Good news! We received the files for the brand new interface today (The main menu); which was one of the last major hurdles before the rerelease. The new interface completely redesigns and improves the main menu, allowing us to fully support a proper options menu, control reconfiguration, and of course, the necessary buttons for hosting and joining online multiplayer games. It’s all in a snazzy new design which is much more friendly to use (and friendly on the eyes.)
The remainder of this week we’ll be hooking it up, and making sure features like control binding and the different options menu settings are working properly.
While that is going on, the artists who made the interface will be finishing up the new HUD (the stuff you see on your screen during gameplay, like how much ammo and points you have). Once the HUD is complete and hooked up the v2 update will be complete, and we’ll be releasing it for all of you to enjoy.
And while we were waiting for the interface to be completed, we did some extra polish on the game’s AI to make sure it’s more efficient and intelligent. It should be a reasonable improvement over what you see in the current version of Final Rush. (Not to mention plenty of glitch fixes, visual improvements, and gameplay tweaks)
And the good news is, once this update is complete, we’ll be able to start a much more frequent update schedule. (We would’ve done that from the start if we didn’t have to rebuild the entire game)
- Luke, Strike Games
Situation Report - 5
Hello gamers!
Last week we completed the gameplay reprogramming. Which means that all that is left to do now is the user interface and some final polish. As soon as we get our hands on the user interface, we should be able to plug it into the game, and at that point, Final Rush will be fully playable.
While waiting for the user interface, we've been hard at work improving the polish of the game. (Specifically, the programmer has been working on polish, and when not helping him with that, I've been reconstructing the original 3 levels.) And I'm happy to report to all of those that didn't notice the testing... Final Rush will have achievements after the update! There's 11 now, and more will be added with the coming updates.
Once the user interface has been added, we'll be pushing to get the game out fairly quickly. I can't promise that it will go smoothly, but what I can tell you is that after the v2.0 update; bug fixes will come out after weeks and days, and not months. As a small company, the only way we can test things on a large scale is to have you guys play the game.... but that's what Early Access is all about, isn't it?
So it's possible that for the first week or two, the game might be a little easy, or a little hard, or completely weird and wrong and terrible; but now that we have a proper foundation, we'll be able to make the fixes in a fraction of the time.
- Luke, Strike Games
Situation Report - 4
Hello gamers!
We're getting very close to the update now, it's been a bit of a ride, but we've nearly finished recreating the entire game.
So what's left to be done?
Finalizing and hookup up the interface. Final Rush has a brand new and spectacular user interface, HUD, and ingame menus. The graphics for this are nearly done, and once they're complete we'll hook them up to code, so it actually works. This is the largest remaining task, and getting this finished up is going to be the deciding factor of when the 2.0 update is released.
Serial and Mercury Switch maps. Cargo is already complete, and took by far the largest amount of time. Serial should be done by the end of the week, and I'm hoping to get Mercury Switch complete by the 2.0 update. No new maps yet, but that's mostly because we're focusing on reconstructing the old maps first. (And making improvements to the visuals, environment interaction, etc.)
Enemy balancing. The enemies behave substantially different now; the basic robots sprint to get to the players, and the heavy bots have a bull charge style attack. Because the behavior is different, and the code is more efficient, we need to spend a short amount of time rebalancing how many enemies are being created at once.
Secondary Polish and Final Testing. There's a handful of small details that we want to make sure are in the game. These are mostly visual or sound related, but in some cases are very small gameplay tweaks.
Technically speaking, the game is already effectively fully functional, with the exception of a few small features.
These features are not going to be making it back into the 2.0 update, as we don't feel that they add enough to the game to warrant delaying the update by several weeks just to add them. We're going to give those features a bit more love, and then add them back into the game in the post 2.0 updates. At the moment, this is mostly just Effect Ammunition, Effect Grenades, and Tertiary weapons; which didn't have very good implementation in the first place.
I can't give you an exact date, as that would just be asking for trouble; and technically speaking it's not up to us. If all goes as planned, sometime in June. Early or late has yet to be determined, but unless something really unexpected happens, definitely in June.
- Luke, Strike Games
Situation Report - 3
Hello gamers!
Well, shoot. It looks like some people are pretty mad about the bundle, and the lack of news on any updates. Well, I'm sorry. It's not that we've abandoned ship, or have been ignoring you. We've just been working really really hard.
