World Turtles News

Hi all!

I am proud to announce that World Turtles is now being published by Freedom Games. For those of you who may not know, a game publisher can take care of a lot of the business and marketing side of releasing a game. That includes managing the store pages, marketing and advertising the game, helping showcase the game at both digital and live events, PR, and a lot more. Really it lets me totally focus on working to make the game the best it can be, and provides me with the resources to do so.

You may also be concerned about horror stories of publishers ruining the vision of a game or forcing arbitrary restrictions on the dev team. For Freedom, that can’t be further from the reality I have experienced with them. Freedom has been a great partner to me, only enhancing and supporting my vision. I was very careful when considering whether to go with a publisher or not, and selected Freedom because they are committed to my vision of the game, and only want to see it reach its full potential as I see it. I maintain complete creative and development freedom, and Freedom (heh) wouldn’t have it any other way!

With all of that being said, we are going to delay the game just a little bit. With the addition of a publisher and more funding, I am going to take a bit more time to make sure the game is the best that it can be, before asking you to invest in it.

Freedom’s investment (money, time, skills, experience and industry contacts) makes it possible to present a much improved World Turtles to a bigger audience, making it more probable that I can create a decent career out of this opportunity in the longer term.

Without all of you and your support, encouragement and excitement throughout the last two and a half years, I would not have found myself in this position. I hope to have you along for the next exciting leg of this journey! If you want to be more a part of the journey, feel free to join our Discord where you can hang out with myself and the community.

De Chelonian Mobile
Gideon

Hi all!

While the Campaign/Tutorial combination serves the purpose of bringing in some back-story, it is a little long-winded for someone who just wants to quickly learn how to play the game, so I've designed a completely new tutorial alongside it.

The new tutorial is dynamic (it can be run on any random map, so it adjusts to the map you've been dealt) and interactive (you can make a few decisions and it will adapt the tutorial to those). It hides some of the interactions at the start and then introduce them step by step, so that the early game isn't as filled with information and "new stuff" as before. It guides you through completing the objectives linked to the choices you've made.

Highlights:
- You can work through 13 building types, harvesting, research items, building upgrades, and more mechanics in about half an hour at 3x speed, which plays comfortably. Using 6x from time to time makes it faster still.
- It proposes proper locations for the buildings but doesn't force you to choose them.
- It takes you up to the first building upgrades to Crafters. I plan on expanding on it as development progresses.
- As of the previous update, you can now click on the models of buildings/units/etc. on the map itself to select them instead of only on the UI elements or terrain hexes. There were a few glitches with this, which has been corrected.
- As of the previous update, there are now icons for things that were hidden behind key bindings before, but they now also have toggle indicators to show whether they're on or off.
- The UI reacts much smoother now after I added some checks, smoothing parameters, etc.
- The UI is more visible in-map after some background and other adjustments, making sure that crops and other items are more spread out (less overlapping UI) on the map, etc.
- I've used a more readable font for the detailed messages / labels. I will need to replace the "header font" as well, since the current font does not cover all the required characters.
- I am about half-way through converting the game to allow localization by entering text in external files!
- Improved some behind-the-scenes workings.

I'd love to hear how you find the new tutorial. I'm hoping it will grab more attention from people who want a quick introduction/guide without going into minute details.

De Chelonian Mobile,
Gideon

Hi all,

The UI has come a long way since the "horrible first drafts" I was working with for such a long time!

Today's demo update adds a very significant improvement, and a few smaller ones:

• You can now click on the building and Meep models themselves to open up the specific UI elements.
  
• For an alternative UI experience, try out the "reduced clicks" mode (the toggle can be found below the minimap), which opens and closes some UI elements without requiring a click. For example, keep the cursor relatively still for a fraction of a second over a building model and that building's UI panel will appear. Simply move the cursor far enough away from the UI panel and it closes automatically.
  
• The UI should play much smoother, since I streamlined how it reacts / zooms in and out.
  
• The default volume levels the game starts with have been adjusted. Saving and loading of settings is on on the way...
  

Next, some questions I'd appreciate your feedback on:

• The "reduced clicks" mode: Does the fact that the UI panels pop up / close down when the cursor is relatively still / moves away from the UI bother you, or does this improve the experience since you don't have to click as much?
  
• The game's font: The font is maybe a bit too "bulky". A simpler, streamlined font would probably improve the ease at which information is processed on the various UI panels. Any thoughts/recommendations on this?
  

Thanks!
Gideon

Join me for a World Turtles playthrough and be a part of the journey!

The solo developer will be showcasing the latest content, while discussing the game's mechanics and future plans.

Be a part of the Journey!