End of Year Review & Future Plans
2022 has been a very uplifting and prosperous year as we have taken several huge steps for 001 Game Creator and other related projects as well. We reflect on those grand moments of advancements, and we list them all here in this End-of-Year review.
At the beginning of that year, we announced the beginning of a new video tutorial series dedicated entirely to covering Resources! Explaining the different types among them, providing a step-by-step breakdown on what each of them does, and how they can be utilized in 001 Game Creator games.
Later in April, we launched a HUGE new version of 001 Game Creator which featured numerous bug fixes, improved the engine's overall performance and included a wide assortment of new features! One such noteworthy grand addition was definitely the advanced lighting demo. An example project which highlighted a variety of spectacular lighting effects used in a 3D scene, allowing users to check out how they work so they could then implement them into their own projects too.
In May, we hosted our very first Screenshot Contest, where users making a game in 001 Game Creator could participate in it for a chance to win a cash prize or any 001 DLC of their choosing. To enter, they would capture moments of a game of theirs, and post them on our Discord server. By the end of the month we ended up receiving so many gorgeous and creative screenshots of people's amazing works, that it became quite difficult to pick out the winners!
Eventually, these 3 individuals managed to make it to the top. Below we list their names, place and the screenshot that earned their win.
First Place: Isac4508
Second Place: Amy Febryan
Third Place: Elric Murphy
During August, the Steam arrival of our side-project Easy Game Creator, a derivation of 001 Game Creator, was announced for the very first time. A game creation tool catering to people who are interested in making a game without having to deal with any programming jargon or spend much time on it. You pick a template, fill out a short questionnaire, then the game has been made for you! Then you can easily share it with anyone to play on any device via a private link.
Moving on to Autumn, we revealed a brand new video tutorial series about video renditions of our existing Game Recipes, with the first one covering our very first recipe which explains how to create a functional flashlight/torch that follows the player. Since this is something new we've started doing, we appreciate any feedback you have on it!
During this time a lot of exciting stuff happened! Easy Game Creator was officially released on Steam under early access, our first video game recipe went public, and a gigantic wiki update which was being hinted at in a few announcements was finally available for our Patreon supporters to fully witness.
This absolutely massive update featured the Events and Use Values wiki pages having separate entries for all Events and Use Values! Moreover, we linked video tutorials and game recipes where applicable, so that users can quickly see how an event or use value that they're interested in knowing more about is utilized. And even more than that, entries acquired links to other entries which are directly related or similar to others. For example, the event "Change Invincibility" links to its respective use value, as well as the events "Change Existence", "Change Solid", "Change Invisibility"; since all of those Actor events perform actions of similar nature.
Additionally, a critical new beta version of 001 Game Creator became available to our patrons that added incredibly useful features like the "Smooth Scaling" option to font resources, an increased Android API version to 31... And of course the long awaited HTTPS support which essentially brings along a plethora of new possibilities such as using online services, web/app integrations, IAPs, being able to access all sorts of web APIs such as Twitch, Steam Web API, etc.
Later in December, we announced our SoftWeir Video Game Design Workbook, a physical book available for pre-ordering. Featuring 156 pages packed with various premium resources comprising of multiple worksheets, explanations and tools to help get people started in planning their next big project! Ranging from checklists, to tips & tricks by real game developers, and even an organized and dedicated space to draw and take notes in... all in all, it's a project management method that combines portability, ease-of-use on top of being fun as well!
We also released our STEM Course E-Books covering the Basics and Resources, along with our new SoftWeir Game Design Worksheets as DLCs for 001 Game Creator! These e-books contain a plethora of useful resources in the form of PDFs that you can use to master the basics of 001 Game Creator or learn and polish more advanced topics. Along with included quizzes that also come with answer sheets, so you can be sure you've definitely got the hang of your new-found knowledge and skills! On the other hand, the game design worksheets as great way for project-planning. Featuring multiple worksheets, detailed comprehensive explanations, tips & tricks by real game developers and more! Incredibly useful whether you keep them digital or actually print them out and fill them in with a pen.
Only a few weeks ago another beta update made its way on our Patreon, with big improvements concerning the behavior of the full-screen function, Alt+Enter support for toggling full-screen mode, as well as a very old requested feature that is the ability to switch from full-screen to windowed and vise-versa via script. Thanks to the addition of the "Change Fullscreen Mode" event this is now possible to implement!
Recently we've also made our debut on 3 more major platforms. Namely Mastodon, TikTok and Snapchat; so consider giving us a follow if you're using any of them yourself and would like to see more content.
And lastly, it's also worth mentioning that all those feature-rich beta versions you just read about will be coming out to the public soon, so keep your eyes peeled and your Steam clients refreshed!
[h2]Thank you for your support![/h2]
Whew, what a year this has been! And we can tell you this is going to amount to so little compared to what 2023 has in store both for us AND for you! Lots more stuff to come for both 001 Game Creator and Easy Game Creator! ...And for those of you who are in the loop... Yes, our "Super Secret" project that we've been working on for years will finally be coming to light this year so stay tuned! You definitely will NOT want to miss it!
In closing, we would like to wholeheartedly extend a very big "Thank you!" to all of our supporters! All of this and more would not have been possible if it weren't for the amazing support that we've been receiving from our Patreon members, our translators and the community as a whole! All of your feedback helped us to improve our products and services throughout the years. As such, thank you! We hope the community and Patreon members grow to the point when we can release webinars in the future!
On behalf of everyone on the whole team, we wish you a Happy New Year! Thank you for your dedicated support, and we hope to see more amazing projects from you in 2023 (we know you'll see from us)!
