Summer Islands News

Hello everyone,

This month we have also prepared an update for you to bring you up to date. We have to write that we haven't progressed as far as we had planned during the last weeks. As we've already written a few times, we're programming Summer Islands in addition to our regular job and therefore don't always find the time. Nevertheless there is no need to worry that Summer Islands will not appear. We may work slowly but steadily ;) . Our todo list for Early Access is coming to an end but there are still bugs that want to be fixed. Also a few textures will be reworked to get a better overall picture and of course the finetuning will not be forgotten.
Our schedule for Early Access in Q2 will NOT be affected by this.
We are happy to announce the Early Access date for END June. We are aiming for the 21.06. We are extremely excited to see you play Summer Islands and to see your perfect, successful beach paradise.
But until then there are still a few things to do/add, bugs to fix and long-term tests to do.

From the past weeks we also learned that every second week a small update makes you happier than every 4 weeks a bigger update. We will try to release smaller updates in the future to bring you up to date. On Twitter you can often find small preview videos of Summer Islands, just drop by @SummerIslandsQA.
In the last weeks there was the question how much Summer Islands will cost. Now that we're getting into early access we want to introduce you to our price model.
So in Early Access Summer Islands will cost 19,99€. The reason for this is that we have already invested a lot of time and will continue to do so. Against it would speak that Summer Islands is "only" an Indiegame. I don't want to justify myself any further but appeal to your objective opinion.
As mentioned before, we will publish free updates/extensions in Early Access in the following months, e.g. other catastrophies, better Bots, more advisors, public needs etc.. In its current state Summer Islands is definitely not complete, just Basic and Early Access gives you the opportunity to add suggestions/improvements/wishes to the game. This can only make Summer Islands better for everyone. The free updates/extensions in Early Access are scheduled to take place every 4-8 weeks. Accordingly how extensive the update will be or how many bugs have to be fixed.

So far the realese date and the price model. Let's get to the features that have been integrated like in the last weeks.

Through our created engine that we use with NodeJS we have noticed that the Downloadspeed with Steam unfortunately takes longer than expected (20min~300mb). In detail NodeJS always needs a node_modules folder with all libraries. This folder with a lot of small files is very impractical when saving to a hard disk. Therefore we had to think about a solution with another exe to start looking if the NodeJS lib already exists or has to be unpacked. This saves a lot of time of about 300mb we need on the hard disk for Summer Islands.

As already shown 14 days ago on Twitter we have integrated another consultant. This facilitates the overview over the whole building types which are in a road network. If you have set the building analyst, you will see an extra window at each port and airport. Depending on the type of building, this window shows the occupancy rate and the total occupancy rate. Thus one can recognize immediately with which building type it becomes scarce or whether one should build still more buildings of this type. We like the presentation very much and it has already proven to be very helpful. What do you think?





In addition to the already existing diagrams, we have added the equity and tourist course. The equity history shows you how valuable your buildings are overall. So how much money you have invested in buildings that still exist. A good indicator to compare yourself with other players. The tourist history shows you the total number of tourists in all your houses and hotels. Also a good indicator to see how well you are doing and how well you have placed your buildings.





In the next updates we will present some new textures, improve the computer opponents and fix many bugs to make Summer Islands Early Access ready :)
After 3 years of development we are very happy to be able to bring you Summer Islands!



-EXTERN: Added Pre-Exe to improve steam download
-SERVER/CLIENT: Added tourist chart
-SERVER/CLIENT: Added equity capital chart
-SERVER: BOT improvemend (loan,repayment).
-CLIENT: airport Bug Fix with new textures
-CLIENT: turn menü texture changed
-CLIENT: buildingmenu for too big texture improved
-CLIENT: information label reimplemented/changeable for future
-SERVER/CLIENT: you cannot fire a consultant within his first 150 days
-SERVERCLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency extended.

Hello together,

we made good progress in the last weeks and are already strong in early access planning. What still needs to be integrated? Which features will be implemented in the upcoming updates? Everything has to be tested again and so on. Due to the existing architecture it is sometimes very pleasant to make small changes and see the effects within a few minutes. You can see how the Early Access is going into the final spurt and it looks good how the individual components interact with each other.

We've been working on the rough timetable in many meetings over the last few weeks. A lot of work has been done on the textures and on small changes that make the game feel better.

I don't want to go into detail because every corner is still being worked on. We still have one or two features that need to be implemented before Early Access. The rest, e.g. in the lobby we set better start values or changed some map settings that just made more sense.
The game statistics (mouse clicks, game time etc.) have also been removed for the time being, because the focus is simply elsewhere at the moment and it doesn't reduce the game fun without the statistics.
The map editor has also been set to "coming soon". For this we have to integrate other methods to implement terraforming in the larger radius. Because I think nobody wants to change a huge world with one click for every change. For the Early Access there will be almost infinite possible worlds with the random values and seed anyway.

