretty sure a lot of people are more interested in the full game experience instead. In terms of showing off what's being done, I'm pretty sure renderings of assets aren't enough. But John did mention already in this thread about why he doesn't show the back-end/code/programming side of things. So I'm not quite sure what else he could show... I know John and Beach_ball mentioned there will be an insider about prisons coming soon(tm). Personally, I have also pledged into Identity RPG. I first got the Founders package back in December 2016, and worked my way up to Speed Demon. And more recently, I also pledged for some additional rewards in the shop. That's my choice to give support to the developers. It doesn't really grant me anything apart from those rewards included in those pledges. I think we are all equal, whether we invest money or not. No one is forbidden to ask questions or to give an opinion. But the way we phrase it does matter. Not everyone likes to read tense discussions. I'll finish with this. John has already mentioned that he owes an apology, plus he actually did apologize during the latest Q&A video made by Identity QG (French community). I was also surprised he had time to stay a bit longer than expected to answer community questions. I'll link the unlisted video below (beware, it might be a little difficult to understand the French guys speaking):

The packages are likely going to be unavailable, or at least the top ones once the first module will release. Each individual items will still be available for purchase, except for a few exclusive rewards that only comes with certain packages.

I don't really give guesstimates since it's always risky that someone will remember that and will come back to me and be like "oh remember when you said this [...]". But I do believe it won't take several months. Maybe sometime this early Fall. John said maybe we'll get the keys this week, but you never know what could happen.

Ranting on the New Screenshots thread, nice one. Don't forget this is a crowdfunded game. If you're skeptical, no need to pledge, you can just wait and see videos when it'll be released.

The time it takes to develop the first module is probably one of the most controversial subject people talk about. I understand the frustration of people waiting for 1-2 years or more. They have delayed the game too many times already and it's hard to put any dates when you have game breaking bugs after another. And they did admit their fault and have said that they owe an apology. I'll share a reply I've made on another thread if you haven't seen it already. The last task has been sitting still since it's the biggest core system and it really needs to be good at first. Database crash or elevators doing weird things is a big no-no, and there was probably many more. People often refer to the word "scam", because they haven't got anything yet and they just see screenshots of some assets and doesn't seem to see any progress whatsoever. But they are making progress, they need a lot of assets for a huge MMORPG, but the programming side (back end) is more... boring for some people, and may cause issues if it falls in the wrong hand. And there's certainly things that Asylum needs to work on. I can't say they're perfect, because nobody is. But I really hope we'll see better communication/transparency when the first module will come out.

I can't remember exactly where I've heard it before, I think it was in one of the streams, but they have mentioned they won't support Ray Tracing for now.

Some people have pledged for far more longer and has been much more patient. I for example pledged back in late 2016, and some others have been here since Kickstarter or even before! And the last task is the hurdle of the programmers. It's quite deeper than you think and Beach_Ball has already explained it more in-depth in another thread. Here's the link to it if you'd like to know more about what he had to say about it (you can start reading from where it mentions about the final UI task): It also has been already explained why the tracker gets updated and doesn't visually change, since it doesn't show all the little details for each little progress it makes. Also, it takes some information from their project management software called Wrike. And just wondering, is the game you're referring called "Nine To Five RPG"? Because I've heard a lot of things about that game... Also you can't rush them to release the game, they always wanted the freedom to work at their own pace. And releasing a game too early while there's messy bugs will just make matters much worse and some players would never return again...

We all get it, some people are getting fed up because it's been months after the first official release date. We're all upset about it, and so are the developers. I admit a single module shouldn't be taking that long, but I'm still being very patient. I've also stopped caring about when they say "soon" or any similar key words. I just tell myself it'll come when it'll come. I'll compile a bunch of comments from the team below (I wish there was a spoiler but whatever), but I know some people might TLDR:

Yeah people will always do that. People would be tempted to say that, but since the team was very small and they've been at quite a slow pace, I knew I'd need a lot of patience and that they would need support to get their dream game to become true. I've seen my share of people who's been overly dramatic and putting a lot of emphasis on all the mistakes the developers has made. I won't blame someone who's rightfully upset and to ask questions, and it's okay to criticize. But I will be honest, I feel disappointed at people who says that it's a joke, a scam, that will speak their hatred, or will ask for refunds for petty reasons like it's taking too long for them. Yes delays aren't good, and it happens to a lot of games, including some popular triple A titles. If only I knew about this game during kickstarter. But I did pledge for this game, and I don't think I'll consider getting a refund with how much I've spent. I understand that the project will encounter drawbacks, but the issue is that they talk about it on Discord then it gets "lost" among thousands of messages (sure you can use the search function, if only everyone would do it, it would be wonderful). Not really the point of this thread... Sure, I've pledged a significant amount of money, sure I could question about progress and updates, just like anyone else. But there's ways you should do and ways you shouldn't. There will always be someone who will truly defend the game and will praise it. I do lean towards that side but I'm not that "true die hard fan". I won't hesitate to give true information and answer as best as I can questions that people will ask about the game and its development. But no I'll never say they've been doing perfectly fine. They need to improve on so many things, and game development is a learning curve. I actually hate when people riot or flame towards each other, like one extreme versus the other. Ideally, I think there should be more cooperation, and various opinions and constructive criticism. I can understand people being upset about transparency. I won't deny it, most of the obvious updates we see are some screenshots of clothing and furniture, and the developer blogs. But sometimes you'll see Motown or Beach Ball pop in the Discord server. I always remind myself that the team has been very busy. I didn't think I'd get any privileges (aside pledge rewards) when I made my pledge. The only difference it makes is the support it gives to them. We know there's people who awfully hate what the devs do, and there's people who defends the devs. And both should stop because it's not helping either way. But some won't stop, unfortunate reality. Mind elaborating and proving your point?

Hmm, what difference does it do to be a real developer or not? Also if you think Identity is garbage, that's your own opinion, but please do us a favor and show us actual proof of your arguments. How many times I've seen those developers hand make those assets, sighs... Also I can confirm what @raicyrose have said concerning Town Square. If you have paid attention to the gameplay stream, you'd see that the module is functional to some extent and that the assets are done. The latest bottleneck has been mostly the bugs found in the back end of the UI. Do you want me to elaborate a bit more concerning those bugs?

They won't stop, there will always be someone who's not satisfied and will not hesitate to show it, whether it's on the forum or on the Discord. I will not blame anyone for being upset about a single module that haven't released after over three years of development. I do encourage to ask questions, to get informed. It's okay to also give opinions, based on facts. But some people do get angry or overly dramatic, and will make pessimist remarks. I just find those useless as they bring nothing good to the development.