Just two days left before launch. Concerns:
1) Valve hasn’t approved the build, but the reason they denied the first time was actually a Steam Cloud configuration issue that is definitely solved. (volvo pls)
2) I’m polishing up some last minute things, trying to be really careful, but there’s always a risk I introduce some new bug!
Just crushing (CAREFULLY) through accessibility stuff before launch. My TODO list is now basically
1) Add a “basic” or “accessibility” mode
2) Add MOAR cards
Tom Chick mentioned Mind Worms from Alpha Centauri on his stream yesterday, and I had a cool idea for how they’ll work this morning. (Sneaky peek, they’ll be a deep space card).
Also, sounds like I’m going to appear on his podcast early next week, so that’s cool! Starting to feel slightly less nervous and slightly more excited for launch now?
Some of the last feedback I’m going to act on before launch has to do with accessibility. Specifically some people are having trouble reading the small text on the cards. Not that I particularly want to take UI advice from Magic the Gathering Online (sick burn… they have a tough row to hoe), but I think I’m going to just do the thing they do where your last hovered card is shown nice and big in the upper left.
It’s not a very common problem, but it still seems like a nice safe pre-launch polish thing.
Doing PR like crazy! Had an amazing day though, some really promising interest in Solar Settlers.
I’m really excited to launch this one!
Hopefully Steam approves the build soon.
Also doing scheduling for the SOLAR SETTLERS LAUNCH STREAM EVENT which is a very interesting thing. Lots of variables to juggle there. I’m sure it will be fun no matter how it turns out. Can somebody tell me why it’s so damn hard to get the contact info for Twitch streamers though??
Announcing the Solar Settlers Launch Stream Event!
The event will include:
Countdown Timer (July 22, 7PM CDT)
Let me know what ya’ll think, and/or if you’re interesting in participating or a Steam Key. (You can DM me on Twitter @BrickRoadDX or email me at braingoodgames (at) gmail (dot) com)
(Also if you know any Streamers that might be interested on YouTube or Twitch, send them the post)
We’ll meet up on Discord prior to starting so we can coordinate a bit.
Just one more week! Did a tiny-tweak update to Solar Settlers, and sent out another batch of press emails. Wondering whether the embargo is a good idea or a bad one, and how badly Steam Direct is gonna hurt sales…
Oh well, no sense worrying about it!
Also gotta remember to contact people today about a potential Twitch stream launch event like for Minos. That was at the very least super fun!
Launch is next week! Got a message from Valve saying that Cloud saves were disabled (so I checked the box!) and that on SteamOS nothing in the build seems to work. I always sort of assumed SteamOS would work the same as Linux. Game seems to run okay in Ubuntu in VirtualBox, so it must be a SteamOS specific thing. Don’t know anybody with one of those though! 🙁
In other news, getting some bites on the press email side of thing. A bunch of them are from people who have previously covered BrainGoodGames, which is one of those glass-half full things I suppose. It means that people are sticking around at least once they’re “in”. Hoping to get at least a few more new faces though!
The bugs are getting less severe! Did some specific card fixes, a couple of tutorial typos and fixes for the Weekly Challenge mode today. All nice things to fix, but nothing game-breaking.
Makes me feel more comfortable about sending out the press keys, which is nice! Whenever you make large changes (like adding saving) it feels like all of the user testing you’ve done up to that point is out the window, so it’s nice to be crystallizing the build a bit just in time for launch.
Just gotta make a gif, tweet and send out some press emails this afternoon.
Minos iOS testing looks like it’s going well too! Nothing too severe to fix on that front either. w00t
Trying to “settle” things down a bit with the updates on Solar Settlers because I’VE STARTED EMAILING OUT PRESS KEYS :O! (oh god here we go again)
The game is “done” (that’s a single done, as in not “done done”) as in I’ve completed all the features I currently have planned for release. Still plan on adding some new cards and doing tons of balancing and stuff. And of course, implementing the suggestions of the excellent testing team and whoever else gets back to me.
Pretty fun watching the wishlist numbers already climbing a bit on the Steam backend. Gotta remember not to get obsessed with that kind of stuff. BUT IT’S HARD.
Also still gotta do the last 10% of the Minos Strategos iOS build at some point (may be pushed back a bit now), so I can get some beta testing going for that… (if you wanna beta test send me a message on Discord)
