Summer Islands News

I hope you had a relaxing Christmas and that you, your family and your friends are doing well under the circumstances.

As the year draws to a close, I wanted to take a look back and forward with this post.
Before that, I wanted to motivate you to leave some feedback. Everyone can create a Steam review, write their wishes in the forum or write me directly about their wishes or problems [email protected]
The more feedback, the better. That's what Early Access depends on and I'm happy to implement your wishes and improvements.
I have to admit that I always look at the percentage of positive/negative user feedback. My goal is always to stay above 75% positive :D

The following update was made for 2023:

• 03.2023 [v0.8.5] with Gamepad Support
  
• 04.2023 [v0.8.6] with reputation through quality & environment
  
• 05.2023 [v0.8.7] with volcano, pollution and more
  
• 07.2023 [v0.8.8] with Awards, Currencies and more
  
• 08.2023 [v0.8.9] with nature, more nature and fixes
  
• 09.2023 [v0.9.0] with special buildings and more
  
• 11.2023 [v0.9.1] with more sabotage
  
• 12.2023 [v0.9.2] with plant growth and more (coming next Weekend)
  

I have to say that the gamepad support was quite lengthy and you have to try out a number of options to find the best playing experience. Last but not least, Summer Islands was also verified for the Steam deck. The map editor is still missing, but that will come.
With the other updates over the year, the gameplay was changed in many corners with small steps. Especially the reputation, the special buildings or the additional natural disasters have a strong impact on the gameplay.
Between you and me, I was most looking forward to the special buildings. In the end, however, the WOU effect was a little less than I expected.
To summarize, it can be said that all areas have once again been improved and worked on.

Unfortunately, the next year 2024 will not be such an adventure.
We are planning to come out of early access in the next updates => Release v1.0.0 in Q2 2024
This should hopefully not be a major surprise for you. We once published a timeline for this on 01.04.2023. Here is another update:



With the latest updates I'm trying to "round off" everything a bit more, i.e. fine-tuning the parameters, fixing bugs, adding more tooltips, adjusting textures, etc. There is also a major engine update pending, which should make Summer Islands run much more smoothly. So there is still a lot to do. In particular, the idea of a research tree has stuck in order to unlock buildings earlier. This feature will be available as a separate update.
But a lot is probably under the hood.
I'm also trying to focus a little more on marketing in order to have a good start for the release of Summer Islands. ;)

[h2]Last but not least, I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to you and your support for Summer Islands.
You are the heroes and a happy new year 2024 to each of you.[/h2]

P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.

Have fun https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands https://summerislands.de

Social Links https://bsky.app/profile/summerislands.bsky.social https://mastodon.social/@SummerIslands https://twitter.com/SummerIslandsQA

Here are the new features:

[h3]Sabotage[/h3]
In this update, we look at the new sabotage functions. There are now a total of 6 sabotages with very different effects.



It starts with cockroaches. A little something to reduce the condition of a building.
With Defame, you can slightly worsen the reputation of your opponent. The respective building also takes some damage.
You can use the construction time on your opponent's construction sites and on your own. It extends the construction time or shortens it for you.
The stink bomb makes an area uninhabitable for approx. 200 days. This means that all buildings in an area with a radius of approx. 8 fields will perform very poorly. Even your own.
The Shit Storm makes all of a player's buildings look bad. For a period of about 200 days, his reputation will slowly and steadily decline. As you know, reputation is an integral part of why your tourists come to you.
Finally, you can also have one of your opponent's buildings demolished. As if by magic, it will then disappear from the surface. Nobody knows who triggered the fire alarm.



The chances of success of a sabotage are always different. They depend on the saboteur you have hired and the opposing security force.
Unfortunately, every successful sabotage always reflects on you, which reduces your reputation.

The following should be mentioned in small print: It is important to emphasize that intentionally destroying reputation in Summer Islands and acts of sabotage are generally not recommended. Such actions can negatively impact the game experience for others and compromise the integrity of the game. As game developers, we encourage fair play and respectful behavior.

[h3]MouseOver Buildings[/h3]
For a better understanding of the game, we have added some more information to the MouseOver Buildings.
At the top right or directly as text, you can now see whether there is a problem with the building or which things are currently affecting the building



P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.

