As we prepare to publish all the content that is graphically done in Heart. Papers. Border., we started to write the stories that inspired and motivated us to make this game.
The first post is about planet Heart and its real life source of inspiration, Proxima Centauri b.
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A Wild Update Appears!
Hey awesome people!
We finally managed to push a new update, which we call Update 2.2! I am sorry it took so long - we are both working and struggling to pay all our dues.
What is in the update?
A consistent bunch of bug fixes and painfully mandatory refactoring that's always boring to read about. Suffice to say the game should move much better and faster now, so tell us if you do notice a difference
New time control buttons and functionality which should be sleeker and prettier. Play and Play Faster are now combined
Finally, filters for hashtags in the blog, which I hope are a good step towards a better blog UI. Filters explain what hashtags are, and they can also be used for sorting. This is just the beginning though, we will improve the blog much more!
Finally, you can now easily remove used hashtags cause they have the requested X button now. If you remove a title, all tags are removed as well
You can now see how much time you spent in each objective and in each country, in the info popup that you get when you click on the objective and also in the Location app in the SpacePad
We tweaked how encounters and quests are given, so you get some on Day 1 of your visit
SORRY! The Linux build has issues. We're on it!
What's up next?
We have quite a lot of graphical assets done for many of the countries which are now locked. In an ideal world, we would have liked to release this progressively, but since we are so stretched for time, we decided to push all we have. So the next update will unlock all the countries, of which some are more done than others, and also some 60+ new objectives to visit. We will not have quests and encounters for them, though.
Also...
I will keep you all way more up to date with how development progresses. Please do subscribe to our newsletter, since it is the most non invasive and wanted way to keep you all informed, if you want!
Updates on updates ^^
Hello awesome people!
Those of you with access to the dev branch might have noticed some new stuff:
Time control buttons have a new face and new condensed functionality. We combined Play with Fast forward. They are not final yet, cause I need to reexport new backgrounds.
You can now see how much time you spent on every objective, both in the info popup and in the SpacePad. This includes the travel hub as well
You can even see how much time you spent in a country in total. This is in the Location app in the SpacePad
In the Blog, all hashtags now have a handy X (remove) button so you can remove them from your post
Removing the title hashtag automatically removes all other hashtags
Of course, a bunch of bugs have been squashed. They are all virtual so no real bug was actually harmed during this development ^^
We want to add a bit more stuff before we push this update on the Release branch. Specifically, at the very least we will add hashtag filters in the blog, and then we will focus on adding all the content that we have ready. Warning, there will be a bunch of spoiler alerts here in the community hub.
I want to thank you all again for your patience!
Over & Out
Lara
Updates are coming!
Hello awesome people!
We had a very difficult time in our personal lives which slowed down the development of Heart. Papers. Border. dramatically. We know this is no excuse and we are very sorry for this long period of silence.
We are however as committed as ever to this project and we are now able to pick up more speed with development. So we are planning 2 updates, a minor one and a major one as follows:
MINOR UPDATE
new, proper and pretty time control buttons as well as combined Play/ Pause functionality
some important quests will now be awarded as soon as you reach the needed destination
hashtags used in a blog post will now have CLOSE buttons so you can easily remove them
a bunch of bugs will be fixed
The ETA is as soon as possible, we aim to push this update next week.
MAJOR UPDATE
we aim to import all the graphical content we have ready in the game. This means about 10 more countries with cca 50 new objectives to visit. This is not all the content we plan for the game but it is what is done now art wise.
we will introduce a Creative mode that will allow everyone to add new Encounters fro any objective.
This is a significant update and we do not know when we will be ready with it. We will update the beta branch with the new content as soon as possible and keep you up to date about the support for traveller generated content.
We have a long backlog ahead of us. We have a lot of features we need to add, including the Influence and a much better blog design. And we also have a lot of content to do. We are very committed to finish this game, and we want to thank you for your patience with Heart. Papers. Border.
Over & Out
L
HPB Major update now up!
Hello awesome people!
You might have noticed that we pushed a major update on Friday. It contains a completely refactored time and travel system, and it also reintroduces the Pause and Fast Forward controls. We also sped up the duration of a day, and we hope this will make the gameplay much better - what do you think?
Updates:
Overhaul of the travelling system - now you can travel from objective to objective
Travel Hub - each country has a travel hub that acts as a normal objective, however it is the only place that allows you to travel abroad. This is something we need to somehow show in the UI and it is not obvious right now - On It!
Pause/ Fast Forward/ Normal time buttons are back You can use now buttons to stop/normalize/accelerate time
Visiting Objectives no longer has a set visit duration. You can spend as much time as you want in an objective and the more time you spend, the more valuable encounters and hashtags you will find
Cost of Living is no longer per country, but per objective
The SpacePad Location app is now generated using dynamic data. Before, all the country brochures were made by hand (don't tell anyone^^ but you know how they say - fake it till you make it!)
The usual pbug fixes and performance optimizations that every dev team likes to brag with :D
We also have new graphics for the Location app and also new flags. For the next major update we will concentrate a bit more on content, as we know it is sorely needed!
