Hi everyone, welcome to another week's developer's diary.
Before we start, I think it may be a good idea to let everyone know that a huge indie game bundle is on sale to support Ukraine.
https://itch.io/b/1316/bundle-for-ukraine
733 developers, 992 entries, as low as you pay $10, you can get all of them.
It's amazing that they almost raised $4 million by now.
(Unfortunately, my game has too much dependency on Steam. Thus, I'm not among them.)
But, among them is my friend, Kevin, and his first indie game. About 10 years ago, we were sitting in some high buildings of New York developing mobile games of the best qualities for one of the biggest mobile companies in the world. Among them are many of my other friends as well. It's good to see on this day, so many indie game developers are standing together, standing with Ukraine against the most aggressive invasion since World War 2. They are all heroes!
On Mar. 6th, 2022. There was another big wave of protest all over Russia. Among those brave people is "Yekaterina" whose identity I shall not expose. But, if you have been with us long enough, you shall know her as the Regent of Neolithic back in 2013 when I got quite busy with my daytime job. She is also my advisor on everything about Russian. Because of our friendship, I like Russian people in general. The culture, the music, and the drink-fu. Even this war has changed many things. I will still not sanction common Russian players. I still believe in the kindness and bravery of many Russian people. They went to protest, knowing the risk of being arrested. They are all heroes!
(If Murin is still here, I believe she would send her regards to her Russian friends as well. Miro, Ceres, and all her other Russian friends are you reading this? Are you OK out there? It will be a betrayal to forget her and the world that she once wanted. Putin is ruining everything. I will do what I can to stop him.)
However, the greatest heroes in this war are our Ukrainian friends. I had my honor to meet more of them this week. From their president to farmers. Every one of them, they are all united, standing together to defend their home. They are everywhere, in Ukraine, in Poland, in Britain, and in Shanghai just a few dozens of miles away from me. But, no matter where they are, even some of them are aboard, in safe places, they are still doing whatever they can to help their nation against invaders. One of them told me this "Так, я міг би написати це все англійською, але я пишаюся тим, що я українець і можу розмовляти цією прекрасною мовою. Надіюсь, що для тебе не буде проблемою скористатися перекладачем. Світ має дізнатися про злочини Росії, а винуватці мають бути покарані. Життя переможе смерть, а світ – темряву." I am touched by those words. They will fight on till the day they win. They are all heroes!
I shall also mention Anonymous, squad303, and all the other hackers with a heart of justice around the world. They are doing amazing jobs in this war. They are all heroes.
I am not a hero like them. I love wars. I love wars in Hearts of Iron. I love wars in Total War. I love wars in MOBA games. I love wars in the stock market. I love wars in the court. I love wars when I see people rise up to overthrow dictators. But, even someone who loves war like me would want this war to end knowing millions of lives are at risk.
So, I decided to join this war on the side of the Ukrainian people. I gave out free game keys and made some donations after figuring out how to solve some credit card and VPN issues. The stock market is not well recently. Thus, the amount is not great. Part of them is from my profit from holding Lockheed Martin's stock for more than 10 months. You see, I'm a terrible person. I bought Lockheed Martin's stock long ago as a safety measure to ensure my profit. A certain someone has all the reasons to call me a "cold-blood bastard" in the stock market. When I play Life of Strange, I will have no regret for screwing up millions of strangers' lives just to save someone I know. I am just so terrible like that.
The world would be a very terrible place if everyone is like me. But, the good news is, we have all the heroes. So, to all the heroes in this war, this round is on me:
We have a new cocktail in "This is a bar."
We also have the Ukrainian language's mod template added in our localization templates mod.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2712267894
If NATO is still hesitant about sending jets, I shall give you jets to close the sky! (Even just in the game)
Slava Ukraini!
You have my firm support and the support of many of our players. We are going to win this together.
Some other not so important updates of this week include:
Taxis in Liu, Guardian Rings in Bazaar, Droplist for skeleton enemies (and a fix to the drop list bug.), improvement of enemy dialogue during the battle, and some art enhancement.
That's for this week.
But, maybe I shall just put the following links here as well:
Ukraine Red Cross: https://donate.redcrossredcrescent.org/ua/donate/~my-donation?_cv=1
Humanitarian Assistance to Ukrainians: https://bank.gov.ua/en/news/all/natsionalniy-bank-vidkriv-rahunok-dlya-gumanitarnoyi-dopomogi-ukrayintsyam-postrajdalim-vid-rosiyskoyi-agresiyi
Donate to Ukraine army: https://bank.gov.ua/en/about/support-the-armed-forces
Do not make donations if you are in Russia. Please stay safe, don't expose yourself.
Don't look back. You are never completely alone.
Who knows, maybe there will be a coup you can help instead. :)
(Yes, that's me being a terrible person again.)
Today's changelog:
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New mini-game: Close the Sky! (Or, maybe we can call it the Ghost of Kyiv)
More content to this mini-game may be added later.
A new NPC in the Bazaar is looking for heroes and our weapon merchant happily provides jets.
New item: Hero's Medal. (It's a bit overpowered. Sure.)