Have fun https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

[h2]FEATURES[/h2]

• ADDED: Sabotage Defame
  
• ADDED: Sabotage Stink bomb
  
• ADDED: Sabotage Shit Storm
  
• ADDED: Icon and Text in the MouseOver menu if a building is not connected to the road network
  
• ADDED: Icon in the MouseOver menu when a building is affected by a stink bomb or shitstorm
  

[h2]IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

• FIX: Disappearing building: Islands Car
  
• FIX: Mouse click on buildings next to special buildings
  
• CHANGED: Gamepad Init delayed while loading
  
• CHANGED: Finetuning Sabotage Effects
  

Here are the new features:

Special buildings

There are special buildings scattered across the map. These buildings attract more tourists. This means that every building within a certain radius of these buildings receives a boost. Every tourist wants to be near such buildings.



Area demolition

The demolition function has been expanded. An area can now be demolished. This can be filtered to demolish only buildings or only streets. It is also easier to clean up natural disasters such as pollution.



Filters and multi-selection in the building manager

In the building manager, you can use a filter on the right-hand side to display only those buildings that meet the individual filters.
You can also select several buildings and edit them uniformly.



P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.

Have fun https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

[h2]FEATURES:[/h2]

• ADDED: Special buildings with boost for surrounding buildings
  
• ADDED: Demolition function extended for area selection
  
• ADDED: Demolition function extended with filter for only street or building
  
• ADDED: Building manager extended with filter
  
• ADDED: Building manager with multiple selection
  

[h2]IMPROVEMENTS:[/h2]

• FIX: road costs were displayed 10.000 and deducted 20.000
  
• FIX: Cameraposition on minimap
  
• CHANGED: Resolution adjustment if screen has other Resolution
  
• CHANGED: Finetuning the popularity funtion
  
• CHANGED: Camera movement slows down the closer you zoom in
  

You probably realize it yourselves: Something is not quite right with the updates.
Last update: September 2nd (more than 2 months ago)!!!

So I wanted to give you a quick update:
The latest update v0.9.0 is almost ready.

But there are still a few adjustments to be made, bugs to be fixed and tests to be run.

BUT unfortunately the "worst case" for an indie developer has occurred: Total failure.

After the last update, we went on a short vacation road trip. Then came a few business trips for my day job and just when you have roughly thought about a battle plan for the update, Corona comes over you.
Yes, Corona has knocked me out.

It's the first time I've had corona and luckily I've had a "milder" reaction. So I've been down with the flu for a week now.
Now that things are starting to pick up again, I wanted to let you know.

I hope to be able to publish the update next weekend (knock on wood).

Until then, here are a few impressions:



P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.

Have fun https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

Additional changes 14.09.23

• Fix: terrain adjustment directly at roads and ports was wrong
  
• Fix: side quests were not displayed when starting a new game several times
  
• CHANGED: building menu has smaller building type buttons
  
• CHANGED: mouse over building menu was reduced in size
  

---
Here are the features in pictures:



and many more.... ;)

P.S. If you ❤️ Summer Islands, we would be very 🤩 about a 👍 Review.

Have fun https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

[h2]FEATURES[/h2]

• ADDED: Corals inserted in shallow water
  
• ADDED: Mangroves expanded in shallow water
  
• ADDED: Turtle animation in water
  
• ADDED: Shark animation in water
  
• ADDED: More stones and bushes
  
• ADDED: Pixel Clouds
  
• ADDED: Parrot animation
  
• ADDED: Palms and trees animations
  
• ADDED: Game speeds as shortcuts
  
• ADDED: Select new random name for BOTS
  
• ADDED: Select new random SEED
  
• ADDED: Individual mouse button assignment
  

[h2]USABILITY IMPROVEMENTS[/h2]

• FIX: Mouse wheel button has no more building copied
  
• FIX: Click on utility building you could change rent
  
• FIX: Terraforming with teammates was calculated incorrectly
  
• FIX: Gamepad sabotage and demolition function failed
  
• CHANGED: Increase land out of the water is cost 10 times more
  
• CHANGED: Dark Pixel Clouds at tornado
  
• CHANGED: White Pixel Clouds at Meteorite
  
• CHANGED: Streets can be built over paths
  
• CHANGED: Terrain at building on the hillside can be leveled