#TurnBasedThursdays fest and TestRun-3
[h2]Intro[/h2]
Before we begin, look at this poor quality gif of the main menu:
See those tiny particles flying up? The "up" part is important. When we first tried to implement this in our single-camera setup. they weren't flying up. And that eventually made us spend 20+ hours on a dozen camera related tasks, The worst part? All that work is completely invisible. There's no reason to tell you this. I just needed to tell someone, and you're here. Thanks for listening.
Oh, and you can now zoom the map in/out a little. Useless, but nice.
[h3]Level generation[/h3]
Another invisible rework: level generation. Nothing in the demo showcases this yet, but this gif explains what we can do now:
There's a Core in the playtest that pushes green nodes to edges and it's pretty fun. I don't want to overuse this feature, though. There's a moral gray area in manipulating randomness. For example, Fast Forward (move 2 same direction) would benefit from never spawning in corners. But it's hard to justify adding this into a tooltip, and hiding such tricks from players feels unfair.
[h3]Exit with Express[/h3]
This is all around a pleasant change that I should've made a long time ago but I was too in love with Free Rider and Homesick. I've played 2 runs with the new version, and running away on 0-Actions by using Callbacks or moving over Corrosion makes you feel like Indiana Jones, no less.
[h3]TestRun-3[/h3]
The difficulty jump from TestRun-2 to Deep Run is too big. TestRun-3 should soften the 2nd-hour experience because, let's be honest, losing in the game isn't fun. New players can easily screw themselves in Deep Run by ignoring early Trace reduction or walking into Nullifier with Refresh synergy.
We need to clarify that TestRuns aren't tutorials. They're real, content-restricted runs with some replayability to them. The open question: do we need TestRun-4? Probably, but all TestRuns need improvements to feel worthwhile. I was thinking about injecting lore pieces or coming up with a narrative arc to justify their (TestRun's) linearity. Not sure.
Anyway, the plan now is to keep all the TestRuns up in the demo as a prologue that you won't have to play in the full game if you feel you're hardcore enough. For "normal" people it should be good 3-5 intro hours that will expose the most basic ~33% of the game. I think we'll be able to add enough content to justify the purchase of the full game, so it shouldn't be a problem.
[h3]New content[/h3]
We didn't focus much on new content in May. The demo already has more than most players need, so it's hard to prioritize. But we still have gaps—like this basic Data Node I realized was missing just days ago:
I'm sure there are more "staple" nodes we haven't "printed" yet. That's an uncomfortable thought.
Overall, it doesn't make sense to make new nodes when we're still missing core features. One example is an Aspect Matrix for the 2nd Deep Run that removes already-used aspects:
[h3]Roadmap[/h3]
We still aren't in a position to make concrete plans. The game's shaping up well, but marketing performance is bad. The Steam indie market is oversaturated, and NET.CRAWL fits poorly:
Deck-builder fans say it's too puzzly.
Puzzle fans say it's too RNG.
Cyberpunk lovers say it's too whimsical.
Hardcore tile-officionados say it's too casual.
Everyone agrees it requires too much brainpower.
It's tough. Overall, it seems we won't be able to skip Early Access. Soon, we'll shift focus from demo/FTUE to delivering enough value for EA buyers—more content and logical arcs for a sense of completeness.
But EA needs marketing too. We can't release into nothingness. That would be too awkward to explain to my wife. So, as much as I'd love to make Cores all day, we need to do other things—like figuring out the new trailer. Or better, two trailers. And then find people who'd watch them!
Speaking of which,
It's Monday, but it's the first day of #TurnBasedThursday fest which will feature NET.CRAWL among some ~400 other games. The festival is packed with amazing games and I'm very grateful that NET.CRAWL was included.
It even motivated Alex to draw the new capsule art.
The most fun thing for me about this art is that Alex seems to be very unsatisfied with the way it turned out. It must be really hard to be an artist! I think it's gorgeous.
[h3]Outro[/h3]
Anyway. thank you for reading. If you haven't reviewed the demo yet - please do.
I wish I could tell you more about EA-release plans and whatnot, but it's all very messy. All I know is that we still have a lot of work to do, and even we do all the production work it still might not be enough because there are marketing and business sides to all this.
I'm hopeful, though.