So, let's get down to business: Where the hell is the update? The answer is a resounding "It's coming". And -that- is exactly why there have not been any updates. Rebuilding the game is a messy process, and unfortunately, that means that everything we could show you for the first few weeks would be -less- impressive than what you already had. When we post updates, we get accused of trying to scam people into buying the game, and when we don't post updates, people think that we've abandoned the game.
I'm here to give you all the answers we can provide:
1.) We have NOT abandoned the game. Here's proof:
http://imgur.com/OdnVtre
If you look closely, that's Cargo; but not as you know it. It's been rebuilt, and now has a more dynamic environment. The boxes get tossed about during fights, the glass on the rails breaks if you shoot it, and the layout and visuals have been overhauled. You'll also see the new Aim-Down-Sights feature.
2.) We realize that it's taken longer than we said to release the game. Really, we're sorry. You don't care about the sob story behind it all, but I'll give it to you anyway: We got ripped off. We had to find new programmers right after the game was released, which took a few weeks. Once we hired them, they set to work trying to repair the game, which we tried for a few weeks. When it became obvious that the game was broken beyond repair, we opted to rebuild it. We then lost all but one programmer, who's been working his ass off to rebuild the game as soon as possible.
3.) -I- realize that there's been a lack of updates. As I mentioned before, the game was being rebuilt from scratch, so there wasn't much to mention aside from "feature [X] was re-added today". Of that's the kind of update you want to see on a regular basis, leave a comment, and I'll start posting them. You and I both know that if we put out regular news updates without any game updates, that we'd just keep getting accused of trying to milk the game for more cash.
4.) Which brings me to the next point: the bundle. I can honestly say that I didn't think people would get so mad about it. We didn't want to do any bundles, and we've been contacted by a -ton- of bundle companies. Most people like bundles. Regardless, it was entirely necessary, so the issue is moot. Final Rush made approximately %6 of its initial cost in revenue since its release; all of which has gone back into the rebuild. We've been rebuilding and improving the entire game for a mere %6 of what it cost the first time. The bundle was entirely necessary to get enough money to pay the bills until the game is released. It was either BUNDLE, or stop. And you'd probably be madder if we just stopped.
5.) Ask whatever questions you want in the comments section and I'll be happy to respond and take appropriate verbal abuse.
--
We're going to go back to counting bags of money while trying to figure out more ways to scam people into paying for indie games, because that's what us mischievous indie game people do.
- Luke, Strike Games
Situation Report - 2
Hello gamers!
Many of you are probably wondering: "Where's my update? This game must be a rip-off!"
I'm here to give you an update on the 'update situation'; I'm going to pull out the old tried and true Indie excuse "it was harder than we thought it would be!"
The truth is, we've had a bad run of luck. It turns out our professionally made code was complete rubbish. We wanted to add multiplayer ASAP, but it turns our Final Rush doesn't like Steam, and vice versa. We simply couldn't get the two to talk to eachother. After trying for a few weeks to resolve the situation, we ended up making the only possible, and most extreme choice: Rebuild the entire codebase. (The code was -that- bad)
We had to hire new programmers, and get them all setup and good to go; and start rebuilding the game.
This is of course a very involved process. It wouldn't be possible at all without the sales we've had so far, giving us the funds to survive of bread and water while we work to make the game better than before.
The good news is: When the game is updated to 2.0 in a few weeks, it will have functional multiplayer, and will be much more stable, efficient, and fun (Better AI, etc). We're responding to all the feedback we've received so far - We'll then begin a string of regular updates which will add functionality and content.
We're not dead - we haven't left, Final Rush isn't abandoned. We're working hard to give you the best product possible. So please keep any and all feedback rolling in. We really appreciate all the support so far!
- Luke, Strike Games
Situation Report - 1
Hello gamers!
This is the first of (hopefully) many situation reports, which we're putting out to keep you informed about what is going on with Final Rush!
First of all, let me thank each and every one of you for buying the game! At this point, every single bit of money made by the early access sale is going to improving the game.
The continued positive and negative comments are helping us to determine exactly what needs to be kept, and what needs to be changed, improved, or removed. We hear all of your emails and comments, and they're very important! So please keep sending them!
We're already hard at work on the first patch. It took us a little bit after the game went on sale to get things back into motion, but now bugs are being fixed, and the first patch is on the way. Some very annoying bugs are already gone in our test builds.
Please stay tuned for updates, and keep watch on Steam for an update to Final Rush. We'll have more details soon!
