The Two of Us
2023 and Beyond...
I didn’t think I would be posting again so soon but I had a think about the previous post and received some messages from people that would love to see the game updated again. So, this is a follow up post to that.
The Two of Us for me is a passion project, it’s free (by choice) but that said the amount of time development can take up in my day-to-day operations is quite low because of that. I do work full time as a Game Designer already so that’s most of my week is already taken up. But I am going to be committing to updating this game. So, what exactly is this going to look like? I am going to break it down into 3 Phases.
Phase 1
This is the rebuild phase, for me this is the daunting time consuming but very necessary phase. I will be pretty much rebuilding the game from scratch to try and remove as many of the bugs we have all encountered as possible and tidying up the backend code (it’s not pretty). Along with this I am going to be reworking the networking side of things (this is the scary part for me as this game is the only experience I have with networking). One of the biggest criticisms I received from the player base is the unplayable lag that occurs when trying to play with other people across regions, so for me trying to fix this is a super high priority. That said, the terrible network code I have implemented limited my level design, there were ideas I had that I could just never get to work across two clients. The boxes in stage 2 you may have seen are extremely buggy and this is due to this issue. So, this rebuild phase is most likely going to take up a lot of time, but in the long run it will be worth it.
Phase 2
New stage phase, once the rebuild phase is complete, I will be looking to add a new stage to the game (although the way stages work may be changed in the rebuild… time will tell). With hopefully my new network code in place I will be able to create some new levels with creative ideas that won’t be limited by network problems. This phase will probably not actually take much time but like with stage 2 I will open up beta testing to work out some of the kinks.
Phase 3
Live Op phase, when I get to phase 3, I don’t actually know what the plan will be. If the game is still entertaining people, I will look to add some more content into the game. An idea I have had is to add a form of events to the game. Where for a limited time certain modes/levels will become available, and you can compete on a global/regional leaderboard. But this phase definitely is up in the air, it all depends how the previous 2 phases are received.
Going Forward
So, the plan for me now is as I get settled into work for the New Year, I will be looking at starting work on Phase 1. I will try and provide updates along the way, but if anyone has any questions feel free to reach out.
I do have a request for anyone who is interested in helping out. I have opened up a new email, and I would love it if people could send through suggestions they would like to see in the game, but more importantly send through information on any bugs you found while playing. The new email is ttougame@gmail.com the more people that send things through the cleaner the game could potentially be :)
I wish you all a happy New Year and hopefully you will be hearing again from me soon.
Ethan
Missing Stage 2 Level
A Year In Review
The Two of Us has now been out for just over a year and I thought I would make a post to thank you all!
We have had 435,218 unique players play the game and we still are still sitting at 87% positive reviews. It really warms my heart to see that so many people have played my game and enjoyed the experience.
For anyone that has followed the game from the beginning, you would know this originally started as a University project that I decided to just chuck onto Steam for the sake of it. After seeing it do well I decided to continue development on it and release stage 2 of the game. As you could probably see from previous blog posts, a speedrunning community was created with this game and I got to see some really interesting bugs that were in my game and some very clever uses of game mechanics.
This game actually led to me landing a Game Development job which has been awesome this year but very busy work. I do see the comments people leave in forums and do occasionally get emails from you guys about the future of the game and just know I hear you.
I do not know what the future will hold for The Two of Us, I really would love to work on this game again but with the knowledge I have gained in the past 12 months, I would want to rebuild the game from the ground up using better practices and trying the fix the networking issues a lot of you have encountered. That said, if any of the players would like to see the game fixed up and more levels potentially added please reach out to me. If I do see enough support for the game I will set aside the time to make it happen.
Once again, thank you all for playing my game. You guys really are the best. I wish you all a Happy New Year and hopefully you will hear again from me :)
Thanks,
Ethan
Version 2.0 Speedrunning
Today I am releasing the Version 2.0 Speedrunning branch of the game. I promised this branch to the speedrunning community so that they can continue using the strategies that created from the first stage (bugs present in v1.3.2). The only exception to this is that I have not reverted the way weapon walls work (it works properly now and cant be glitched).
To opt into this beta branch, Right Click on The Two of Us in your library --> select Properties --> Betas --> and type the following code "stage2speedrun".
For anyone who is interested in speedrunning The Two of Us. There is now an official Speedrun.com page: https://www.speedrun.com/the_two_of_us
Thank you everyone for your continued support of The Two of Us.
-Ethan
Version 2.0
v2.0
- Added 5 x levels which are Stage 2 of the game
- Added 5 x Steam Achievements
- Added Stage Select on the Lobby Screen
- The Shuriken player now is a different colour in-game
- New Enemy type "Tree Enemy"
- Added 4 new obstacles/mechanics
- Added the ability to replay stages or progress to next stage on the end screens
- Added a V-Sync Option (replaces the previous FPS Toggle) Please see information about this below
- Removed the velocity ramp up on keyboard to match the controller
- Patched the macro jump
- Patched the bug where the wrong weapon type can pass through weapon walls
- Patched the Up Jump/Straight Wall Jump
V-Sync
In testing I found that desync issues can occur with players if there is too big of a difference in framerate. To help combat this, V-Sync is enabled by default. It is recommended that both players either have this setting enabled or disabled to avoid larger desync problems.
Future of The Two of Us
With this update I will be taking a rest from further development of The Two of Us. This is because I am just about to start my last semester of University which will take majority of my time. I am also looking to begin work on a new project. That said, I will still be monitoring player reports and patching any bugs found by users.
Thank you all for your support of The Two of Us, the love I received from this community has truly been a surreal experience. I hope to see you all playing my games in the future :)
- Ethan Fitzgerald
Update on Version 2.0
Like always I want to thank everyone who has played The Two of Us and has supported the game so far. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I would be working on some more levels for the game. I'm currently 80% through this process and it is looking promising so far.
The purpose of this announcement today is that I am looking to recruit some beta testers in a week or so to test out the content to make sure I don't release with as many bugs as we saw in the first release.
If you wish to take part in this beta testing please send an email to my address: ej.fitzgerald@outlook.com
with the subject title "Beta Test Request". I will be looking to provide access to only a small number of people as I want majority of players to have a fresh experience when it is launched.
Thank you
Ethan