Steam Deck, New Features & Launch Plans

[p][/p][p]Greetings you players of world-breaking, mind-shattering "Solitaire Variant meets Lynchian Cosmic Horror At The Sublime Scale" games![/p][p]Occlude will be in your hands in less than one week. Your seat at the table is waiting. [/p][p]We thought we'd put together a little one-week-to-go post with some bits and pieces we've been working on ahead of the release. [/p][p]Like what, I hear you howl, slathering at the mouth, hands wrenching apart the very fabric of reality?[/p][p]Well...[/p][p][/p][h2]Controller Support[/h2][p][/p][p]While in our humble opinion Occlude - and Solitaire games in general - are best played with mouse and keyboard, we wanted to support as many of our player's preferred input and control schemes as possible.[/p][p]So we've now implemented controller support, which will be available when the game launches on July 10.[/p][p]A caveat here: While we have tested this as thoroughly as humanly possible, we're a teeny tiny team, so the game has not been played with a controller at scale. [/p][p]Consider it in beta; Usable with likely optimizations to be made. [/p][p]Let us know how you're getting on with it and of any irregularities, and we'll patch these out with all the swiftness we can muster. [/p][p]Also, do you know what controller support makes possible? [/p][p][/p][h2]Occlude On Steam Deck [/h2][p] [/p][p]With controller support now in, we've put Occlude through its paces on Steam Deck and (as far as I'm concerned) it's really rather good.[/p][p]It's important to note Occlude has not attained "Great on Deck" status yet - That's something the most terrifying extra-dimensional entity of them all (Steam) decides whether or not your game gets.[/p][p]However the game suits the handheld experience really well and feels intuitive. But that's not enough![/p][p]What happens next is that we need to let you - the community - play the game on Steam Deck, so we can see how it fares at scale.[/p][p]There's undoubtedly improvements and optimisations we'll need to make, to ensure the controls feel sensible and the experience is perfect for you Steam Deckers.[/p][p]Do let us know if you do play on the Deck in the Discussions after launch, and we'll happily leap on bringing it up to scratch where we can.[/p][p][/p][h2]Our all-new Tutorial [/h2][p][/p][p]Our Demo showed that our current Tutorial simply wasn't cutting the mustard. Which is fair! [/p][p]Occlude is an unusual variant of Solitaire, with its own set of tricks to master, as well as having a section of the game where rules intentionally aren't explained to you.[/p][p]Our new fully interactive tutorial is designed to help that. [/p][p]It explains key differences between our new modes, gives you tricks to winning a game and makes it clearer what certain parts of the UI do.[/p][p]We're still very keen for some of our rules (especially around those coins) to remain secret, however we're going to signpost in this tutorial where they are and what they might be better.[/p][p][/p][h2]Even more UI overhauls[/h2][p][/p][p]You might have seen from our last blog post that we've been improving the information shown to you throughout Occlude.[/p][p]After all, what's the point of a game filled with strategy and secrets if we give you a hint as to what's going on?[/p][p]We're still working on improving the visuals and information across the game, and will do right up to launch. Take a look above for the new and improved visuals for ending a game.[/p][p]Like I said above, we're keen to get the balance right between "showing you everything and spoiling the secret rules of Rituals" and "hiding so much that the game is baffling".[/p][p]What would help that balance for you? Yes, you. I'm literally asking. Go post in the comments below with your thoughts. Right now. Tah.[/p][p][/p][h2]Launch Plans: Lore Drops and more...[/h2][p][/p][p]We have a lot of fun things planned for launch - The final few cards of the ARG, some great coverage by the press, plenty of streamers taking Occlude for a spin.[/p][p]We're also excited to announce that we're releasing Occlude Lore Drops every time we hit milestone numbers of Steam Reviews![/p][p]Those familiar with Tributary will recognize this - We dive into our top secret (and very large) Lore Bible for our games and give you all a forbidden taste of what's inside. [/p][p]These will be a little different from the King of the Castle Lore Drops, as they've been specially prepared and edited by our superb writer Harry Tuffs, and will help you piece together the puzzle that is our narrative.[/p][p]If you want to unlock them, first leave us a review on launch day! (please and thank you so much)[/p][p]Then join our Discord to discover even more secrets, plot with your fellow Obscurants, even try your luck at becoming a fabled Magician.[/p][p][/p][h2]Going into Launch...[/h2][p]Final call. [/p][p]Cards on the table. [/p][p]Last chance saloon.[/p][p]We're releasing in roughly five days.[/p][p]So if you haven't wishlisted Occlude yet, please consider it![/p][p]As we move into launch week, every wishlist counts and helps our small team achieve the greatest thing of all: visibility from the great God of Algorithms. [/p][p]Thanks for reading, and we'll see you next week...[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]