Let's Get Bug Huntin'

As a solo developer, the Steam #NextFest marks an important milestone in Mech Armada’s development because it’s an opportunity to really open the doors, and let people experience the game first hand. For the eagle-eyed followers of the game, I regularly post my thoughts over on my personal site. It goes into depth on topics such as “How I run my studio”, whether or not to go “indie” and potential revenue streams of the market.

It’s a personal blog, but the approach is something I want to bring more of to Steam, so that you can get a closer look at my way of working, and my vision for Mech Armada.

When I was designing Mech Armada, I knew it was going to be a turn-based game. You can take your time, leave the game at any point, come back and it will be exactly where you left it with no crazy reflexes required.

I’m hoping such an approach is acutely evident as you begin to play the demo during the festival. While the game very much requires tactical thought, there’s no question that it’s fast and in some respects, quite challenging for those who lack turn-based experience (I’m keen to also get your feedback on this).

While bug squashing as we march towards June 16th, I’ve been hard at work on some quality of life features. From adding a feedback hotkey so you can instantly let me know your thoughts at the touch of a button, to more prominent outlines on targets, and bigger icons to ensure things are that little bit more identifiable.

It’s the little things that will make a difference to the overall experience. Here’s a bigger list of what's been improved recently, and newly added to the demo.

• Part upgrades are fully available
  
• Mechs with 2/3 weapons can use all of them in one turn
  
• AoE weapons cause friendly fire (just not on the Mech firing)
  
• Added difficulty levels
  
• New Main Menu background and layout
  
• Full SFX update for the Swarm
  
• Swarm moves all at once, instead of waiting for each other to finish
  
• Music increases intensity when Mechs and Swarm start attacking each other
  
• Quality of life: better UI for selecting parts to equip and comparing
  
• Refreshed MAVEN environment
  
• Some tutorial updates - now it only triggers in the first run, unless requested
  
• Mechs can be given a name
  
• Camera punches in during the final kill
  
• Cleaner UI for selecting a target - it now uses outlines to highlight the monsters that can be attacked
  
• End Turn button will warn you if you forget to use a Mech's actions
  
• Cleaned up monster textures so they stand out more
  
• Rebalanced part drops and random enemy compositions
  
• Added credits (in Settings screen)
  
• Lots of fixes and usability improvements
  
• Optimizations
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1389360/Mech_Armada/