Small Living World 2 - Dev Diary #6

[p]Hello everyone.[/p][p]
This month, we quietly started the beta testing phase. Let’s call it a private alpha. It’s better to begin with a small group of testers, so if anything goes horribly wrong, not too many players will be affected. Fortunately, nothing horrible surfaced, and we received very valuable feedback.[/p][p][/p][p]Beta testing can be very motivating. For the first time, we get to share the game with other people. But, it can also be very frustrating. Players don’t understand key mechanics the way we expected. They find issues we never even thought about. And then they suggest we should completely redo the UI. Yes. That actually happened.[/p][p][/p][p]When you spend days working on a feature, it can be hard to accept that you may need to throw it all away. In moments like these, you have to set emotions aside and make objective, fact-based decisions. This is not always easy, believe me. It’s important to keep some emotional distance from your project. That may sound counter-intuitive, but in the end, it really helps.[/p][p][/p][p]So yes, we will rework the game UI ( in-game menus and more ), but not right now. We’ve decided to focus on the major gameplay issues first. After all, the current UI is functional. Not particularly nice, but functional. We hope this won’t delay the release schedule, but difficult decisions may be necessary.[/p][p]Making video games isn’t always play and fun.[/p][p][/p][p]
And that’s the last Dev Diary of 2025. 2026 is shaping up to be a very big year, with the full release planned for summer. And maybe, if everything goes right, even a demo beforehand. A lot of exciting work in the coming months for us.[/p]