Next Thursday Turmoil is coming out of Early Access. We’re almost there! We have a small update that is mostly devoted to language fixes. We’ve also added Dutch as a language option in this build.
NOTE: we removed some shader FX because they were crashing the game. We're working on it and trying to fix it before release.
Apologies for the aweful image, but we're moving and still unpacking and don't have all our gear. This was quicker :)
New
Dutch language.
Added a continue button to the Pause menu
Visuals
The buildings in area 4 now all have snow on them as well.
Added a button for taking out a loan in the finance window.
The town now also has a bird in it.
Even newer clouds.
Fixes for overlapping text and badly fixing text. Not everything will be perfect, but we’re getting there.
Replaced active versions of HUD buttons.
Bugs
Removed part of the UI that wasn’t used in the character select screen for
Normal mode.
Fixed a bug in the stock auction ending.
Fixed a bug where text windows were opening up multiple times.
Audio
Fixed the Gamious bumper swoosh sound
Main menu ambient sounds can now also be heard in town.
New mouse over sound.
Added a sound when opening a window when not in town.
Linguistic pleasures
Hi all,
Next Thursday Turmoil is coming out of Early Access. We’re almost there!
An important addition to the game are languages and we’ve decided to translate the game in French, German, Spanish, Italian and later also Dutch.
Why not [insert your language here]? Well, we want a professional translation and the game has become text heavy over time. So it’s more work and costlier to translate. Adding another language is not possible right now, but after release we will re-evaluate and possibly do [insert your language as well].
Right now we need help with the languages that we do have. If you speak one of the languages in the game, please play the game in that language and let us know of any problems or weird translations. We have a special section in the Steam forums reserved for it: http://steamcommunity.com/app/361280/discussions/1/
NOTE: we know that some languages have issues fitting inside their windows and there are some missing special characters. But let us know in the forums (with a screenshot) and we will try to work them all out before release.
Other notable changes: lots of visual stuff and preparations for Launch, June 2nd!
New
Translations for French, German, Spanish and Italian. Dutch will follow later.
Changes
It’s not possible to start drilling from Left and Right Factories. You can now only drill towards them.
In preparation for Launch we have removed the Area choice when starting a campaign.
Expert Mode is now locked until Normal Mode has been won.
Visuals
Anthony placement is now in the centre of a plot of land. Not great, but at
least there is no miscommunication.
New background for the bonus island.
New clouds, again! But they still need work.
Title screen small improvements.
New Single Game screen.
Diamonds now look the same everywhere.
Smoke animations in Town.
New window for choices when starting a game.
Updated animations in Profits screen.
Animated bumper for Gamious pre-game.
Credits screen added.
Animated joint in Gas pockets when active.
Interface buttons in Snow area are now green.
Left and Right Inc joints have a new shape.
Updated a bunch of windows to fit next to other windows.
Bugs
Fix a rare Memory crash when unveiling a level.
Fixed help text falling behind character
Fixed the NPC’s buying the Supersilo upgrade before Silo 2.
Audio
Early Access Update #23 - What an Achievement
Hi all,
We’re gearing up for full release. A lot of work has gone into polish tasks but, as promised, we worked on Steam integration. This week update includes the Steam Achievements and Cloud Saving! We’re not done with Trading Cards yet, that will take a little longer.
Besides that, we also replaced the Title Screen. It’s now animated and it’s awesome. We’re very happy with it. The rest of the changes are mostly visual. Drilling now looks much better, as do the clouds and smoke effects. But there is more still. Check it out when you update the game!
New
Steam Achievements.
Steam Cloud Saving.
New Animated Title Screen.
Added the Gamious bumper on start up.
Increased AI difficulty in Expert Mode.
Art
Vignetting effect in-game.
Drill head and particle effects when drilling.
Drill preview dotted line is now white.
New clouds.
New smoke effect from the Factories.
Paritcle effect in Gas pockets.
Changed Font in dialog windows.
Changed the signs in the village.
A new wagon for Jill and a new animation.
Stock Auction has had a visual upgrade.
Bugs
Fixed Oil sticking out of wagons.
Fixed size of the question mark.
Fixed UI overlapping at the end of the game.
We believe in Tipping!
Hi all,
Thanks for being patient. This has been the longest we have gone without updating the game. So I’ll keep it short as the change list is quite long. One thing: We are still working on the Steam integration stuff. A lot of time has gone into that, but we’re not done yet.
The most important new features are the Mayor’s Tips where, for a small donation, the Mayor will help you with a top tip. It’s all functional now, but the art is not final yet. We’ll work on that in the coming weeks. Other notable changes: building animations and underground art polish. It all looks a lot better underground right now. Enjoy!
New
Mayor’s Tips – Get the hottest tips from the Mayor, for a small fee.
New underground art – We’ve redone Rock, polished pipes and joints and smooth it all out with shading.
Profits screen – Bar graphs say Profits much better than numbers ever did.
Buildings under construction are now animated.
New hotkey -- Spacebar to Pause the game.
Statistics – We’re now tracking total statistics and showing them to the player after the campaign.
