Welcome to this week’s installment of Friday Fun, the blog where I talk about what’s on my mind with gamedev and hopefully you get something out of it.
Released!
First up this week, the elephant in the room, the full Prepare For Warp release on Steam. Yesterday, I went live with Prepare For Warp, taking out of Early Access and promoting it to a full release.
Good things are starting to happen. Right away, Morning Gaming News pronounced the game their “Name of the Day”. If it wins out against all other “Names of the Day” this month, Prepare For Warp will be used in one of their promotional giveaways.
Later in the evening, I was clued in to a streamer who was playing the game live. It was awesome to watch – I lurked and enjoyed for the first time observing someone playing the game without me standing right over their shoulder influencing their reactions. On multiple occasions, the streamer used the words “fun” and “hard”, and it was clear from the streamer’s reaction that the game was provoking the intended level of excitement. Lots of compliments were given on the music, including on my self-authored track. In the end, the streamer vowed to return to the game in another episode, which I mark as a huge success.
What’s Next For Prepare For Warp?
I’ll be candid on this – the amount of effort put into Prepare For Warp from this point forward will be directly proportional to interest in the game. While complete in its current form, I have so many more ideas I could implement for “Prepare For Warp 2.1” and beyond if only time were an infinite resource. It is not, though, so now that the game is released, my harsh reality as a full-time indie dev is that I can only justify allocating large blocks of time to update it if such an activity has a good chance of providing financial return for time spent.
As my 3D modeler’s time and inspiration allows, there are still more ship hull models in the pipeline that I plan to release as incremental updates. This may happen alongside holiday updates adding other themed ship parts (Bat Laser Decal for Halloween, anyone?)
Of course, I will continue to address any issues that arise that need fixing in order to preserve the play experience. I also still have some very-late-game testing to do that I have a personal interest in as a player of the game.
What’s Next for Dehoarder 2?
Aside from contract work, starting next week and into the indefinite future, Dehoarder 2 will be my main focus. I may have sidebar sprints for Prepare For Warp or Vintage Pachinko to update those games, but mostly that will be for times that I really need a break from Dehoarder 2.
Last month, I completed the development “saga” for Dehoarder 2 that I am titling “Modding I”, where I made the core game and all mods use the same system to define the game database.
The next “saga” for Dehoarder 2 will also be foundational and related to modding. “Modding II” will add the ability to script objects during gameplay. Objects will be able to react to being interacted with in a variety of ways. “Modding II” will also add the ability to more easily script story events.
Once “Modding II” is complete, I will likely perform a critical evaluation on all story content and story events defined so far, to see what I will be throwing out, and what I will be porting to the new story event system.
I’d like to get a closed alpha into the hands of my biggest fans sometime this Fall. That is not a promise, mind, but it is my aspiration.
Down Time
Today and through the weekend, I will be taking a much deserved “break”. I’ll be keeping an eye on Prepare For Warp’s release and addressing any issues there, but I will not be doing any heavy lifting on development or testing until at least Monday or possibly Tuesday, depending on how things go. So I will be coming at Dehoarder 2 with a fresh, relaxed mind next week, and with a cleaner house as I catch up on neglected chores.
I think that wraps up my thoughts for now. I will close with a call to action: Please, support my game Prepare For Warp. Wishlist it, buy it, review it, stream it, tout it, love it. It all helps immensely and is greatly appreciated!