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Dev Log #7

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!

Dev Log #6

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

Dev Log #5

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)

Dev Log #4

The Solar Settlers store page was approved! (You can wishlist the game now if you’re so inclined 🙂 )

http://store.steampowered.com/app/655480/Solar_Settlers/

So that means I’ll be announcing the release date later today.

Just working on fixing up a few lingering bugs before sending out a huge blast of emails to YouTubers and such! Trying to decide whether to do a release date embargo for this one. Axes and Acres had a good launch with that approach, but it’s so hard to disentangle if that was the cause.

Dev Log #3

Back at it on today! Tuesday! There have been a couple short weeks lately with all the long weekends… Anyway working on tidying up a bunch of loose ends. Some unlocking bugs, some small balance tweaks, added a leaderboard for Unlock XP level. (And made my code for leaderboards more general so I won’t have to rewrite so much every time…should have done it a long time ago heh.)

Wresting with the idea of where to put the Weekly challenge mode at XP wise, and the larger issue of how fast things should unlock. I want the XP ladder to provide a gentle carrot for a long time, but I also want to make it so the people who really dig the idea of a Weekly challenge can get into it quickly, and I think it’s one of my tastier-looking carrots…

Maybe an alternative unlock mode by winning a rank 30 match or something.

Hopefully Valve approves my Store Page soon, apparently I have to wait 2 weeks after that is live to launch. That will probably be what defines the launch date at this point. I gotta get this game out there, it’s been too long since a release and I’m feeling antsy.

Dev Log #2

Was working on some button/menu sounds and such today, and they started sounding annoying when two particular ones played at the same time (a “bip” and a “doo dee” if you want a little insight into my sound file naming process :P)

Anyway, I ended up tuning “bip” to D# in Audacity. Dissonance resolved! Reminds me of tuning a drum set or something.

Other than that basically just whittling down a huge list of minor tweaks and bugs to get ready to send the game out to YouTubers and games websites and such. Probably need to get a few “fresh” eyes on the tutorial before that though…

Dev Log #1

Got the last couple of alien races into Solar Settlers, plus cleaned up a bunch of random XP/Unlock tasks and stuff. Couple people were commenting on the discord that there needs to be a higher degree of randomness somewhere in the design. I THOUGHT CARD GAMES WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE TONS OF RANDOMNESS? ISN’T THAT THE BIG MEME? 

Anyway, hoping to have a system similar to the Minos shrines or something to address the problem a bit. The races and unlocks and such should already be doing a lot of help with the longevity thing. Also trying to decide between $8 and $10 for Steam.

Steam Store page should be live by Monday, and then TWO WEEK LAUNCH CAMPAIGN GOGOGO