Crema tease new Temtem game with fresh combat system alongside plans to remove all Temtem microtransactions

rockpapershotgun.com:

Crema, the creators of much-liked Pokemon-like Temtem, are teasing a new untitled game set in the same universe - the mystifying Project Downbelow. It isn't Temtem: Swarm, aka Temtem Vampire Survivors, nor is it Temtem 2. But it will "try out new things we would love to see in a hypothetical Temtem 2", including a new combat system running on a "stronger" game engine. The tease accompanies news that Crema are making significant changes to Temtem as part of the game's update 1.7 - for one thing, they're getting rid of the whole microtransaction system. Temtempetuous times indeed!

All that's from a very long, but quite interesting Steam blog in which Crema discuss the rockier parts of Temtem's development, respond to a recent Steam user reviews backlash, and look to the future. The game was original envisaged as an "MMO-lite", but in the absence of an MMO-lite tag on Steam and other storefronts, the developers called it an MMO instead, which has caused some players to go in expecting a kind of monster-catching World Of Warcraft.

The developers also discuss current plans for adding to the game. They won't be adding any more islands and Tems due to a shortage of resources and team members, with the post noting that previous additions have not resulted in a "permanent increase in the playerbase" that would justify the labour. An excerpt:

Development time is limited for a studio our size, and new islands are a major undertaking. It took the team many months to develop each island that was launched during Early Access: Kisiwa, Cipanku, Arbury and the Endgame Island, Tamer's Paradise.

Everytime we set out to create a new area we invest a lot of resources from all teams, and a lot of time. Whenever a new island came out to the public it was received with cheers and excitement, but we all noticed how fast the players would consume the content and leave once more. Understandably, the community wants new islands to enjoy and discover, and hope they will make the game