MORSE News

Hey folks,

Just a small but important patch for two things:
+ Fixed the issue that a number of people had on the last update where the row wouldn't load in.
+ Cloud Saving: Took me a while to troubleshoot it, but Cloud Saving should now be working on both PC and Steamdeck, thank you for your patience in me sorting it out, please let me know if you encounter any issues.

That's all for now, larger announcement coming soon!

[p]Hello folks, [/p][p]First and foremost, wanted to apologise again for the cancellation of the MORSE stream on Sunday, thankfully my laptop appears to have recovered, I've got new components on their way so hopefully in the clear![/p][p]MORSE is going to be on the road the next two weeks, showcased in three different events:[/p][p][/p][h3]EGX Rezzed Zone, Birmingham: https://www.egx.net/global/en-gb.html [/h3][p]EGX aka MCM Birmingham is going to be including MORSE as part of the Rezzed Zone with help from Game Republic, a fantastic organisation supporting developers in the north of England. Really looking forward to showcasing the project, I'll have MORSE set up with my glowing telegraph this coming weekend, so should be good fun finally showing the game at launch! I'll be having a revolving selection of keys on display each day, so make sure to swing by for a different play style each day. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Good Game Dev Fest, London: https://goodgamedev.co.uk/ [/h3][p]Good Game Dev Fest is a day event in London focused around industry speakers, installations and games on the 29th of November, 4-10pm. Happy for MORSE to be included in this collection, alas it falls on the same weekend as MCM so I'll be getting some help to run the booth in my absence with a telegraph I've shipped down for the event, more details to follow on that front. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Playtopia, Cape Town: https://playtopiafestival.co.za/ [/h3][p]Playtopia is an indie game and immersive art festival hosted in Cape Town on the 5th-6th of December. Whilst I sadly can't attend in person, I'm hoping to send a telegraph to play the game with. I'm actually looking for folks involved in ham radio/the game who might be interested in helping exhibit the project at the event, please get in touch in the comments if you're interested! [/p][p][/p][p]As part of these events, I'm going to be adding a modifier to the game to make the game easier to exhibit at events, such as an auto-timer, quick reset button and instructions in the tutorial relevant to operating with a telegraph. This ties into lovely development that I'll be sharing next week, so stay tuned for that.[/p][p][/p][h3]Feature in Addict Magazine![/h3][p]Finally, I wanted to highlight an exciting development! MORSE got a two page feature in Addict Magazine, sharing a cover with Prince of Persia's designer, Jordan Mencher. Whilst a small feature on the front page, it's the first time that's happened in my career which I'm was humbled to have happen and getting it in print there's something really special about it. Was lovely chatting to Paul and really appreciated him taking the time to check out the project. Whilst the game is a modern game, the use of hardware pre-dating the game industry for input really drew him in. We had a broader chat about my career making weird games controllers. If you're interested in a copy, you can grab that here: https://www.addict.media/pixel-addict/pixel-addict-magazine[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That's all for now, thanks again for your interest in the project, it's been so wonderful seeing the response from the community and seeing it nudge people down the path of amateur radio, hoping in the new year to grow that outreach and help more people into the hobby. [/p][p][/p][p]Hopefully meet some of you this weekend! Remember to bring your telegraph keys if you fancy playing the game with your own telegraph, I have support for Sideswipers, Iabmic and Straight key. [/p][p][/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[h2]Hey folks, [/h2][p][/p][p]Responding through the backup account, had a mishap today whilst setting up for the stream where i shorted my laptop port which sent my laptop into emergency shutdown. I appear to have gotten it out of that state but it’s out of action for 24 hours and to order the replacement ports could take up to a week to arrive. [/p][p][/p][p]Obviously I’m disappointed that the Stream didn’t go ahead, would have messaged sooner but i’ve been scrambling to make sure my laptop (and MORSE) is safe. [/p][p][/p][p]Hope you understand, apologies again for the mishap and the lack of communication, I’ll let you know when the next one is. [/p][p][/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[p]Hey folks! [/p][p]So this patch ended up being a lot bigger than expected, got some fun stuff implemented. Lets dig in: [/p][p][/p][p]+ Tutorial update: I've had a number of people express frustration with missing information in the in-game tutorial, so now, all the text of the tutorial has now been implemented into the manual. Additionally, at any point during the tutorial you can press the ? key (PC) or the back/select button (Steamdeck) to view what was just shared and scroll through the surrounding tutorials. In time I want to add a little ? button that flashes in the corner when something new appears which shows the appropriate page in the manual, but this should do for now! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]+ Game modifiers: This additional page that can be found on the new "Modifiers" menu, accessed via the bottom left of the screen (pictured above). Modifiers offer variants to the conventional game, be that additional challenges such as "No Peeking" (Helpsheet locked) and accessibility options such as "Drop Anchor" (ships 50% speed) or "Lights On" (All ships visible). [/p][p]These modifiers disable achievements when active, the primary reason for this is they're new features and experiments that need time for testing with players before fully integrating in the final game. Further, the speed and visibility modifiers function as accessibility options, which is an area that I am actively looking to expand.[/p][p][/p][p]I would like your input on how you find the current modifiers and what other ones you'd be interested in or accessible features to help make the game suit your needs, please let me know in the Steam discussions.[/p][p][/p][p]Of the new modifiers added, there is one in particular that I'm very excited to share with you...[/p][p][/p][p]+ S.O.S Mode: Words on both axes was something I explored previously, but this proved troublesome, as the possibility of clashing letters was very high (without a massive pool of isograms, which is harder to vet). Instead, I've used a scramble of unused letters (letters not used the x axis isogram) to fill the Y grid and it honestly feels really satisfying to operate, possibly more-so than the original number based solution. [/p][p]Navigation feels quicker as vertical movement doesn't require 5 inputs to change row (which helps a lot speed-wise with the later missions) and the variance of input length adds tactical depth to mine placement. I'll be doing a proper writeup about how it changes play once I've had some rest.[/p][p][/p][p]For a demonstration of the speeds you can now reach with letter mode, here's a video of me managing to hold off an 8 row naval assault with the S.O.S modifier active! [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]+ Your Telegraph type, difficulty and mode have been added to the end state, means folks who are wanting to do speed runs/accuracy runs can have the receipts of what run they're doing.[/p][p]+ Telegraph carrying on beeping on the end screen/menu fixed. Thanks to those who waited a bit longer for this, I was intending to push this out quickly but got drawn into the vertical letters update! [/p][p][/p][p]As a disclaimer, upon updating the game, it appears that ongoing, saved playthroughs may break (the Y axis may be empty on load). Sadly, I don't currently have an immediate fix for this other than restarting your run, I hope the offer of these additional features will take the edge off any loss of progress and provide assurance that I am doing the best I can to support the game through my first Steam launch. Please let me know if you come across any more bugs via this form and in the forums. [/p][p][/p][p]With the above in mind, my priority next for MORSE is getting cloud save working and then digging through the rest of that list mentioned in the previous post. thank you for your patience and let me know what you think of the new modifiers! [/p][p][/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

Implementing patch, full changes will follow.