Changes
Adjusted Wagon AI to better account for the amount of Oil flowing into the
Rig. This will help when large amounts of Oil are flowing into the Rig.
Closing the Valve on the Rig now costs $150, just as the other valves.
Improved the end of the game experience and transition to Expert Mode.
Changed the way the world map shows the amount of oil in a plot.
Thermal colour will now change with each upgrade.
Rig Joints in an active field now pulse when pumping Oil.
New text buttons in Town.
New clouds during the game.
Numerous text changes.
New images for Joshua.
UI
Fixed a number of overlapping UI issues and a few aspect ratio issues.
Added ambient audio slider (but not working properly yet)
Added options to hide Tutorial messages and end of level profits screen.
The Dollar amount on a scan is now near the scan, no longer above ground.
Loaning money from the bank in the Village is ‘cleaner’ now.
Several small in-game HUD fixes.
At the end of the game the world map is cleaned up: removed player portrait and text window.
Better price indications when upgrading Silo, Rig and Wagons.
Clicking on the calendar will now open up the Finances window again.
Changed the money counter.
Changed the spots that a few of the Town inhabitants walk to.
Moved the boards next to the portraits exactly 1 pixel to remove a gap.
Bugs
Fixed a bug where the Rock drill upgrade would be ‘given’ to a player when hitting Rock.
Fixed the Expert mode Jim-Bob special power. Other dowsers will not point at the same spot as the start of the level dowser does.
Fixed NPC’s buying upgrades even after they left the game.
Fixed an issue with the Stock auction where multiple players could win the auction.
Fixed a crash that sometimes happened when activating the Thermal upgrade.
Fixed the wagon upgrade sound going off when you could not pay for the upgrade.
Fixed windows showing up underneath pipes at the end of a level.
UPDATE TODAY
[EDIT] ARGH, Sorry, we just found a bug in one of the new features. We'll get it fixed ASAP and update tonight or tomorrow.
Hey all,
Another heads up, especially for new players:
We will be updating the game TODAY. For the first time in a long time this update will include a SAVE GAME RESET.
As always you can start a new campaign (Normal or Expert Mode) in Area 1, 2, 3 or 4 to minimize the setback.
Info on the contents of the update will follow later today.
SAVE GAME RESET INCOMING
Hi all,
It's been a long time since we updated. As mentioned on the stream (which is usually on Tuesday 5pm CEST) we've been working on Steam integrations and Mayor's Tips.
Due to all the changes we will have to RESET all progress. So BE WARNED:
You can of course still start a new campaign (Normal or Expert Mode) in Area 1, 2, 3 or 4. So your loss of progress should be minimal.
We hope to update later this week.
SAVE GAME RESET INCOMING
Hi all,
It's been a long time since we updated. As mentioned on the stream (which is usually on Tuesday 5pm CEST) we've been working on Steam integrations and Mayor's Tips.
Due to all the changes we will have to RESET all progress. So BE WARNED:
You can of course still start a new campaign (Normal or Expert Mode) in Area 1, 2, 3 or 4. So your loss of progress should be minimal.
We hope to update later this week.
Working towards Release
Hi all,
We would like to talk a little bit about what the past ten months have brought us and what we intend to do in the next two. Early Access has been great to us as a company as a whole and for Turmoil specifically. Thanks to you.
When we brought Turmoil to Early Access it was because we needed help with a few things: input on the game, and a larger player base.
We knew that the basis of the game; finding and digging oil, was solid. But the game as a whole lacked substance. Turmoil wasn’t far enough yet to be solid release worth $10. This was felt most notably by us when we thought we had a decent campaign going and players got to play the game and said: “That was one fun evening! Where’s the rest of the game?” We totally overestimated the content and underestimated the pace at which you consumed the game. A nice problem to have, but a problem nonetheless.
Feedback Along the way you constantly kept us informed on ideas for Turmoil. And we tried to do the same for you. We updated almost weekly. In the weeks without updates we posted our ‘In The Pipeline’ series, trying to give you a clear picture of what we were working on.
Some of your ideas, and a lot of our own, didn’t make it into the game. Multiplayer and infinite mode for instance. We tried to make it clear why features were left out. And mostly this was met with understanding. The problem with larger features like multiplayer is that we have a very small team: 1 programmer, 1 artist, 1 sound designer and 1 musician and 1 game designer helped now and then by others. And everyone part-time! That makes things like multiplayer an impossibility. We did add a lot of other features that originated with your feedback: such as the Gas and Thermal dynamics, The Stock Auction (End game), AI improvements and Diamonds as well as countless other small tweaks and additions.
The problem with some of the big game design ideas from players is that very often they would require a new system to be built; adding a huge chunk of work to our already substantial workload. If we can give you a Game Design Tip: try to think of new features and changes that fit in the framework that already exists. It will make it far more likely that a developer can take on your idea. Compare it to a house that is halfway through being built: If you want a new window or a change of colour, that is possible. But if you ask for 2 extra bedrooms and underground parking, when the foundation is already built, there is very little the builder can do.
