On today’s episode of the MassivelyOP Podcast, Justin and I engaged in a lil bit of speculation about the eventual launch of Project Gorgon, which we note has been waiting on the completion of Statehelm. Well, apparently Elder Games’ ears were burning because just as we were discussing it, the devs were teasing it with a new contest. Yeah, we don’t usually cover contests, but this one’s called the Prepare to Launch Screenshot Contest.

“Want to help us prepare for launch? We are currently assembling the media kit for P:G’s launch ad campaign, and we want your help!” Elder Games’ Jackencola posted. “Send us the prettiest screenshot you can get of Alharth’s beauty, and your submission might get used for promoting Project: Gorgon’s launch!” There’s no specific window given for the release itself, just a deadline for the contest of September 22nd, so this is kinda quick turnaround.

The announcement sent the indie MMORPG’s Discord into a flurry of chatter over whether or not the devs should wipe (they’ve said they will not), which prompted Jackencola to add more clarification.

“Statehelm (some, likely not all of) will be released prior to launch, to allow us to debug as much as we can prior to launch,” he says. “We’re not certain if there will be a patch on launch day or not. If not, it will be a somewhat uneventful flipping of the switch on Steam from Early Access to Release.” Neither orcs nor dwarves will make it in for this launch, either: “The dwarf zones have not even been started on yet, and Orc was punted to post-launch because of the failure of 2-handed weapons, which were supposed to be an Orc feature.”

So weirdly, what we speculated on during the podcast was correct: The game is mostly waiting on Statehelm now before it launches. It’s just coming sooner than we expected, which is a wild thing to say since this game has been in early access seven and a half years and endured unimaginable tragedy just a few months ago. But here we are.