Last month was a tough one with the delay of Mythlink's full release, but that doesn't mean the efforts have stopped! As mentioned in the last update, this month was focused primarily on the branding and visual appeal of the game through various storefronts.
Let's start with the big one, Steam. What's new on Steam? Take a look for yourself!
New main header logo! The boring font on black has been replaced with an action scene to help show what the game is more about. What better way to show that than with a battle and featurette of the 3 Mythlinks? Minorod charging towards Galest who just fired off some attack helps show the action-packed battle part of Mythlink. There's also the glove there to help show it's VR capabilities. Of course, we can't forget Urusagi, who sits to the right of the logo in an arms-up pose, as if to say "Hey, we're excited to see you!"
In addition to that, I wanted to add a funky new tagline. I came up with "Train. Battle. Become the Best." and it just kind of stuck. I really like how it conveys what you do in the game and is both simple yet aspirational.
Besides that, there have been new updates to the text and images within the description. Some of the changes are more subtle than others, but it's definitely changed! A few examples are here, but check out the Steam page for all of the new goodness.
Out With The Old
In With The New
Lastly, the Discord channel is now heavily promoted at the top of the page. Come join us!
In addition to Steam, I've added other storefronts and game pages where Mythlink information can be found. Some of these aren't completely new, but I'll add them here for completion's sake.
All of which have similar information and just help spread the word on Mythlink.
The game trailer has also been updated. The old "October" date has been replaced with "Coming Soon" text. I don't have an exact date yet but am narrowing in on when the release will be. I sure hope I have an answer soon.
Lastly, from a technical perspective, I am sneaking in another change before release. I've noticed when people play there is some confusion on how to equip abilities before battle. Therefore, a quick tutorial on how to accomplish that is currently being worked on as part of the initial game tutorial that takes place after you have selected your first Mythlink. This update is available now.
That's all for this month, see you for the last dev update of the year at the end of December!
Frightful Next Fest Results
Addressing the elephant in the room right off the bat, it's a bummer about the delay. No news yet about the next release date target. To give a sense of scope, I am pretty committed to prevent this effort going beyond May of 2023 unless I decide to take some big steps not currently planned.
Let's get into the main topic for this month: the Steam Next Fest! Steam Next Fest took place earlier in October and takes place several times over the year. The event focuses on upcoming games to be released on Steam that have a playable demo. If you missed it, Mythlink took place in the Steam Next Fest this time around.
I took full advantage of the Next Fest scheduling, which allows for games to also have up to 2 live streams where their game will be featured on the Next Fest main page. Now, I did make a mistake when scheduling the live streams. You are able to see the current schedule of the live streams before you actually schedule them, so ideally you would schedule your game to be streamed when you don't have much competition. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't see the current schedule and ended up scheduling just at any time I felt was good. Naturally, this caused a clash with some other streams going. Nevertheless, I feel the stream met my expectations for turnout.
Scheduling issues aside, overall I would call Next Fest a success for me. The streams were fun, although I wish I would've been able to secure better timeslots. A good amount of people tried the game (well, a good amount for me, not good in the grand scheme of things and for a non-vr game) and many of the people who tried it added it to their wishlist.
I can use the lessons learned during Next Fest for future opportunities and was happy for the participation. Holidays are right around the corner, but I'm still hoping next time I can start showing off some of the new rebranding efforts that are taking place.
Lastly, I leave you with a small preview of one of the things I am working on for the new title card for advertising the game. Look forward to more!
Enjoy!
Mythlink: Release Update
"If you release this game as is, it will fail."
A difficult thing to hear for a project you've worked so hard on for so long. Difficult, but necessary as well. As I sat on a call with a professional game marketer just 10 days before a release I had long been looking forward to, my head spinning from all of the mistakes he pointed out that I had made, the phrase began to sink in more and more. He had never even played my game and barely knew the title, but by the end of our conversation I started to wonder if there was a single thing I had done right on the presentation of the game. And the answer may very well have been "no".
I like to think I'm at least not completely naïve and somewhat of a reasonable person, so none of the words were wasted on me. So blind, was I (and many others I'm sure), to just wanting to get the technical aspects of my game done that I had neglected arguably the more important part of the gaming business: the presentation. You see, I firmly believe that Mythlink is a genuinely fun game, yet tons of terrible games have tens, if not hundreds of thousands of players. The deciding factor? The anime girls, the pizazz, the hype, the flashing lights, the drive to want to buy or support a title even though you know it's going to let you down. Marketing and presentation is truly important and will make or break your game's release.
