I'm sure most people know this by now, but I'll reiterate it:
The last part of game development is really hard.
And not only is it hard, but also repetitive and boring. And yet every day is one step closer to release, and I'm getting reallllyyy close now.
Bugs
Every time I think I've fixed all of the game-breaking bugs, another one appears where I least expect it. Making a game with a lot of scripted moments and cutscenes allows a lot of opportunity for soft and hard locks, and those kinds of bugs are completely unacceptable, for a short narrative game especially.
If the first chunk of user reviews of my game are from upset people who find bugs that prevent them from finishing the game, it could really tank its favorability in Steam's algorithm and bury it from a lot of prospective players. So I've been playing my game from start to finish over and over and over again and implementing fixes left and right to make sure everything works properly.
Playtesting
But playing through the game on my own, no matter how many hours, has not been nearly enough.
Luckily, I have a good amount of friends and friends-of-friends who have been playtesting it which has proven invaluable these last few weeks. They have found game-breaking bugs I never would have found on my own, and without their help, releasing A Walk With Yiayia would be a huge disaster.
Playable on Steam Deck?
I'm happy to report that A Walk With Yiayia will be playable on the Steam Deck! I don't have one myself but I have a few playtesters who are running the beta on theirs and initial impressions are really good! I'll release my recommended graphical settings for Steam Deck when the game releases so that you don't have to fiddle around with them on your own.
That's all I've got to report for now! And as always, I'm happy to answer (most) questions if you'd like to ask them below.
-Trent
Quality of Life Features
New Accessbility Features
Entering this last phase of development I've finally been able to implement some quality of life and accessibility features that I've been planning on adding from the start!
I think it's really important that devs take the time to do these things, even if you're just a solo developer like me. It definitely takes extra time to develop, but the more these things are seen as standard in games, the better the situation is for people of all ability levels to play as many games as possible!
So here are the features I've implemented so far:
Flashing Lights Toggle
At the very top of the graphics settings menu (where you can't miss it) I've added a toggle for flashing lights for those with photosensitivity. Partway through the game it starts raining and thundering and lightning flashes occasionally,
In real life lightning is very unlikely to induce epilepsy in people with photosensitivity, but because this is a videogame and the way lighting in games works is a bit more unnatural than in real life, I've added the setting for anyone who might want it just in case. When this setting is set off, all lightning flashes are completely disabled.
Hold Hands Input Toggle
In A Walk With Yiayia a main mechanic of the game is having to hold Yiayia's hand to help her around certain obstacles and keep her close. While I like the idea of making the player constantly hold down a key or controller trigger to mimic holding a person's hand, the reality is that some players have difficulty holding buttons down, or find it uncomfortable. So to remedy this I've added a toggle setting to allow players to tap a button to toggle holding or not holding hands. For gamepad players I have also set it so the player can either use the right rear trigger button or the top face button to activate the input, whichever one feels more comfortable for them.
Conversation Log
There are a lot of words in this game. I've tried to let the player choose the speed of conversations wherever possible but for some cutscenes and gameplay sequences I've needed the timing to be very specific, so there are a few parts of the game where the dialogue continues by without the player's input to continue it. Fortunately, I'ved added a conversation log in the pause menu, accessible whenever the player is out of a conversation. It logs every line of dialogue that runs through the game's dialogue system and filters out all the secret code happening behind the scenes.
Hopefully this can help players who read a bit slower than average, accidentally skip a line or two, or just tend to be kind of forgetful like I am.
I've made the conversation log the second option in the pause menu so you can't miss it!
All of these settings are accessible from the main menu AND the pause screen in-game to make it as easy as possible to tweak the game without having to restart it.
I've also made a point to make all text in the game large, contrasty, and hopefully easy to read for most players.
Even with all of these measures in place, I'm not an expert and I don't have a team helping me develop this game, so if there are any accessibility features I've missed that will help you or somewhere you know play through the game easier, I'm totally open to suggestions!
One final update: progress is going smoothly towards release. I'm hoping to have an updated release date in the next week or two. Stay tuned!
-Trent
A Walk With Yiayia Development Update
Some news about the game's progress-
At the Wholesome Direct this year I announced that A Walk With Yiayia would release on August 20th, 2022. But alas, I'm just one guy making this game part-time and I made the announcement with only a medium amount of expectation that I might actually finish by that date. What I was mostly hoping for was that it would force me to work on the game faster, and it definitely has!
So, is it done yet?
Almost! But most likely I will NOT be finished with the game by August 20th (next week) unless I become superhuman. More likely it will be ready for a mid-September release date.
In fact, Steam doesn't let you release your game on weekends, so August 20th was never even possible, which I found out only after I announced the release date. Whoops. Again, it's just me figuring out all of this so I'm kind of scrambled. Here, have a couple of tantalizing new screenshots as consolation:
Anyway, the game's main content is complete but there is still work to do with final polishing, bug-fixing, playtesting and boring stuff like finishing the settings menus and testing various gamepads.
The initial release will be on Steam only, with the Nintendo Switch port to be released in the coming months. The Windows release is the highest priority but hopefully I can release day one on Mac and Linux as well if I get enough playtesting done on those operating systems.
One last important bit of news
The game will unfortunately only be available in English upon initial release. However I have been in contact with translation services to get at least the most common languages translated with some of the money I make from sales, or with the help of a publishing company. Fingers crossed.
That all said, I'm still almost to the finish line and the positive responses to the game are really keeping me going. Thank you all for your continuing support!
