First and foremost, to those still keeping tabs on the game, thank you so much for your patience. You have absolutely no idea how much I appreciate it. To those seeing this game for the first time, welcome! It's going to be a wild ride, I assure you.
As of right now, sign-up's to get free access into playtesting for the game are now available. However here are a few details to keep in mind before signing up. I want to make sure everyone's as informed as possible as to what's going on here.
Music and Sound FX Music and sound fx licenses are expensive, so bare in mind that as of now, there's a limited amount of music in-game. This WILL be expanded on, so don't fret if you're afraid the same exact song playing on repeat is getting annoying. As far as sound goes, there's a strong likelihood that throughout this playtest, almost all the sounds will (eventually) be replaced. That's not to say the current sounds are bad, per say... but they're a random assortment of placeholders fetched from... well, around and the arduous task of trying to track down each individual artist for proper credit is one I'd pay not to have to do. Literally.
Workshop Functionality Because of the nature of the way Steam handle's playtesting, it's very likely the Workshop functionality might be a bit... funky at first. I promise to iron these issues out before too long though. Just something to keep in mind. Also the workshop for this version of the game might not be properly set-up, so we'll play that one by ear. ːsenpaiː
The vast majority of the game is actually finished, with a few exceptions. | First, leaderboard functionality is still in a state of flux as there's a lot of work under the hood that will need to be evaluated and decisions made on how to handle this in the final release. Mainly because once the game is released, the hope is that I'll never need to do anything that would risk a leaderboard reset. So getting this down properly is very important. | Second, as of the time of writing this post, there are 10 sections (5 levels each) for a total of 50 levels. The final amount will ideally hit 100+ levels but we're keeping expectations reasonable here. The last thing I want to do is create repetitious levels with mechanics that overstay their welcome. I'd rather have a slightly shorter game with more unique and fun levels than an excessively long game with too much filler. | Third, there will almost certainly be bugs. Especially with sounds. As development progressed over such a long period of time, I've discovered better and more efficient ways of handling sound effects but alas, there's still a lot of legacy code operating a lot of sounds effects. These issues will solve themselves as everything is transitioned over to the new standard. | Finally, controller support is not ready for prime-time, but you're welcome to experiment. When originally developing the game, there was a major focus on the Steam Controller API and unfortunately that functionality was a tad too ambitious to try and pull off full-stop. I'm willing to revisit it at a later time, probably after release, but as of now, there's a weird hybrid of stuff that will and will not work properly with controller because a lot of the Steam Controller API hooks were removed and replaced with more traditional DirectInput methods.
Expectations. Let's set some straight. Unlike the original internal closed testing which was made available a while back via the original developer blog, signing up for the playtest via Steam will not grant a free copy of the game and you may not have full access to the game at all times. I'll be sure to communicate what's going on though.
While playtesting the game, I'll try to keep in-touch as much as possible with the best place to post suggestions, feedback, and issues being the Community Hub.
Initial Test Focus The primary focus in the first batch of testing, in addition to bug reports and general feedback, will be in the level progression. As it stands, there's a very limited amount of internal feedback on the level difficulty curve. If things get too hard too quickly, this isn't intentional. It's a byproduct of internal testers getting too good at the game to have an unbiased opinion on just how tricky levels are. That's where you come in!
Naturally I'll be more than happy to answer any questions about in-game mechanics and whether or not behavior is a bug or working as intended. This is going to be a tricky process with most feedback directed towards whether or not certain mechanics are introduced properly. There is not nor will there ever be any sort of formal tutorial or text describing how things work, primarily because I've never once played a game where that part of the game was ever fun. So most mechanics are designed to be simple, consistent, and easy to pick up on. The core challenge isn't so much learning how things work but learning how various mechanics play off each other to solve puzzles.
Leaderboard Functionality Leaderboards may be periodically wiped throughout playtesting but I'll be sure to post announcements for when these will occur. As for why a wipe might be necessary, there are two main reasons. First, none of the levels are set in stone and could change. Naturally if a level is substantially changed, leaderboard scores may become impossible to beat. Second, as mentioned earlier, under the hood, leaderboards are still being polished and refined, so any changes that could break current functionality could result in an unintentional wipe. Mainly because level identity could change and access to previous leaderboards might be lost.
Settings As of right now, the only graphical settings available are a change in resolution. A lot of under the hood hooks towards various graphics are being built based around both feedback and internal tests to gauge which graphical effects are most demanding and what can be done to offer options for disabling them. The vast majority of graphical settings will not necessarily be for taste but performance, so baring exceptional backlash towards certain visuals, graphic settings will be for performance only.
Music and sound effect settings are available both separately and a main volume slider to control both.
Input settings are not available in any fashion because of original intentions to have the Steam Controller API handle all of that. These will be added as time goes on, however.
Closing Statement It's been a very long, at times quite painful journey to get this game in a state where I'm ready to start letting it loose to the wild. We've still got a long way to go, this game and I, but I'm optimistic that with the help of those willing to stand by me, we can truly make this the best game it can possibly be.
