We've been working hard at Slice & Bite for over 3 years at this point. Most of that time we were spending a few hours a week after work and weekends, and only recently we've been able to dedicate a greater portion of our time to developing the game.
After getting enough feedback we've found out that people usually really like how our game looks, how it sounds, and the premise, but the gameplay is "just ok". I'm sure other developers can agree this is a difficult thing to accept. Especially when it comes to "just ok", because it's so hard to parse! "It's too difficult" at least feels more actionable than "just ok".

So we were at a crossroads. Maybe our game doesn't have the magic. Maybe we should give up and do something else.

Testers usually agree that there is something interesting in the gameplay, but that it was untapped or hindered by other mechanics.
So we decided to revisit our main systems, overhaul them, give the game another chance. After 3 years of working on this world we are not ready to let it go just like that.

Sometimes to go forward you need to take a couple steps back ( in this case is almost literal , as you can see in the screenshots we've widened the camera quite a bit).

Now Slice and Bite focuses more on the speed of the delivery (which was a planned feature but not as relevant as it is now) and we've simplified the UI and the systems quite a lot. Now you use the blood you collect from enemies as fuel for your carriage to go faster.
It remains to be seen if the players find this more engaging than before, but so far our own testing feels more dynamic, you get a bit of an adrenaline rush trying to keep the pedal to the metal and gorge your engine with monster blood.

If you are curious about how the game played "before", go ahead and download the demo. We are still welcoming of any feedback that might come our way. We love the world of Slice & Bite and we hope we can share that world with players too.

Carpe Noctem
Delfos (programmer, artist)