We could REALLY use your feedback!
Best!
L
Heart. Papers. Border. Official Soundtrack now on Spotify as well!
Hey awesome people!
The Heart. Papers. Border. official soundtrack is now available on Spotify as well, courtesy of the brilliant Retro Brothers!
18 tracks are now available, giving some hints to the content that is to come!
The Heart. Papers. Border. soundtrack will also soon be available on Spotify and Steam!
HPB Dev Update - Major Time Mech refactoring
Hey awesome people!
We have been quiet since SGC because we have been working on a major time mechanic update. The work in progress is available to those of you who have in_dev branch keys. Its buggy as hell though :D
The major time mechanic is like this:
We added Play, Pause, and Play Fast buttons.
There is no longer a set time to visit each objective. You can stay as long as you want
You can now move from one objective to another directly, no more back to the Travel Center
The Travel Center is now an objective itself but with special perks. You gotta go there if you wanna travel abroad (duh!)
As you might imagine, this has serious impact in pretty much all parts of the game. Quests are buggy, the helper sign gets stuck cause it does not know anymore how long to point at things, some objectives don't activate cause the quests are buggy and do not unlock them - fun stuff. But we are on it and we think this is a step in the right direction.
The idea with this new time mechanic is because we wanted to:
No longer define and limit the visit to an objective
Remove the constant going back to Travel Center once an objective is visited. That was.... illogical.
We want to make it so the more you stay in an objective, the better you get to know that place, which means more interesting encounters and far better hashtags. This carries A LOT of content to be made, which is why we are looking into implementing Steam Workshop support so you can add your own stories in the game.
Oh we also added a Real, Dynamically Generated Location App. Now we just need to make a lot of stuff ^^
!!!DO expect a lot of updates on dev branch these days!!!!
[SPOILER ALERT] I really look forward to get a better understanding of the countries we illustrate in this game, and I am eager to see what you would design for Kameria (America), Vietso (Soviet Union), Maniaro (Romania), Keyrut (Turkey) and so on.
Over & Out!
L
Of Meercating, Meows and Feed Bach! A Heart. Papers. Border. long overdue update
Hello awesome people!
I finally managed to write a little bit of an update regarding the progress of Heart. Papers. Border. here:
This is a response to the feedback we received, and just for the commodity of not visiting my blog, here is the bit regarding the development:
FEEDBACK
That we have very little content. It is true. We know this. We have a lot of very very very shiny graphical assets that I can’t wait to release, but we do not have the content surrounding them: the quests, the stories, the dialogue, the culturally flavored situations, the rewards, the hashtags – everything. It is A LOT of work to do, and we are seriously considering Steam Workshop support. Meanwhile, though, it is still work that needs doing.
That we do not have any Help or Tutorial. I aimed to guide the player through a story mode/ campaign that doubles down as a tutorial, but I failed, or at the very least I barely just started it. I know I have been ambiguous with the announcements, quests and encounters that I aimed as guidelines, but I wanted to provide a Tutorial that’s in line with Heart’s universe. This is a work in progress that is missing a huge element: the Help application in the SpacePad. We aim to make it contextual and to add shortcuts so you can click and get a good explanation of each mechanic, button, action.
That your actions have no clear consequence. The player travels, writes and gains money and/ or influence, but to what end? The goal of the game is to let the player gain fame and influence the countries she travels to. As her fame grow, she has a visible impact in determining countries to become more progressive and open, until no more borders are needed. But the influence system is not implemented at all. In truth, it is not even designed yet.
That the blogging system is too abstract. Oh man, that is so true. To begin with, we will add more explanations regarding the value of the tags which are color coded. We also really want to design a better mechanic to build the blog post itself, and the dream is to have actual paragraphs that fit. However, this is longer down the road, as I think the influence, location, help and a bit more content need to come first. Oh, right clicking on a hashtag that\s used puts it back in the tag cloud but no one figured that out. UX kills us 😀
***
We do have a lot of grand desires in the pipeline for Heart. Papers. Border.. We want to have a proper Journal, we want to differentiate experiences as you play with characters from various countries. We would also love some sort of events and news systems, so that you can visit a place for a festival or even for a protest – just an example. We have a Birthday mechanic to implement and then, of course, there is the whole end game. Content wise, we have 26 countries already mapped, and many of them have jaw doping graphics ready to be added. And of course, Retro Brothers continue to work on the music <3.
I look forward for MORE feedback :)
Thank you!
Lara
Sweden Game Conference is coming
Hello awesome people!
Sweden Game Conference is rapidly approaching and as an organiser, I have way too little free time left. But Heart. Papers. Border. development continues and we expect to push a few new features soon. I would say this coming weekend, but I said it before and I could not keep my promise so I'll stay quiet this time :)
We are currently implementing the Location app for the SpacePad. We aim for this: http://uzihead.servegame.org:8090/display/HPB/LOCATION We will progressively this in various stages as we also need to add content for all the countries.
We also look into adding new countries and landmarks but we would love to hear from you! Where do you come from and what is it about your country that you would like expressed? We seek these kind of stories!
