We've just published a new blog post which gives players an overview of what changes to expect with The Ship: Remasted - you can check it out here: http://www.blazinggriffin.com/games/the-ship/the-ship-remasted/whats-changing-in-the-ship-remasted/
Drop by the Steam Community if you have any questions for us. :)
Krassin Comparison Video
Ahoy Shipmates!
We've just published a comparison video of Krassin, which is one of the launch maps. We'll be putting some a few videos of the still-to-come content pretty soon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft7KEqSEdGo
FYI - the launch discount (15%) and loyalty discount (25%) stack to 40%. The launch discount only lasts 1 week, but the loyalty discount will last longer. Great deal right now - tell your friends! ;)
Ahoy Shipmates!
Raise the anchor. I said raise the anchor. I know we’ve missed our launch date. I don’t care if the dockmaster is on holiday, we need to set sail. We have a schedule to keep. HE insists…
Last week the weather was a little stormy, so we delayed leaving port. It’s a little calmer out there this week, but there are still some rough waters to navigate before we make our way into open waters.
This is an Early Access game, which means not all content and features are currently live. Please visit our Development Roadmap for information on what’s still to come.
Our Weekly Weather Report has a little bit more detail on the current situation with online multiplayer, but here’s the short version:
Weekly Weather Report - 19/2/16
Ahoy Shipmates!
Welcome to the first weekly Weather Report! These updates are intended to give you a bit of an insight into what we’re doing right now and what to expect real soon. Early Access can be a daunting process for players to buy into, so we thought that transparency on our part would help build the confidence players have in us as a studio, and The Ship: Remasted as a product.
As you know, we delayed the launch of the game by a week. This was based on feedback from fans of The Ship who felt that launching as a LAN only product would hurt the game due to negative reviews. While we did feel (for many reasons), that launching this way would be suitable, we decided that the feedback from fans was too strong to ignore.
Part of the delay will allow us to roll out hosted relay games which uses Unity Cloud Services to host games. We had hoped this service would be a solid solution for the game, but it’s not quite there yet and bandwidth limitations mean that hosted games are limited to 4 players right now. We’re working internally and with Unity to resolve this problem to allow us to increase the number of players that can join each match.
We’re also working on standalone and dedicated servers, although this is a few weeks off just now. This will allow players to host servers, either from their own PC or through a rental service. Initial tests have been good and we’re currently working hard to get this to a state that it can be released to the test group.
While there may be stormy weather ahead as we leave dock, we’re confident that as we head into open water, it’ll be smooth sailing!
For a bit more detail on what we're doing, check out the full Weather Report: http://www.blazinggriffin.com/games/the-ship/the-ship-remasted/weather-reports/weather-report-19216/
And our Development Roadmap: http://www.blazinggriffin.com/games/the-ship-remasted/development-roadmap/
Launch Delayed - 1 Week
Hi everyone,
We listened to what you've been saying and have put off launching for a week.
Today, we'll release relay server functionality to closed testing players. This service is isn't entirely functional right now as there are bandwidth limitations (with Unity Cloud Services) meaning that games are capped at 4 players (otherwise they would just time out quickly). We're discussing this with Unity just now and hope to have this cap increased soon. However, it will mean that our test group can play online matches without the need for 3rd party services and we're also hoping to get some good feedback on this.
Work on dedicated servers is also continuing and as originally planned, we would expect these to become available within a few weeks.
Thanks to everyone for their comments and also for voicing your concerns. Launching a game like this is a delicate process and we were also concerned about the impact of negative reviews will have on the future of the game. We did feel that on balance there were more benefits to launching today than later, but given the feedback from the community, we've moved to a more suitable solution.
For what it's worth, we believe that one of the most important aspects of launching a game like this is the community that builds around it. That's why we invited Ship fans to closed testing and gave all of our former Kickstarter backers keys for the new game. We believe this is the best starting point for building a new Ship community and, well, we wouldn't be doing very well at the first step if we didn't listen to you! :)
We're sure the next few weeks are going to be pretty hectic for us and indeed, some people may not be happy with the product we're offering right now. But, we believe that a combination of Ship fans and Early Access fans are a strong foundation to build a community on and we're confident if you stick with us for the duration (even if you don't buy the game right away), you'll be happy about the progress that is made.
- the Blazing Griffin team
Andrea Doria Comparison Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvqagQoTh5Q
Also, a shameless plug for http://www.theshipgame.com/ if you haven't seen it yet! ;)
Blog: UI Tweaks & Improvements
Hi everyone,
We've just published a new blog post that talks about some of the UI changes you can expect in the new game.
Check it out here: http://www.blazinggriffin.com/games/the-ship/the-ship-remasted/ui-tweaks-improvements/
I've added a couple of larger versions of the images to the Artwork section as requested: http://steamcommunity.com/app/383790/images/
Atalanta Comparison Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujnEXQZxbj0
(still alpha footage FYI)
The original Ship is free this weekend on Steam!
http://store.steampowered.com/app/2400
You'll find it in your library and is 66% off if you want to buy it (owners get 25% off The Ship: Remasted).
Tell your friends!
The Ship Sailing into Early Access
The Ship: Remasted will launch on Steam Early Access this February and Blazing Griffin is looking for fans of the original game to get involved.
One of the challenges of remastering an old game is striking a balance between replicating old features that players have fond memories of, and improving them. A reddit user joked recently that The Ship’s convoluted solution to connect to servers is part of the original game’s charm! But, we think we can all agree that it’s also something that can, and should be improved upon!
This is why we’re taking an iterative approach to releasing the game, starting with a few maps at launch in February and releasing the remaining content and features over the next few months.
This means we can get feedback from fans on the changes we’ve made…like the UI, the layout of security and the values of the needs system. These are relatively small tweaks, but we’d like to know from fans…does it still feel like The Ship? We believe it does and fans will be happy with the approach we’ve taken with these things.
Early Access isn’t for all games or all studios (or for all players), but we’ve always been transparent with our communities and we think it’s a great process to release The Ship: Remasted through. We’ve already taken on a lot of player feedback throughout this project and we want to hear what fans think of what we’ve done so far and to help steer the direction that The Ship takes.