Denis
ObsoleteOne
Before we begin, look at this poor quality gif of the main menu:
See those tiny particles flying up? The "up" part is important. When we first tried to implement this in our single-camera setup. they weren't flying up. And that eventually made us spend 20+ hours on a dozen camera related tasks, The worst part? All that work is completely invisible. There's no reason to tell you this. I just needed to tell someone, and you're here. Thanks for listening.
Oh, and you can now zoom the map in/out a little. Useless, but nice.
[h3]Level generation[/h3]
Another invisible rework: level generation. Nothing in the demo showcases this yet, but this gif explains what we can do now:
There's a Core in the playtest that pushes green nodes to edges and it's pretty fun. I don't want to overuse this feature, though. There's a moral gray area in manipulating randomness. For example, Fast Forward (move 2 same direction) would benefit from never spawning in corners. But it's hard to justify adding this into a tooltip, and hiding such tricks from players feels unfair.
[h3]Exit with Express[/h3]
This is all around a pleasant change that I should've made a long time ago but I was too in love with Free Rider and Homesick. I've played 2 runs with the new version, and running away on 0-Actions by using Callbacks or moving over Corrosion makes you feel like Indiana Jones, no less.
[h3]TestRun-3[/h3]
The difficulty jump from TestRun-2 to Deep Run is too big. TestRun-3 should soften the 2nd-hour experience because, let's be honest, losing in the game isn't fun. New players can easily screw themselves in Deep Run by ignoring early Trace reduction or walking into Nullifier with Refresh synergy.
We need to clarify that TestRuns aren't tutorials. They're real, content-restricted runs with some replayability to them. The open question: do we need TestRun-4? Probably, but all TestRuns need improvements to feel worthwhile. I was thinking about injecting lore pieces or coming up with a narrative arc to justify their (TestRun's) linearity. Not sure.
Anyway, the plan now is to keep all the TestRuns up in the demo as a prologue that you won't have to play in the full game if you feel you're hardcore enough. For "normal" people it should be good 3-5 intro hours that will expose the most basic ~33% of the game. I think we'll be able to add enough content to justify the purchase of the full game, so it shouldn't be a problem.
[h3]New content[/h3]
We didn't focus much on new content in May. The demo already has more than most players need, so it's hard to prioritize. But we still have gaps—like this basic Data Node I realized was missing just days ago:
I'm sure there are more "staple" nodes we haven't "printed" yet. That's an uncomfortable thought.
Overall, it doesn't make sense to make new nodes when we're still missing core features. One example is an Aspect Matrix for the 2nd Deep Run that removes already-used aspects:
[h3]Roadmap[/h3]
We still aren't in a position to make concrete plans. The game's shaping up well, but marketing performance is bad. The Steam indie market is oversaturated, and NET.CRAWL fits poorly:
Deck-builder fans say it's too puzzly.
Puzzle fans say it's too RNG.
Cyberpunk lovers say it's too whimsical.
Hardcore tile-officionados say it's too casual.
Everyone agrees it requires too much brainpower.
It's tough. Overall, it seems we won't be able to skip Early Access. Soon, we'll shift focus from demo/FTUE to delivering enough value for EA buyers—more content and logical arcs for a sense of completeness.
But EA needs marketing too. We can't release into nothingness. That would be too awkward to explain to my wife. So, as much as I'd love to make Cores all day, we need to do other things—like figuring out the new trailer. Or better, two trailers. And then find people who'd watch them!
Speaking of which,
It's Monday, but it's the first day of #TurnBasedThursday fest which will feature NET.CRAWL among some ~400 other games. The festival is packed with amazing games and I'm very grateful that NET.CRAWL was included.
It even motivated Alex to draw the new capsule art.
The most fun thing for me about this art is that Alex seems to be very unsatisfied with the way it turned out. It must be really hard to be an artist! I think it's gorgeous.
[h3]Outro[/h3]
Anyway. thank you for reading. If you haven't reviewed the demo yet - please do.
I wish I could tell you more about EA-release plans and whatnot, but it's all very messy. All I know is that we still have a lot of work to do, and even we do all the production work it still might not be enough because there are marketing and business sides to all this.
I'm hopeful, though.
Denis
ObsoleteOne