I have to deeply apologize for losing the November deadline, also, by not giving any news on what's going on.
First, the update is on (I've uploaded it yesterday, but, not for the OSX version yet. If you are a OSX player, would you help me test the update first? PM me please!).
The update is the final game. The final boss. The ending. The full soundtrack.
But... I've not lifted the early access status yet. Why?
A little note before I write a lot: if you need a refund, even in case of "no refund conditions", please PM me, I will ask Steam to refund you directly, no questions asked.
Ok. Time to enter on a complicated ground without stepping on landmines.
While developing the last details of Dog Duty, I've felt a heavy pressure on releasing the game by myself. This last month also included the porting work for Xbox (not as a deadline, but, as soon as possible). Why the hurry? Well, the game was almost completed, and I had a baby boy to born on January, 19.
As October was going on, I've started to wonder if Dog Duty launch and marketing campaign would be on better hands by a publisher (I never gave any shit to any marketing effort before). A publisher would also help on a lot of important details, like paying rating costs, etc.
Well, the pressure was going on, and, generally, publishers like to work with unreleased games, to make an all-platform launch, for marketing reasons.
But this does not explain everything. There was some stressful events that I cant describe yet. If anyone have any question, please ask, and I will do my best do answer it. I just... don't know how to describe, or where to start. But I owe you guys for everything. Your support helped me to survive on very very dark times.
So, again, the full game is uploaded. The game is finish-able. I will hold the Early Access status until I get a decision on if I will get a publisher or not. And maybe work on some extra content to justify all this delay.
This is it. The final month.
It's a really strong moment for our hearts: to accept that our 5 year long game is coming to it's conclusion.
The last main works will be:
-More soundtrack
-Small fixes here and there
-Some missing sfx
It's time to announce a final release date: November 1.
Thank you guys, for playing and staying for all this time. Dog Duty requested a lot from me, and the support was essential to stay alive and keep going.
(Now really, really) the final phase
It's surely a long time since the release of Dog Duty as a Early Access title. There was bugs to fix, characters, worlds, enemies and bosses to add.
Lots of bugs to fix, and polishing of the game, based on player feedback.
It's been a hard road, but we're almost, almost done.
I've got some reports telling that the game lacks of a clear objective, of what the heck the player is doing in Octopia. These are fair questions. Generally, I avoid obvious approaches like tutorials and over-explanations, so my solution was to develop a more robust map screen.
I will be uploading fixes for the game weekly. And, as always, if you find bugs, please, please, send to us!
What now?
On the end of June, Dog Duty were on Big Festival, and we watched-and-updated the game during the 4 event days straight. It was really great to watch the players interact with the game. Now, it's time to do the final plans for the release.
There's some small content additions (Bettina is working on the Boss music, and I'm planning a new addition to the travel hud), but, the major work from here, will be:
Porting, to the Xbox One and PS4. The process will change the pc version too, as there will be more testing, strict regulations and all.
Bug fixing, they will take the best of my time, but, well, it will be great to finally solve some issues.
There's more to be said, but I will save it for the next updates. The new music tracks are almost ready, and I hope that the new hud will be too.
Until then!
The Soundtrack Update
In 4 years of development, Dog Duty evolved from a simple base-defense game to a simplified-open-world-guerrilla-simulator. To reinforce the current game, the Soundtrack Update is on.
There's also some things to note:
-There's a new bug report tool. Located on the MainMenu, It sends your game files to us. It's great for reporting issues with save files, and believe me, save files with issues are gold here.
-Achievements to the game! We're still testing... but they should be 100% sure working in a week of testing.
-We're working hard to finish game on July, on the max. The Final Boss is coded and fully functional, but, it's temporarily disabled, until I work on the game finishing.
There's also a lot of bug fixes and other additions.
As always, please share your opinions, thoughts and bug reports on the forums! Thank you all very, very much, on supporting Dog Duty!
The voice update
There's a new update, with a lot of fixes and additions, but the most noticeable update will be on the audio.
Now Kilmer and Paula character features it's own voices. The radio effect also got some work, and we would love to hear what you guys think.
There's a test-purpose-option to enable the original audio voices, among other little things.
There's one thing that dont got into the update: the Capital, and it's Final Battle. It's taking a little longer than expected to finish, but we're taking care to script everything right (the game ending as well).
The next update, of course, will be the Capital Update, and we hope to have it done as soon as possible.
Almost there...
We now have the 3 main bosses working, and we're working to finish the Final Boss. There's also some working on the voices and game sounds, with an option to change the voices from 'retro' to 'original'. There's other audio updates, but maybe they will have to enter on a later update.
We hope to update the game later this week.
Still working on
This time, we're finishing details on how the sounds and music works on the final version of Dog Duty. The soundtrack now contains more variety, and changes according the game situations.
There's a new option on the game to change the voices from "retro" to "original", for the players that dont enjoy the old arcade/radio sounds.
There's a lot of other additions and improvements (on the .gif, the new Swamp Boss we're scripting right now), but, we will have to finish some other key parts before uploading this update.
The current state
Full steam ahead, there's a lot of new content to the game, but they are not online yet.
We're working on a separated assembly line per time, and the current one is art. We got all the new bosses art (Swamp Boss, River Boss, Mecha Octopus Boss, and Octopus Palace).
To finish our "art assembly line", there's some touches on the game's intro on the works, with other minor details. There's also a re-working how the soundtrack plays on the game, Paula's character voice acting, annnnd... the game ending animation.
We do know of some bugs happening with the boat and hovercraft vehicles, but we're focusing on the art pipeline first, to work on bugs and polishing more carefully.
We hope to send a new patch in 1 to 3 weeks. Until then!
The Mount Octopus Update
And here we are. Engaging to the game's full state. There's bugfixes, some new content here and there. And, of course, the Mount Octopus, with (almost) all of it's glory.
It's been a hard road, but we're reaching on our goal. Next, we will work to finish the Dog Duty's adventure: the 2 remaining bosses, a final boss, the final battleground (Octopus Palace), and the ending animations.
Of course, there's still some improvements here and there, and a good amount of bugs to work on. If you get upon a bug, please tell us! Bug reports are true GOLD.