We found the natural disasters far too gentle. Therefore we have extended the radius of destruction a bit. Earthquakes can also occur anywhere on the map where land exists. This can lead you to ruin. But with a good insurance you have less worries. ;)

Of course I don't want to withhold the textures from you. Therefore here now the new textures, as well as revised:

Strandhouse: Open for everyone and a dream at every location.



Luxury villa: For the upscale milieu but also easy to place.



Luxury hotel: Also for the upscale milieu. However, the building is much more susceptible to false neighbours.



Beginner hotel: The two middle hotels. The lower one was reworked and the upper one was rebuilt. Both have their pitfalls but cheap to build.



Swimming Pool: This must be for every sportsman and always popular with tourists.



Tennis court & training court: The training court is always well received and easy to build. The location of the tennis court is more difficult.



Market: A market is a good attraction that always brings you good money. But also not too much. ;)



I hope I could give you some anticipation again and I'm already looking forward to your fun at Early Access.



-CLIENT: Lobby more settings added.
-CLIENT: Lobby default values and settings adjusted.
-SERVER: Added flat mode color field generation.
-SERVER: Minimap display at minimap fixed.
-CLIENT: Icons improved.
-SERVER: Natural disasters destruction radius extended.
-CLIENT: Credits inserted. ;)
-SERVER/CLIENT: Map editor/game statistics first set to coming soon.
-CLIENT: option menu extended, tutorial menu added.
-CLIENT: Financial menu improved, if there is too little data no chart will be displayed.
-CLIENT: Pre-money display for building and terraforming newly implemented, bug fixed.
-SERVER: Construction costs of buildings revised.
-SERVER: Cluster calculation bug fixed.
-SERVER: Javascript stability/efficiency extended.

Hello together,

in the last weeks we have made good progress again and we are slowly entering the test phases where you can once again admire the whole project. Some problems with the multiplayer communication have to be corrected in the next weeks. There are small things that must not lead to crashes in the lobby or ingame. We are confident to be able to please you with some ingame videos in the next weeks.

The biggest changes this week are new SoundFX components which we have integrated. Like e.g. at construction works, at the disco or at shops for mobility. The difficulty is to calibrate them in such a way that they are actively noticed but immediately fall back into the subconscious. An atmosphere should be created with it and not a whistle concert. The positioning of the sounds in relation to the position of the viewer also presents us with a few problems in harmonizing this with the architecture of the game. But we work very hard not to have a mono sound at the end.

For the course of the game we also made some changes. The biggest change is in the parks. Before, roads were essential to connect two buildings. So to say that the tourists can get from the airport to all other buildings. We have extended this principle with parks. The parks act as an extension of the connection. One can build a beautiful park at the street and behind it the other building like e.g. a hotel. Because of the park the hotel is still connected to the street and therefore accessible for the holidaymakers. However, one cannot extend a street connection by a park. Parks only extend the connection to other buildings.



In the player colours there is also something new to announce. Previously we always randomly assigned the colors from a previously created texture file to the players. Since this of course does not correspond to the gaming standards, the necessary textures are now created at the beginning of the game on the basis of the colour preferences. This uses a bit more memory but it simplifies the whole color selection and texture creation process.

And last but not least we don't want to deprive you of the new textures that have been created:







A whole series of new airports have been created. From small with low capacity to the largest airports for the big cities.



A new attraction was also added. The open-air cinema. More often to be found in sunnier regions, this building offers an exciting atmosphere for every film.

At the end I would like to make a recommendation for an interview (german) that we finally gave. Who would like to have some background information I recommend to read this here:
https://www.zippy-net.work/article/im-interview-summer-islands


-CLIENT: Bridge Bug Fix
-SERVER/CLIENT: Building site review for building has been revised
-CLIENT: car/bicycle texture on curve corrected
-CLIENT: mouse wheel zoom with layers bug fix
-CLIENT: scroll function inserted for news window
-CLIENT: SoundFX integrated, architecture improved
-SERVER: Cluster calculation has been revised/improved
-SERVER: Parks integrated for Cluster calculation
-CLIENT: Selection building click in flat mode Bug Fix
-CLIENT: Lobby player colors integrated to players
-SERVER/CLIENT: Lobby Server/Client communication optimized
-SERVER: Savegames player ID is assigned when loading new player

Hello together,

this time there were many improvements to the Basic Game Principle to meet the requirements of Early Access. We are getting closer and closer to the goal to get a stable version that includes the basic Summer Islands mechanics and can be extended with bigger updates in the future.
You can read from time to time how the Steam marked is flooded by unfinished Early Access games and how they don't get done. This will not be the case with Summer Islands!

