v0.39 is now up and live on Steam. The main attraction here is the new overworld and levels. However, this is an incremental release - still a work in progress. Better to get something out rather than wait until it was perfect
New Levels
Gameplay: Next iteration of the overworld.
Settings: Added audio volume sliders
Settings: Ability to reset progress
Visuals: Iterating Switch Graphic
UI: Tooltips now added for all tiles in play mode
UI: Seen tooltips are remembered between play sessions
UI: Interface sounds are much less obnoxious
UI: Usability tweak - help button now shows OR hides tooltips
Bugfix: preview mode in editor weirdness
Known issue: Some of the new levels can be cheesed, because trigger tiles don't yet support new uses cases
Known issue: The music slider needs to close to minimum to actually affect synth levels.
Known issue: switch graphic doesn't work with instant output lines
Turing Completeness & Cadence: Learn how computers work
At first blush, Cadence just looks like a simple puzzle game mixed with a dash of zen music.
But don't be deceived, the systems that make the game tick are anything but minimal. Join us to find out about the depth and power of the sandbox. After covering the basics of making your own levels and musical compositions - we'll be exploring the concept of Turing Completeness, and how in theory, Cadence could run any known computer program (albeit slowly).
This was the foundation of modern computing as pioneered by the incomparable Alan Turing. I'm joined by Alan Zucconi, another Alan and educator extraordinaire. Known for creating excellent game development resources, being a dedicated university lecturer and youtube documentarian. Together we'll be attempting to prove some of these concepts by building the first few building blocks of a working calculator in the game sandbox.
Hopefully, by following along you'll leave with a bit of insight into how computers work - as well as the potential of the sandbox editor in Cadence!
Here Alan's excellent video about Turing Completeness in Conway's Game of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk2MH9O4pXY
Cadence: The Zen of Making Music
Cadence is something different: a hybrid of game and music sandbox. Understanding how to bring these two worlds together has been a quest 8 years in the making.
Join the developer as he answers: "What is Cadence?". Taking a deep dive look at:
How solving puzzles creates the game's unique zen music
A behind-the-scenes look at the history of the game, and why it's taken so long
How the powerful sandbox lets you create your own music and much more
[previewyoutube="ucSNNCZlyIs;full"]
Cadence 2021 Update
Everyone's least favourite year is now in the bin! Huzzah!
Since April Cadence has been on an unintentional hiatus. I'm lucky no one close to me suffered from Covid - but it's still been one tumultuous year!
In August, I quit my job, and then September saw the bittersweet end of a three-year relationship. In time these will be good things, but talk about spicy changes! Life stuff doesn't leave room for Cadence, but finally, a month ago, I'd sorted out enough to return to the project.
And what a productive month it's been! (Confirmed by looking at #git-stream). A consistent trend: sizeable chunks of the todo list go down when I've got the time to apply myself. Over the last couple of years, probably 50% of my background effort has been the search for more time. Whilst I don't have THE solution yet, I'll keep going for as long as the current gap in commitments exists!
Many games will have issues throughout development that make them feel buggy and broken. Then, as these issues get fixed in the final stretch, it starts to feel like a "real" game. Especially true on Cadence, where part-time development has meant living with these snags for years. v0.37 and v0.38 banish several of these issues, and it feels terrific. Both of these are now up on Steam if you're part of beta testing.
It's not clear yet what shape the rest of the year will take, but you can look forward to v0.39 at the end of January, and I've got some exciting news to share at the start of February. Until then I'm putting a hold on new beta keys.
This is probably the 3rd time I've attempted to write this post. So, lest we hit number 4, I’ll get to the point:
Cadence isn't dead, nor is it coming at any great speed. Previously I've struggled with this contradiction, because long stretches without anything to show is a terrible way to build an audience, especially in 2019 with so many outstanding games to choose from.
And let's be honest, I've been bad at posting updates. Like laughably, hilariously bad. Apologies! At times it’s been hard to find the right words, because no matter how I dressed them it felt like making excuses. But of course it’s better to own the situation!
So here we are: I’m solo indie dev working a day job. Staying sane, healthy and fulfilled are important values to me. After six years I understand my own limits well, and working long weekends is often a daring dance right on the edge of burnout. I have often thought about if I should hang up my hat and call it a day - but every single time I can’t shake the belief that there is something special here, something the world deserves to see. Even if it only reaches a few people, the off chance I might forever change someone’s creative trajectory is the thing that keeps me going.
I think back to my time working on the block building game Terratech as an example of community engagement done well. A new update every six weeks, weekly twitch streams, an engaged core of long term early access players, new players constantly trickling in. Despite the speed bumps, open development cycles where players and developers contribute together can be a beautiful thing. This is always where I wanted to Cadence to land.
