Skeeter's Grid
The PuzzleFest Update
Yes, there are still a couple month's worth of work before this game is release ready, but I think we're on a solid trajectory.
Skeeter's News : 3.17.23
The next build of Skeeter's Grid will be moving closer to production mode, and as part of this, all level names have changed. As a result, many new achievements have been added, but I'm keeping the old achievements around, which are now prefixed with *Early Access*. Once I promote the next build, it will no longer be possible to earn these Early Access achievements.
Now the bigger news, and something I am very excited about... new Skeeter capsule art by the excellent Brenda Failache! I am still migrating the various storefronts to this new art, but I have started the process of updating Steam.
And lastly, and maybe this is more aspirational, but I do hope to have a new gameplay trailer soon... definitely by Steam Puzzlefest if not considerably sooner. The current gameplay trailer is extremely dated at this point. It's always difficult to juggle developing the game vs. working on storefront / marketing / etc, and lately I've been focused on development, but I know it's time for me to begin paying attention to these other priorities.
0.13.1-early_access is now live!
Some highlights:
- New splash screen with additional asset preloading: There should no longer be any lag (or much) when loading levels or screenshots.
- Skeet talks! Expect Skeet utterances during certain game events or when going idle.
- New 0.3.x music: I may need to continue tweaking transitions here, but the previous 0.3.x music was more ominous than I'd wanted, so I wrote a new piece using pure analog hardware. The old music will still be used elsewhere (probably).
- Storyline updates: I'm beginning a storyline rewrite, which I'll likely continue tweaking until days before release. The first pass is now in the game, but some cleanup of this content is ongoing.
- 0.0.5 and 0.0.6 level updates: The former is a new level, which has proven to be too hard for an early level, so I expanded it to provide more completion options. The latter also needed more paths to completion, so I expanded it as well. I'll continue improving levels based on beta feedback leading up to release.
- General bugs and fixes: lots of little issues, but the game is generally stable. That said, there may still be later game issues that have yet to be uncovered.
I do not think a data wipe was necessary this time around, but if issues, start a new game.
Lastly, here is a jam I put together for the new 0.3.0 music. This is mostly just me testing out ideas (the finished product is much cleaner).
0.11.0-early_access is now live
The 0.11.0-ea release is fairly routine and includes none of the aforementioned changes, but it does include all minor accessibility improvements and stability improvements already in the pipeline.
The next version, 0.12.0-ea, will require another data wipe to accommodate the larger updates in the works, which I do think (hope) will be the last before release.
0.10.1-early_access hotfix is live
0.10.0-early_access is live
- Character portraits -- This mostly affects collectables, but as part of this, I've added portrait popups after key AI encounters.
- Fixes to 1.4.x levels -- I discovered that a recent update broke two 1.4.x levels, including one game-breaking bug! This is resolved.
- Storyline expansion -- Lots of new disks with new character and world details.
- New Levels! -- These are scattered throughout. Corresponding Steam achievements are also added.
And as warned in a previous post, save data will be cleared as part of this release. This could happen again before full release, but I do hope this is the last time.
During testing, I encountered the following new bug:
- Collectables display no longer shows collectables... ugh. I will fix this in the next update.
0.8.0-early_access is now live
This update includes the following:
- Storyline and content changes including underline logic
- New messages for when a player completes a grid using every fragment (will continue rolling this out in future updates)
Check the community forms for anticipated 0.9.0-early_access updates, which will be entering beta soon.
0.7.0-early_access update
- Major changes to level progressions. Although you can still replay any level at any time (that you have visited) and generate stats for that level, story and rare collectables will be unavailable. This change has additional repercussions.
- Numerous stability updates and changes including a new level completion failsafe.
0.5.0-early_access
- animation fixes
- damage and juice updates
- audio updates
- message content updates across all levels
- collectable restructuring across all levels
0.6.0-early_access is in development and will involve a number of structural changes. It may take longer than the normal two-week cycle for release.
0.4.2-early_access is now live!
This build has no new levels; no obvious visual tweaks; etc, but it is full of QOL adjustments and fixes... with more to come. By this I mean there were a number of smaller fixes that didn't make it into this release but will be part of 0.5.0-early_access.
On top of this, I've been heavily testing the final batch of levels, and I think these are the best of the bunch. I did decide to remove one of these levels just yesterday... because it sucked, but otherwise I am loving the final few levels of the game. These will not be part of any early access build (final release only), but as I test these levels, I'm finding much that can be improved throughout the game. After all, the final levels are the most complex by far!