Season's greetings, everyone! I hope this update finds you in good health and happiness. I've been doing well (thankfully!) and have been making great progress on Timespinner.
While Autumn is my favorite season, this year I found my mood and motivation being strangely affected by the weather (gray Seattle rainy days would make me feel sluggish). After doing some research, I figured I might have SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, and decided to try out buying a 'Happy Light'. It's basically a super bright light that mimics the light you would get from a sunny summer day! Suprisingly...It worked! My mood and motivation have improved. Yayyyy!
But enough about me, let's talk about Timespinner! :D
Game Progress
Whenever a relative or friend asks how the game is coming along, I always say "slow but steady!". It's true, because although development is taking longer than anticipated, it's still making some really wonderful progress. I'm super proud of how far Timespinner has come!
Here, let me gush my pride with you! Screenshots and gifs of new tilesets, UI animations, and screens!
New Tileset: An abandoned temple where friendly NPCs hang out.
New Tileset: Entrance to the Empire's Fortress!
Bestiary Screen: Gotta defeat them all!
Very fancy "Area Title" scrawl!
Very fancy popup for getting Max Stat Up items!
Beyond finishing all of these pretty things, I've also managed to finish all core boss battles (ignoring polish + balancing, haha). My list of things to-do before the game can be shipped is dwindling, so I'm feeling super confident about a 2017 release of the game :D Yay!
Seasonal Updates and Livestreams
My current schedule for writing Kickstarter updates is to release an update on each seasonal solstice (hence why today is the Winter Solstice (in the US, at least ;)). The reason I use this cadence is because writing a KS update tends to take at least half of a work day that I could otherwise be using to finish Timespinner. To fill in the gaps in communication, I've been doing weekly Development Livestreams on Twitch.tv where I work on the game for all of the world to see :D This also lets me keep in touch with the backers and get feedback in real-time! It's awesome!
Watch me make the game! :D
If you haven't checked it out yet, please stop by and say hi! I stream every Tuesday from 1-4pm PST at my Twitch Channel: http://www.twitch.tv/lunarraygames. Even if you can't make the streams when they're live, you can always watch the last two weeks' streams on the Videos tab!
In Conclusion
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this update! Take care everyone, see you next year! :D
Kickstarter Summer Update + Rethinking Early Access
Hello everyone! I hope you all have been enjoying your June so far! In Seattle, we're sporting the classic gray-rainy weather, but I'm sure July will bring more sun!
This update has some important announcements about a new Alpha Build, Steam Early Access, and updates on the game's development. Let's dive in!
Development Update
Since the Spring Update, Timespinner has passed the classic "Content Complete" milestone. Now, for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, it simply means that the core content for the game is done. Now comes the fun part: polish! There's lots of work that still needs to be done on the game before it's ready for ship. What are those things you may ask? Well, we still need to:
Add cutscenes and dialogue. While one small bullet-point, this means massive amounts of work! This includes adding a prologue, opening/ending scenes, and drawing FFT style animations to make characters comes to life!
Make a seamless experience from beginning to end: Adding story locations and polishing ability progression- tying areas together perfectly!
Balancing and Polishing Enemies: There's lots of baddies in Timespinner, and they each need extra time to make them feel challenging, fun, and pretty!
Adding Designer Backer Content: We still need to tackle the Designer Enemies, Orbs, and Bosses. I'll be reaching out to these Designers when we're ready to start work on this content!
Adding Kickstarter Stretch Goals: The bonus dungeon, NG+, and familiar co-op mode still don't exist in the game! We also need to spend time porting the game to other systems!
While all of these tasks aren't too daunting on their own, they take up lots of time when added together! No need to fear though, the game is coming along wonderfully :D
Looking Back On How Far We've Come
In development, it's easy to "lose the forest for the trees" so to speak, as you can spend lots of time making the game better and then forget how everything comes together and grows. Let's take a moment to remember how far we've come!
It's been quite a journey so far and it feels great to have made so much progress throughout the years.
Rethinking Steam Early Access
One of the rewards of the $25 tier for the Kickstarter was access to the game during its time in Steam Early Access™. As it was described in the campaign: "Early access to the game before it is officially released, through Steam's Early Access™ program". Early Access™ is a way to release an unfinished game to the public so that they can purchase and play it.
After much thought, research, and talking with other indie developers who used Steam Early Access, I have decided that this is not a good fit for Timespinner. Instead, Backers at the $25 tier will get 'early access' to the game 1-2 weeks before the final game comes out.
You may ask "why isn't Early Access™ good for Timespinner?". Well, it's because Early Access™ is great for games that have a unique play experience each time you play. Usually this is achieved through multiplayer features or random procedurally generated worlds. For example, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Darkest Dungeon, Don't Starve, and Duelyst are all perfect examples of titles that make great fits for Early Access™. Timespinner, on the other hand, is a relatively linear game, with almost no randomized content. As such, players would have less incentive to keep playing the game over and over as it grows.
Because we're no longer doing Early Access™, I will be removing Timespinner's Steam Early Access™ release date of July 2016, and replacing it with a temporary full release date of March 2017. This date is based on the current production schedule, and shouldn't be taken too seriously. The game is progressing wonderfully, but it's very difficult to determine how long the rest of development will take!
Alpha Build 2 Released!
I've now released the second Alpha build on Steam to Backers who pledged at the $150 tier and higher. This build contains 2 areas: Lake Desolation and the Varndagray Metropolis. Keep in mind that there are some missing audio files, including a SFX for Leveling Up as well as an area theme song for the Metropolis.
The gate to the Metropolis!
As it has been over a year since the first Alpha build, the game is much shinier than it was before! Enjoy!
NOTE to Alpha Backers: Feel free stream or record yourself playing this build of the Alpha. This policy may change for future builds!
In Conclusion
Alright, back to work! As always, feel free to stop by during the weekly Development Livestreams, which happen every Tuesday from 1-4pm PDT at http://www.twitch.tv/lunarraygames! Take care everyone!
