We Hit a Wall - Here's How We're Climbing It

Wut up buttercups,

We’ve got something important (and honestly, a little hard) to share today. We’ve hit a major roadblock in the development of 3XO — one that we can’t just power through with brute force, caffeine, or optimism.

Here’s the truth: the game runs beautifully when there’s only a few characters on screen. But as soon as the world starts to feel alive — 50+ players, events, shared spaces — the framerate tanks. And that’s not just a bug. That’s a foundational performance issue. One that makes the game unplayable at scale. And one we can't ignore.

We’ve tried everything we know. Both Reigning Sun and Caliope have pushed their skills to the edge — and then past it. We are immensely proud of what they’ve accomplished… but we’ve reached the end of what our current team can do alone.

To go further, we need reinforcements.

So here’s what we’re doing next:

• We're reaching out to other studios to contract elite Unreal Engine devs.
• We're hiring a professional headhunter to help us find the top-tier performance wizards — people who eat draw calls for breakfast and optimize Blueprints in their sleep.
• We’re exploring partnerships with investors who align with our vision and values — not just someone with a checkbook, but true allies who believe in 3XO.

We still have all of your pre-order funds safely untouched. But bringing in master-level engineers isn’t cheap, and we don’t want to spend your money unless we’re absolutely sure the problem is solvable. If it turns out that we can’t hit our goals even with these new hires, then yes — we’ll refund every pre-order. No bullshit. No loopholes.

In the meantime… we need to take a breath.

Reigning Sun has decided to step back for a while. He’s been carrying so much of the weight for this project — and this recent roadblock hit him hard. He poured everything into this game, and when we hit the wall, it broke something in him. We love him. We support him. And we’re giving him space to recover.

While we search for new developers and untangle this beast of a performance issue, Caliope and Cryptic Moon will be working on a side project — a ridiculous, sexy, hilarious visual novel parody of The Bachelor. Think of it as a palette cleanser. A creative reset. And yes, backers will get it for free.

We know this sucks to hear. It’s not the update you were hoping for. It’s not the update we wanted to give. But it’s the truth. And we trust you enough to share it with no spin.

Here’s the silver lining: 3XO is too good to be rushed. We could’ve shipped something broken, slapped a sticker on it, and called it “alpha.” But that’s not who we are. You backed this project because you believed it could be something better. We still believe that. And we’re going to fight for it — smartly, strategically, and with the help we need.

We won’t be releasing previews of the current build just yet, because honestly, we don’t know how much will change once performance gets reworked. But we promise you this: once we’re back on track, you’ll be the first to see what we’ve built.

Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for being patient. And thank you for giving us the space to make this right.

• The Black Lotus Team 💜