We have made many improvements in this version and implemented mechanics that should have been integrated for weeks.
The biggest internal finetuning changes have been in the BUILDING COSTS and in the calculation of the POPULARITY of the buildings. In addition, work was also done on the MAP CREATION.





A few smaller architectural restructurings were carried out, e.g.
-We did this during the creation of the Minimap. Since the creation during the runtime requires a lot of resources, we placed them in the server that sends a PNG file to the clients when the game starts.
-Each player now has the ability to customize the building colors according to flat or normal mode.
-The maximum water depth has been extended so that a more beautiful transition from dark to light water is possible.
-As soon as a bridge part is destroyed, the surrounding bridge parts are destroyed sequentially.
-The starting year was set to 1990 for aesthetic reasons. :)
-A more complex insurance calculation was integrated.
-A long required allocation of the buildings on the basics of IDs was realized and integrated into the individual areas.
-A smoother movement was integrated, which gives the player a better assignment of the direction of movement.

In summary, a lot of work was done on smaller extensions and bug fixes. Many mechanics are already integrated in a stable way. A large part of the still needed work lies in the visual improvement of buttons, explanations or the missing tutorial. But let's face it, who is still playing a tutorial these days? :)
A knowledge database/help center with short explanations might be the better choice. But that will not be decided until the next few weeks.




-SERVER: BUILDING COSTS improvements
-SERVER: POPULARITY FORMULA improvements
-SERVER: MAP CREATION improvements
-CLIENT: Minimap adapted with PNG.
-SERVER/CLIENT: Destoyed Buildingsfields are now taken into account in earth elevations and decreases and cannot be changed.
-CLIENT: Destoyed Buildingsfields uses earth fields as background
-CLIENT: Added more setting to distinguish color between normal and flat.
-CLIENT: added select mode without Cache.
-CLIENT: when demolishing a road we use a new Cluster calculation
-SERVER/CLIENT: dark water with -2 height
-CLIENT: Red font graduated, not so red anymore
-Server/Client: bridge deletion with delay.
-CLIENT: small ships inserted.
-CLIENT: Building manager rent increase/lower fixed
-CLIENT: Building manager scroll mouse offset fix
-CLIENT: Movables buildings adapt to colour of building
-CLIENT: Movables are always reintegrated into map.
-CLIENT: smoother movements with Keys AWSD
-CLIENT: Click on building to show building preferences by colors via ID
-CLIENT: Buildingsizecheck converted to ID
-SERVER: buildingsizecheck converted to IDs
-CLIENT: mapbasicfunctions changed to ID
-SERVER/CLIENT: Start year set to 1990
-CLIENT: finance menu: Yearly history saves 30 entries
-CLIENT: finance menu: month history stores 24 entries
-CLIENT: buildingfieldselection corrected

Hello together and welcome to 2019!

2019 will be the year. A year that will make the hearts of Summer Island fans beat faster! We have great ahead of this year.
We know the disappointment about the postponed Early Access date is still there...more or less. But 2019 will be the year of Early Access.
Thanks also for all the emails and comments to our last blog entry!
Since the entry we have also received the news that GOG has no interest in Summer Islands. Maybe this will change in the future.
We also thought, through the comments of you, that maybe a beta phase is too much effort and you could go directly to the Early Access. Because Early Access is also going in the direction to improve bugs and do finetuning. As you can see a final decision has not been made yet.

But for now back to the ingame details.
We have been working hard on Summer Islands for the last weeks. On the whole we have
-improved many building arbitrariness calculations for costs/profits,
-the SoundFX extends for a harmonious sound culise,
-small discrepancies and bugs corrected for a better feel,
and the multiplayer mode from Australia to Germany and we were positively surprised how stable Summer Islands is and how much fun it is. That motivates you even more :)

The biggest visible change is in the financial report. There the plan was not to have to calculate forever but to have all important information ready (as it should be with a financial report).



You see now immediately the positive or negative positions with the individual building types. Thus you know directly with which building types you make a loss or you can make still more profit. Below that, there are also the individual expenditure areas such as marketing, insurance, etc.. With the other costs added thereby the annual total sum results.

What we also inserted at new textures are the building plots. Because every building has a construction time until it is finished and the buildings tourists can come. As long as the buildings are being built, this has a bad effect on the neighbouring buildings.



Regarding the construction fields, as well as other areas, we have to say that we have considered/planned many further improvement updates. But for the beginning this should work.


-CLIENT: SoundFX extended
-CLIENT: Texture Bug fixes
-Server: Buildingspopularity calculation improvements
-Server: Money calculation improvements
-Server/CLIENT: financial report improvements
-Server/CLIENT: efficiency improvements