Siberian Dawn News

After several months of hard work version 2 of Siberian Dawn was uploaded today and there has been a lot added to the game to make it a superior version to what was available previously. The various additions are covered below and I hope you enjoy this new version of the game, and please let me know what you think as this is how I can continue to improve the game and if I am doing things right.




Upgraded all the graphics to HD so game can be played in sharper 1080 resolution. This can be switched to old resolution on front menu and if you can run HD the game will start for the first time after update in HD.




Added three detailed, interactive tutorials to take you through all you need to know to play the base game. These can be found in the mission menu.

Oversight has been removed as the tutorials fill the role of teaching the game as you play a mission and have made this obsolite.

Orientation is now replaced by the tutorials for learning the game and it is now a series of guides to help support the game a give information about the various parts of a mission.




Menus have been changed but this is currently a work in progress and one of the next updates will bring an improved look to them.

Changed the Ü used on the Bank pod to a B to make it more intuitive and distinct from the Union Credit pool.

When an action resolves if it is going to change the value of a pool the pod for that pool will now glow green or red to show this.




Updated deployable unit cards, changing how Defence and Distance are shown, both were just numbers that might not have be distinct but now Distance is shown in the middle of a set of arrows and Defence is a number of squares running around the life box.





Updated action tactic cards to match the above unit update and make them clearer. Range is now shown with an arrow graphic and Strength is shown with an X. Both of these values are also shown on the right column of tactic so they can be clearer seen when in hand.








This update has added a lot but still work continues on the game and here a few of the things planned

Tutorial covering Core game additions
Upgrade menus
Graphics and art updated
Content Control menu
Game play and world videos
Finish Mission Pack 2
Android version

Today I am mostly positive. The game is currently mostly negative, but I am mostly positive and celebrating today, and my painting on this post might give you a clue why.

To mark today I was planning on releasing something of a celebration for Siberian Dawn but obviously I am busy working on 2.0 so haven’t had the chance yet to work on the celebration, but I do plan on adding it in the near future when 2.0 is done and everyone is happy… well probably not everyone, hopefully a few at least, or a couple maybe.

2.0 is still going well, currently finishing the code to run the tutorials and then I will work on the tutorial scripts that need to be put in this code. So keeping it positive today, and looking forward to revealing Project 50 post 2.0.

Winterflood

Still busy working on the 2.0 Update but wanted to share an update on how the update is going.

Have now updated all the graphics in the game to HD. It has taken a while as there was a lot to do with over 100 cards to rebuild and a lot of code to update to make sure it is all being displayed correctly, but that is done now and I can move onto improving the training and building the new menus.

Included a picture with this update showing a comparison between SD and HD on a HD screen so you hopefully can see the improvements and how there is also more space between the screen elements, which should makes things clearer.

So just a quick update so you can see I am still busy working on the game and what I have been up to with it.

Apparently you can't view the image large on here so here is a link to a full size version - https://boardgamegeek.com/image/4738862/winterflood

The launch of Siberian Dawn in September was a bit disappointing to put it mildly due to a number of different problems that were not directly connected to the gameplay itself, which I believe was perfectly fine. I am not going to go in to extensive detail about the problems but with mistakes made with a test group that I believed wanted to play the game and offer feedback but ended up being mostly a silent front I launched the game having to believe in what I had at that point and see what happened. I also probably foolishly believed that it would get more support from different websites that I talked to but that never happened.



One big mistake I made was with the rules and teaching the game, I treated it like a physical card game and presented the rules in that manner. I am now fully treating it as a digital game and looking at how to present it clearly for that medium, with better Orientation and a new training mission. I have also not been able to present the world of Siberian Dawn fully yet either. There are mysteries to reveal and much more background that I want to present to best show off this game and where it is developing. Narrative and world building are important here so I want to get it right. And as I am now concentrating on this fully being a digital game there are new areas of the game that I can explore without considering it as a physical game.



People may also not be aware that everything in this game is done only by me, so although you are getting one person’s vision with me handling every part of the game you are also getting one person’s perspective, which without feedback might sometimes make mistakes as with teaching players the game. I have had a couple of people offer great comments post launch which have helped improve the game but apart from these it has again been silence, so I have to trust what I am changing is best for the game and that people are interested in playing Siberian Dawn. It also takes a while for me to do all the things I want to do with the game, so I have not abandoned the game as some might speculate but I am busy making these changes.



So at the moment I am currently working on version 2 of Siberian Dawn with a large number of improvements that I hope will give the game a solid base that can then have future expansion easily added, while allowing players to quickly get into the game and fully enjoy the experience. Below are the planned improvements and there will still be an Android version hopefully when version 2 is finished, but obviously I didn’t want to release the launch version of the game on Android when there were problems, mainly with training, that needed fixing first.

New Oversight tutorial missions
Restructured Oversight
1080 HD version of the game
Graphics and art updated
Content Control menu
Game play and world videos
Finish Mission Pack 2
Android version



It would be great to have feedback, and if people talk to me and show an interest then I will talk about the game more, it is the best way to develop this, but obviously if it is still silence then I will not use my time to talk about what I am doing but use it elsewhere instead.

Stephen

The latest update brings a big addition to the Missions in the game which gives you a bit more control over how you start a Mission a make a choice in the game now have a meaning.




Previously when you started a mission you had to pick the first site you would unlock for free, but unless you had psychic powers and could tell what hidden hostile units were deployed then there really wasn’t any strategic choice for which site to pick. With this update each site will now have a random starting modifier card associated with them, and when you pick the first site the linked modifiers will be applied. Each modifier card will have a benefit and penalty on them so you will have to think about what changes you want to make to your starting game. One of the sites will always have a bonus card that makes no changes so if you want to play a mission as normal then you can always pick this site.

There are a total of 12 different modifiers cards that can be drawn along with the no modifier card and if there is a good vocal response from players then I might add more to this if people like it.



Let me know what you think about this addition and if you are enjoying the game maybe let people know in a review. The more people get behind this game then the better it will do, and it also lets me know that I am doing things right with the game and the additions I am making. Have also started a discussion about the game skill level and should I change the default skill level, so If you want to say anything about that you can find the thread in the discussions.