You won't miss The Flock's finale if you're offline when the counter ticks down

The Flock will go offline forever when players rack up enough deaths, but don't worry - you won't miss out on the "climactic finale".

There's a lot of interest in horror multiplayer game The Flock, mainly because of its population mechanic: when players rack up some 200 million deaths, the game will no longer be offered for sale and will move into an end-game state. After this, it will go offline forever.

It's a clever solution to the problem of shrinking player bases, and offers something other games don't - a chance to be a part of a limited-time experience. That said, some players are concerned that they'll miss out on the ending of the game just because they're not online when the death tally ticks over.

In a Reddit AMA, developer Vogelsap said the promised endgame finale won't be something you can easily miss.

"We're aiming for the climactic finale to be something that everyone can experience and plan for," the developer said. "We believe that there will still be enough time to play the game during the finale."

Vogelsap also said that the finale will be documented to everyone can see what happened.

Most of the other AMA questions seemed to be about things answered in the FAQ Vogelsap published last week, but one other snippet caught my eye: this comment on the game's potential longevity.

"We like to think we will be able to reach the end of the death counter. We could say for example the game will last a year, but really we don’t know," Vogelsap said.

"We leave it up to the players, as it’s their battle and experience. Safe to say, the number is substantial and we don’t expect it to end in some mere months.

"But to be honest we really want it to reach zero so we can start doing more cool stuff. The population takes into account the optimal experience we intend to deliver, the lore, the average play time, amount of deaths, refunders, regular griefers, the sales we wish to make and the time we want the game to be active so everyone can take the time to enjoy the game."

The Flock launches on August 21. There's still no Steam page, but you can pre-order through the Humble Store.