With all of the above in mind, I have made the difficult decision to delay the release of Mythlink indefinitely to address these problems. The extent of this delay will decide on various factors. I anticipate anywhere from 2 months up to 1 year.
To be clear, the game is technically and fundamentally complete. The 1.0 build is on Steam, has been approved, and is fully playable. This delay is purely for marketing and brand improvement.
If anyone out there besides me was looking forward to the release, I apologize. It was not a decision I made lightly. Hopefully the end result makes it worth the delay. The small numbers on release would've resulted in a non-existent community, meaning nobody to battle online, meaning half of the game (the unique half) would've been unplayable.
I'll talk more about how Steam Next Fest went and the plan for the future on the monthly blog update at the end of October. And don't worry, there is currently no plan to add anime girls to Mythlink.
Until then, the demo is still available, free, and full of content. Check it out and maybe add the full version to your wishlist on Steam!
Mythlink: Steam Next Fest October 2022
The last monthly blog post before the 1.0 release, just two weeks to go! What better way to get the hype train started than with a whole slew of marketing materials? The only question is where to start...
Let's go with trailers! Two new trailers are available now for your viewing pleasure. First up, the fun and exciting release trailer:
Next up, we have a narrated trailer which talks players through some of the mechanics of the game.
I think both of those trailers turned out great and am very happy to have them represent the game. Now let's get into the information based on the title of this blog post, which is the Steam Next Fest!
I won't bore you with all of the details of Next Fest, but in short it is a way for upcoming games to get highlighted within Steam. The catch is your game must have a demo...which Mythlink just so happens to have. With Steam Next Fest comes some some cool templates that were used to create advertising material for the game!
That's not all, the real exciting news is that Next Fest also allows for live streams (2, to be exact) where you can demo your game live for an audience and have a chance to be featured. Mythlink will take full advantage of this opportunity.
Note the stream times in the graphics above- October 7th at 6pm PST and October 9th at 9am PST. I will personally be hosting these live streams, showing off the game, and hopefully interacting with viewers. We'll be going live at the game Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/633150/Mythlink/
Hope to see you there! Look forward to the next post on release day, October 14th!
Mythlink Steam Next Fest Broadcast #2
The second live-stream broadcasting event for Mythlink! Come hang out and see the game being played.
Mythlink Steam Next Fest Broadcast #1
The first live-stream broadcasting event for Mythlink! Come hang out and see the game being played.
Sounding Off
Only 44 days left until the full 1.0 release of Mythlink! Even with the looming release date, I would be remiss if Urusagi's techniques were not highlighted in at least one blog post before release. So let's take a look at some of the loud rabbit's sound abilities!
Urusagi likes to mess around with stats and has ways to both temporarily increase or decrease various attributes of Mythlinks. The first showcased ability "Dal Segno'' does just that.
For you non-music readers out there, a dal segno is a crazy looking piece of music notation meaning "from the sign" that you probably have at least seen before. It signifies that the musician should go back and repeat a section of music already played.
In Mythlink, Urusagi plays on this meaning a bit by temporarily setting one of the stats from your opponent backwards (they are repeating a stat value from earlier). The first time the ability is used, a successful hit will drop your opponent's strength stat, the next time it will affect the brain stat, and finally the speed stat, before looping back and repeating the cycle.
Dal Segno is great, but let's shift from music reading to dancing. Let's get going with some Disco Fever!
With this technique, Urusagi conjures a deadly disco ball above the arena. After a brief time, the disco ball rains downward, dealing damage and slowing ANY Mythlink down who enters its range. Disco is all about freedom, freedom to affect even the Urusagi who triggered it!
Quite possibly my favorite of the environment abilities, when Urusagi triggers a "concert" things really get mixed up.
Urusagi summons a set of giant speakers from the sky, which land on the outskirts of the arena and immediately start causing chaos! The speakers launch sound waves across the arena which push things in their path. This can really mix up a battle as position becomes a bit more complicated. Of course, Urusagi can affect the concert even more than shown here...but some things are best kept secret for release.
As always, thanks for checking out this month's blog post. Over the next month I plan to create a bunch of media materials to help increase the quality of the now horribly out of date videos and screenshots used to advertise the game. I'll showcase the fruits of my labor next time.
