If you're an indie fan, you'll probably remember our earlier coverage of Praey for the Gods, originally titled Prey for the Gods before the development team was forced to change it due to Bethesda's pressure.

　　It's a game inspired by Team ICO's masterpiece Shadow of the Colossus (which will get a full remake for PlayStation 4 in a few months) and crowdfunded via Kickstarter. Praey for the Gods was originally scheduled to be available in late 2017, but given the lack of a solid release date, a delay seemed more and more likely.

　　The folks at No Matter Studios made this official a few days ago while explaining the reasons for the delay into 2018.

　　

Closed Alpha is getting even closer!

We’ve been working around-the-clock on our PFTG Closed Alpha release. Right now, this means doing a substantial amount of tuning on controls, climbing, and combat. We recently integrated Unity’s new Cinemachine/Timeline system, which is a huge improvement for cutscenes and trailers. It’s a great tool and will cut down the development time we were going to have to dedicate to cutscenes. Cutscenes that used to take us one week to set up now take 20 minutes! It’s pretty amazing.

　　

Wait, you’re still working on the Closed Alpha?

Yes, still! Game development schedules are not an exact science, and estimating how much time it will take to get PFTG to “feel right” can be a bit of a moving target. Our hope was to have the Closed Alpha done earlier, however we felt it was necessary to include a number of features now that we had slotted for later releases, including a new onboarding area for players. Initially, our plan was to throw players into the deep end and see how it went. However, in recent playtests we quickly found that a dedicated area to let players get comfortable with the world and the mechanics was worth prioritizing.

　　The good news is that we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the Closed Alpha and the path to full release. However, with that being said, it’s become obvious to us that we need to push out the PFTG Closed Alpha and full release into 2018. We know that you have been patiently waiting, and we’re excited for you to see all of the great stuff that we’ve been able to add by pushing out our dates a bit. We hope that all of the additional features, content, and polish will take away the sting of having to wait a little longer. (Read on to learn about some of these improvements in detail.)

　　

When will we see the full release!?

We’re not ready to throw out a specific 2018 date for the full release yet, especially without seeing the feedback from the upcoming Closed Alpha. We’ve received lots of emails and messages from our backers asking us to take our time and not rush PFTG, which we really appreciate as it lets us work towards the high bar we’ve set for ourselves. Because our Closed Alpha will be a rolling release that first goes out to our backers and then later to a wider audience, we’re estimating that the full release would follow at least 6-9 months after Closed Alpha begins.

　　It sounds like Praey for the Gods will be available in the latter part of 2018, then, barring any extra delays. The game should launch on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.