WoMen in Science
Change of plans : the game will be retired from Steam
Last month, I announced my intention to release the game for free. I've since discussed with Steam's support, and they explained that, since my company will cease to exist, I would need to create another partner account but also repay the publishing fee.
I'm happy to give the game and soundtrack for free, but paying 100$ USD to keep them on Steam doesn't make sense to me. So I decided to retire the game from Steam, and offer it free on itch.io instead.
It won't affect anyone who already has the game. The game will stay in your library, you will still be able to download, install and play it. The community and guides will remain accessible too.
I apologize for the inconvenience.
I know that some of you felt that I let you down, and I want to apologize for that too. Please understand that it was not a deliberate choice. In early 2021, I started to have serious health issues, and that is the reason I had to slow down and finally abandon the game's development.
This game will soon be free + new project
Good news, WoMen in Science will soon be free. I haven't updated it for a while now and I think it's time to stop charging money for it. If you bought it recently. feel free to ask for a refund.
I'm not exactly sure how much time Valve will require before making the change, some sources say a week after the announcement, others say a month, but either way it will be soon.
I wanted to thank you all, you've been almost 5000 to support my work and it means more than you can imagine.
I will continue to produce free science-related content, such as the print & play card game I made before. I'm currently working on a cartoon project, it's still a work in progress but here are two "pilot" episodes:
Sophie Germain - Queen of Primes
Pancakology : the science of making pancakes
If you enjoyed the science and humor of Women In Science, consider subscribing to the channel.
Ben
New game : Kittens in Space!
I wanted to let you know about my new project named "Kittens in Space". It's inspired from card-battlers like Stacklands and Card Hog, with emphasis on humor and sci-fi references. Manage your space colony, explore the galaxy, conquer other civilizations or make powerful allies.
Most actions happen by stacking cards, i.e. you craft something by stacking a Kitten on the right resources, you explore by dropping a Kitten on a planet, you fight by dropping it on an enemy, etc.
There will be roguelite elements. When you win, you'll be invited to unlock new civilizations that you will encouter, and when you lose you will receive some salvaged resources when you start a new game.
If that sounds interesting, please consider wishlisting/following the Steam page to be alerted when a demo will be available.
I expect to start the private beta tests in december, have a public demo ready before Steam's NextFest (February), and release the game in early March 2023.
Ben
Minor update
- There was a bug in the quest about plant effects, the quest objective text was mixed up making it very confusing. For example, "insect repellent" was shown as "weed control". Sorry about that!
- I added a random tip to explain that cows and goats need to have babies before producing milk.
- Various minor bug fixes and optimizations were made in the past two weeks, without being announced.
- I also recently added Steam cards, badges, smileys and backgrounds.
Minor Update
I fixed a few bugs and made minor improvements:
- The quest objectives shown on the main screen are now sorted so that the uncompleted ones appear first.
- Fixed : sometimes when moving an item in the inventory using a GamePad, the item icon would disappear.
- Fixed : Money was not received during Jonas Salk friendship event
- Fixed : "PlayerName" placeholder was not replaced by the player's name in Montessori's friendship dialogue
- Fixed : Plant effects animations sometimes did not show or got stuck for a second
- Fixed : Points will now stay on top when viewing the skill tree
- I made the FPS and version number less visible, those are useful for me debugging when someone sends me a screen capture, but have little interest for players and were often confusing.
GamePad Update (2 of 2)
Here is the second part of improvements for gamepad users:
- Moving the hoe tile selector over plants will show their tooltips
- Better gamepad navigation in UI
Non-Gamepad changes :
- Better management of plant effects
- Pesticide use now cancels pollinator bonus, as intended
- Fallow now works properly
- Minor bug fixes
GamePad Update (1 of 2)
I added right joystick support for gamepad users. It makes selecting the tile while using the hoe much easier, placing furniture too. There are still a few things I want to improve with the gamepad (UI navigation, tooltips, ...), so there will be another update next week.
I also updated the game's guide (Troubleshooting, friendship, minigames)
Ben
Minor update : bugfix and quality of life improvements
- Dialogue animation and sound can now be disabled from options menu
- The position of the player on the map is now animated for better clarity
- Added a new cheat code to add an amount of money
- fixed a bug that could prevent exiting a dialog
- key mapping options now have more space to show the text (especially useful for German language)
- fixed some typos and a few UI bugs
Official guide (With easter eggs and cheat codes!)
I just published an official guide for the game, with content for new players but also more experienced ones (easter eggs, cheat codes).
Let me know if there is something I can improve.
Ben
Minor update
I just made an update to fix some issues :
- better support of various resolutions : the game should now be playable even if your screen doesn't support 1920x1080 resolution or similar screen ratio. That includes low res like 800x600 and 1024x768 but also extra-large screens (i.e. 2560x1080). These are things that I can only simulate on my setup, so please let me know if there is anything that doesn't work as it should.
- There were issues with walking speed on some configurations, this should be fixed now.
- The "too far" cursor is now red to show that you can't interact with something. The previous one was not different enough, which led to confusion about click sometimes not working.
- Random seeds with genetic mutations will drop less often when you cut grass, but you will receive more of them. This should help with inventory management.
- There were some issues with fences not connecting properly.
- Manure dropped by animals will not spontaneously reappear after being cleaned
- The crafting recipes scroll box has been slowed down so it doesn't skip recipes when you use the mouse wheel
- The sound volume of the waterfall and the fountain is now changed properly