Thanks for being awesome! <3 - Brandon Cassata (SilverAura) ːorbitalː
Leaderboard Update
So very quickly after the last update, it was brought to my attention that Steam profile names can't always be trusted to be appropriate. With this update, a change was made in the way leaderboards display usernames to other players when viewing the leaderboard.
The goal of this update isn't to punish people with inappropriate names. You'll still be able to play the game and upload scores with no issue. In fact, your name will still be stored unaltered on the back end. It's only when the names are being displayed on the leaderboard that inappropriate parts of your name will be removed.
I think this is the best overall compromise to make because it's not my right to tell anyone what they should use as their profile name, but it is my responsibility to put a reasonable effort into avoiding these names from showing up by default in a game designed for a broad audience.
Naturally with this functionality still being new, there may be glitches ranging from names not displaying properly to leaderboards flat out not displaying at all. Most of these should be ironed out but should you run into any issues, please contact me on Steam and I'll work with you to figure out what's going on and fix it.
As always, feedback is always encouraged. Thank you. <3
Trading Cards!
So in light of the long absence since the last post, I figured I'd come back with a bang to show that progress is back on track.
Among a lot of tweaks, polish, and quality of life updates being made to the game, trading cards featuring many of the various puzzle components of the game have officially been released and are ready for collection/trading once the game is released.
In addition, 10 gorgeous wallpapers and Emoticons, hand crafted using the same geometry as their in-game components (albeit with a dash of pre-render shine) come along with these trading cards. All wallpapers and emiticons reference the same objects as the trading cards so if you see one you're particularly fond of, you have a chance of getting or trading that item as a wallpaper or emiticon when you craft your badges!
Finally, anyone who's currently in the closed beta testing for the game, not only do you have new updates waiting for you in the game, but you should now receive a backlog of trading cards for all the amazing time you spend testing and providing invaluable feedback to the game. A special thanks goes out to all of you for your patience and willingness to help me make this game the best it can be. Thank you so very much.
More news to follow soon!
Release Update
Updates are coming along a bit slower than anticipated, but things are still very much going forward and very quickly. A vast majority of the game is actually finished. Virtually every mechanic is functional (short of a few quirky bugs to work out), campaign progression is fully functional, and the level editor is basically finished and works fantastic along side Steam Workshop and level generated leaderboards.
So why make this post? Well, simply put... I want to make sure I'm communicating what's going on behind the scenes and create some reasonable expectations for where the game is going to be going post-release.
Currently there are over 40 complete levels in the campaign which is segmented into five levels per section with plenty more yet to come. All of these levels are being created using the level editor which was built specifically to be used by players to create and share their own levels. This editor will be included with the game at launch for free, right from within the game!
Where am I going with this? Diamond has been something of a passion project of mine for years now and the idea of releasing it has been bitter sweet because in many ways, I want it out there for everyone to play, but at the same time I don't want to stop working on it. Not yet, anyway. There are still so many new things I want to do with this game. So many new components I want to add. So many new puzzles I want to create. But so much of this has had to be pushed to the side to focus on what is currently ready or will be ready very soon, so I can actually release this game.
As such, once released, Diamond is going to get more than it's fair share of post-release updates. These updates will obviously address bugs, performance, your typical post-release updates.
But that's not good enough! Not for a project I care for so much. Not for people who were willing to pay for it.
I plan to support Diamond in the way I'd expect any developer to support a game I trusted money to. To take continued feedback and expand the game based on that feedback. To add new levels and new components. To make tweaks and adjustments to the game in every area I feel it needs it. All for free and well into the foreseeable future.
As of right now, there is no intention on charging for any post-release content. That's not to say it wont happen, but if it were to happen, it would have to be significant. I'm not going to take a penny from anyone without selling them a degree of confidence that they're getting what they paid for in their initial purchase price, and hopefully a lot more.
Live Development Progress
As the game starts getting closer to completion, I'm going to start posting more announcements here on the official Steam page for Diamond. Of course that doesn't change the fact that up until now, absolutely zero has actually been said about the games progress here up until now.
But that doesn't mean the progress hasn't been kept!
For anyone interested in seeing how things have been going on the game's development up until now or are interested in seeing the pace of things behind the scenes, I've been regularly keeping up with an official developer blog which you can find here:
http://www.officialdiamondgame.com/
That being said, the last thing I want to do is spam announcements every time a new build of the game is released, especially if it's something as simple as "Fixing Visual Glitches", but these are precisely the kind of updates I regularly make on the developer blog. So if you're interested in being kept up to date with the absolute most recent information, that blog is by far the best way to stay on top of things. Meanwhile I'll be reserving the more significant announcements for here.
One final note:
Absolutely nothing that I'm doing means anything without the support of people who are helping make this possible. This means if you're reading this right now, I value your feedback more than you probably realise. So please don't hesitate to say what's your mind. If I'm going to sell anyone anything, I want to make sure it's something I know they actually want and will sincerely enjoy.