Community Another big part of Early Access for us was generating a larger player base. The player based that was genereated through Early Access slowly morphed into a real community. A community that doesn’t only give input, but helps each other and had a very positive vibe. For us as a company that community transformed into more followers on social media (Twitter and Twitch especially).
We don’t have a huge Twitter following, little over 900 now, but it’s a couple of hundreds more than we had when we started. The community is also the reason why we started streaming on Twitch. We started off with 2-3 viewers every week. After posting the Live events in the Steam Community we went up to a peak of 50 and now we have a solid 30 viewers every week. You can imagine the other stuff that a community does for a small developer. It helps your game rise up above the large amount of smaller games trying to make it big and lays a foundation for the release of Turmoil and other games to come.
Money Along the way we also made money. Yay! We estimated Turmoil to be in Early Access for 6 months. But because it went better than expected we were able to keep developing and release a much better game after twelve months. Or at least that’s the plan. The money we earned during Early Access has gone back in development for the largest part. The other part has gone to living, eating and developing the business.
Overall Early Access has been a blessing for us. And it wouldn’t have been possible without you. We’ve gotten a large amount of useful feedback, ideas and inspiration. We were able to build up a community that was not available to us before. And we earned enough money to spend more time on developing and doing what we love: creating pure and accessible gameplay.
Release Now it’s time to get the game ready for release. We are still working on a few new features, but more and more of our time is spent on polish tasks like Steam Achievements and Trading Cards. We believe that we have created a worthwhile and fun game experience. The game’s approval rating is constantly hovering between 90-91% after 426 reviews. In about two months we will go out of Early Access and into the wild trying to build on what we created. But rest assured we also have plans for after release, in the form of free content updates.
Early Access has been very valuable to us. We value our interaction with the players enormously. hopefully you feel the same.
Thank you.
Gamious
In the Pipeline 10-03-2016
Hi all,
Welcome to our newest post of our ‘In the Pipeline’ series. This is our way of letting you know what we are working on, what we are thinking about and what we know we want to do:
In the Pipeline will contain all the items that are literally and figuratively in the pipeline. This will (but does not have to) include crashes to fix, bugs to splat, player suggestions to incorporate and improvements to make that we feel are necessary for the next update.
We updated the game 4 times in 5 weeks. So now we’re taking an extra week to work on new stuff. Although the game has gotten bigger and bigger. We’re quite relieved to see the amount of bugs decrease. Time to look at some bigger tasks again:
We’re still working on Mayor’s Tips. We’re looking at improving the Single Level part of the game and we’re starting to dive into the backend of Steam functionality. Now, don’t expect Achievements and Trading Cards in the next build! That will take much more time. But we need to invest some time in the back end to make it possible.
One sad note: we’re taking infinite mode off the table for now. We want to release the game in a couple of months and there is still too much stuff that we know we need and want to do. Infinite mode is not something that we see working, but does require a serious development effort. Therefore we won’t be able to explore it right now.
We are aiming to have the update live at the end of next week:
Mayor’s Tips.
Single Game improvements.
Steam back end.
Tweaks, crashes and bugs.
Mac (and probably Linux).
Steam Leaderboards.
Steam Trading cards.
Steam Achievements.
Steam Cloud Saves.
Early Access Update #21 - Expertly Done
Hi all,
This update is quite a big one. We’ve been working on it for a while now: Expert Mode. This new campaign will add a chunk of replayability to the game. Something that you (and we) have wanted for some time. Expert Mode is essentially the same campaign but the AI is much tougher. Be prepared to lose!
To highlight that, there are 4 new characters that you will encounter in Expert Mode: Henry, Lisa, Jim Bob and Larry. Each of these characters has a nice Perk that you, the player, can play with. Expert Mode is playable from the main menu during Early Access. At release players will have to finish the normal campaign first before it unlocks.
Besides Expert Mode the Audio in Turmoil has also gotten substantially better this week. We’ve added ambient sounds for every Area. We added a dozen or so new SFX and polished a few as well. So overall the experience has really improved. We’re excited to know what you guys think about it. Here are the specifics for Update #21:
New
Expert Mode – Challenge yourself. This also introduces new playable characters with personal perks:
-Jim Bob little cousin will run ahead and mark your first oil field before you even get there.
-Larry likes to live large and takes $2500 to each plot instead of $2000
-Lisa charms her way into Barney’s life and never has to pay Spillage fines.
-Henry is a Mole's best friend. They will spot a Diamond for him without effort.
And
Audio – Ambient sound for every Area. NOTE: this is separate from SFX and Music and does NOT have it’s own volume slider YET.
Audio - Lots of new Sound FX like Thermal expansion, Stock Auction counter, Drill sounds, end-game stats and more.
AI – improved balance in NPC earnings after each round.
Anthony – can now always be found in the Saloon at the start of Area 3 and 4. This makes him much more powerful
Bugs
Fixed the end of level screenshot not functioning properly on Fast Forward. (Thanks Asuman1179)
Dowser animation now properly speeds up when Fast Forwarding.
Mole animation now properly speeds up when Fast Forwarding.