Cheers!
Mythlink: Official Release Details
I know it's been kind of announced a couple times before, but this time it's official. Mythlink is coming. And it is coming soon. How soon exactly? Less than 90 days. Let me help put a number on that for you.
There it is. It's all there, black and white, clear as crystal. The full 1.0 release of Mythlink will happen on that day! There have been a few setbacks in the past, but I'll work night and day to ensure that the deadline is met.
And that's not all! Mythlink will be part of the October "Steam Next Fest" which highlights upcoming games with demos. If you haven't already by that time, it would be a great chance to check out the game just before the full release!
The 1.0 release of Mythlink will include 3 fully developed Mythlinks (Minorod, Galest, and Urusagi) each with at least 30 abilities that can be used in battle. Of those 30 abilities, more than half will be 100% unique to that Mythlink. Unranked online play will be accessible and all of the current training games will continue to be offered.
Exciting news, but I won't leave it at boring numbers! A brief development update as well. Galest is beta-complete (and has gotten a slight visual update). Urusagi is about 90% complete to alpha and should be finished by mid August. Network code also needs some touch ups before 1.0. Hopefully that goes well and leaves most of September open for general testing.
As for upcoming monthly blog posts, in August you can expect an ability showcase for Urusagi's sound abilities. September will be a media highlight article. October is a special month and will have multiple releases. A release article is slated for October 14th and then the normal monthly article at the end of the month, which I suspect will be a reflection of how the first two weeks of release went.
Back to work, but I leave you with one of Urusagi's cute abilities. Afterall...what kind of bunny can't hop?
Until next time...
Hands On
It has been a very long time since there has been a published demo update, but that day has come again! There are too many changes from the last demo to note, but if you've been following along you should have a pretty good idea of what's all in store. There is one change, however, which was only mentioned in passing but is available within the build today!
When the "hands" update was first completed long ago, we discussed briefly how the actual 3D models of the hands didn't really fit the style of the game and would eventually need to be updated. Well my friends, that time is now! Introducing the brand new hand models used throughout Mythlink.
These hand models also have several fun animations tied to them! That is...they exist, but aren't currently implemented within the game at all. I have yet to decide the best place to utilize them. The exception is the "pointing" animation which is still used as you control your Mythlink during battle.
Speaking of Mythlinks, the obvious star of the show in this *final* demo before full release is the inclusion of all 3 starting Mythlinks! Minorod, Galest, and Urusagi are all ready to grow and battle with you. In the demo version of the game, Mythlinks are limited to level 10, which means you'll only have a small sampling of the 30(!) abilities to choose from compared to the full version. The good news? Any experience you gain within the demo is planned to carry over to the full version of the game when it releases later this year! Can you reach max level even before the release date and terrorize other Mythlink Unities online day 1 of release?
Starting today also begins the marketing blitz for Mythlink! Tell your friends and family because the demo is here and the full release is just around the corner (gunning for October, but I'm not gonna say that yet). Expect to see a windfall of Mythlink activity as we spread word of Mythlink around the gaming community.
It's been many years, but the dam is starting to break. All the work and dedication is going live. Here. We. Gooooooooo.
Urusagi Gets Moving
Lots of activity as the ramp to June demo update continues. Crazy to think I was hoping to do the full release at this time when it still feels so far away. The one upside to releasing later is there is plenty of exciting blog content to cover in the meantime.
Urusagi has been through a lot since last featured. In addition to a completely revamped color palette, Urusagi now has some animations to prepare for the major demo release next month. Let's take a look at a small selection of Urusagi's style that you can look forward to.
First, we've got a walk animation. Simple, but Urusagi always makes things look cute and fun.
Next up is the jump animation. Urusagi doesn't have long legs, so you might not expect strong jumping power, but don't forget...Urusagi is a rabbit! At least their hopping capabilities may surprise you.
Now that it's been established that Urusagi can jump, do you remember the other origin of the name...? It has to deal with being loud! Urusagi is a sound-based Mythlink and that is represented in many ways. Just take a look at what happens when Urusagi emerges from a Mythlink battle victorious!
Has seeing things in motion enticed you to select Urusagi as your starting Mythlink? Better make your decision soon...the big demo releases next month, complete with all three starting Mythlinks to choose from!
