SEAR DevBlog, week of 1/26/26: The schedule is set

Base Groove, before detailing

I settled on the release schedule for SEAR this year. I'll have more detail in the coming weeks when I update the website and Discord, but the top line is this: Kickstarter in September 2026, Early Access in January 2027 with 8 playable levels.

The alternative, like I mentioned last week, would simply have been too early. This schedule lets us put the time into everything that it needs. We're looking at announcement avenues over the summer, potentially starting as early as April with online showcases.

This week was a lot more admin for me - some leftover tax stuff and a lot of emailing. I was able to get into the project just long enough to finish some collision fixes that were necessary to get sound effects firing off of hits correctly. Other than that, we got a first draft of Groove into the game project (still missing a lot of detailing, but the silhouette and overall impression is there), meaning it's ready for physics alignment. Most of our UI aesthetic redesign elements got updated to Pending Approval, meaning I just need to give it final signoff so we can start pulling it all into the project. Our cave environments got some work to make them look more cave-y and less blocky, and HDRI skies are back in the game (they were removed for a while last year) which are just far more vivid.

More next week!