However as I sit here, in my literal bedroom, I have to admit I was overly optimistic about being able to reach this sustained pace of development. Even with a team of more than 20 people Terratech received accusations of being dead during the quieter periods. This is the world we live in now, triple-A companies run brutal update schedules to keep gamers engaged amongst a sea of choice.
And so I started to shy away from Early Access: there's no point gathering feedback if you don't have the capacity to respond, because that's kind of the same thing as not listening. It really pains me to think I'd take people's money without giving them their money's worth. Stalling on release was safe way to ensure I wasn't ripping anyone off.
Unfortunately the collateral damage meant I sailed past all my release dates (the first one was as far back as 2015). Even though no one's money was on the line, each time eroded trust and dampened peoples’ faith. In fairness, not even I could have ever imagined it would take this long.
With the benefit of hindsight though I have confidence in my choices. Working a day job protected me from financial ruin, especially if the game flops. It also gave me room to be more creative and solve very difficult design problems. The Cadence of 2019 is barely recognisable as the same Cadence of 2016.
In July the game was one of ten finalists in the indie showcase at Develop Brighton. Despite getting annihilated by bedbugs in my dodgy hotel room (never say the indie lifestyle is glamorous), it was incredibly exciting to show the game for the first time in three years. I’m really happy with the result, the game played well. But there is still much to do!
After the back-to-the-drawing board reset in 2017, it was clear my placeholder programmer graphics had reached the end of their usefulness. Over the last few months I’ve been working on a visual refresh and getting the art closer to its final form. I’ve also been modernising from my ancient Unity 32 bit project to the latest 64bit Unity version. This process was quite painful, but means I’m once again able to release on all my intended platforms.
Also I’ve officially ended my working relationship with Rodain, one of my original collaborators. Rodain’s life has been on a journey of many parts and has moved well past Cadence. Pragmatically this had been the status quo for a few years, and it was past time for us to formalise this fact. The whole process was very amicable, and I wish Rodain nothing but the best. It’s no threat to development either because, as explained, this is already how things have been for a while now.
Going forward I would like to a bit more transparent about the work I’m doing on Cadence. Starting today you can join The Official Cadence Discord Server . I don't know how much I'll be able to hang out, but I realised a killer feature is the ability to add automation and bots. Even if you don’t hear from me very often, at least the bots can show you what I'm up to.
One example is the git bot. Git, a version control software, has a record of every single change since the first line of code. This means each time I submit a new change a discord channel gets notified and you know I’m still working on the game. There will be quiet periods when life gets in the way, and that’s okay. Life is important too.
Secondly, I've said before that I wanted people to start beta testing. Discord is the perfect place to coordinate this effort. Starting on the 11th November 2019 I'm going to start distributing some test keys. It will be very small scale for now, but I've run out of excuses, it’s time to let people play!
So does this mean the game is done or coming soon? Well not quite. The essence of the game is absolutely there, as has been for a while. However there's still a long laundry list of polish and bug fixes needed for a commercial release. Take for example saving user progress: without it you can still understand the game and play levels, but it’s something every released game in the last 20 years should have. In a world where I had more time I could imagine these features going quickly, however I’ve learnt not to trust such assumptions. Perhaps the only honest thing I can say is it's closer than it's ever been before, and it will be done when it's done.
And to those of you've been following the project for a long time kept the faith, all I can say is thank you!
The last while has been a crazy whirlwind, time for an update:
A week ago I was at GDC, the Game Developers Conference, showing a brand new build of Cadence. The exciting news is it's the first time we play tested the new level content and the game has definitely taken a leap forward. The countless conversations with other developers was great inspiration and generated a ton of feedback. We have a lot to think about!
One of things I wanted to get out of GDC was to figure out how we can accelerate development on Cadence, so you can get your hands on it sooner! I can't report on any breakthroughs, but there a few irons in the fire that might lead to something.
Unfortunately the price of all this progress it the toll taken on my body - which is starting to complain much louder about how hard I've been pushing. So even though I've spent most of the Easter weekend working, as I go back to working on TerraTech I'm going to have to listen and take my foot off the accelerator pedal for a bit.
One final question, do any folks around here use Discord? I've been hearing the virtues from other developers, would you guys like an official discord when we start alpha testing?
Peter
It lives!
Get hype!
There's a completely new Cadence about to pop out the oven - a new interface, a new art style, and a whole host of elements to blow sandbox play wide open. Check out the video to see it in action:
https://youtu.be/QXPuy4cTVLA
This means that finally we're getting in shape for a alpha test (thank you everyone that said they were keen). This took way longer than I wanted, but as mentioned in other posts we're going at the pace that is sustainable for us. I will strive to be better about communication in future though.
There's still a bit more work that needs to be done before we can release a playable build, but that day is a lot closer than ever before :)
