Dev Update: Demo On The Horizon

There’s been quite a bit going on since our last post. Unfortunately, a sudden covid lockdown in Melbourne means that everyone has been stuck at home for the past two weeks, and sadly we had to cancel our local event at Pixel Bar. It’s been a tough year for everyone and after months of relative freedom here in Australia, this was a reminder that the world is still in middle of a major crisis. But our wonderful team is very supportive of one another, so we are able to keep morale up and stay focused on our big push toward a demo build for the upcoming Steam Next Fest. We’re very much looking forward to taking the game for it’s first big public outing!

So, what’s everyone been up to?

LUIS

Continuing on from the last dev update, Luis and Ben teamed up to tackle re-configuring the map system to support our new single player campaigns. This is a major overhaul, and one of the biggest bits of content still to be added to game. While Luis is enjoying working on these new systems (and making an inadvertent cyberpunk glitch art prototype), he has deferred to Ben’s map generation expertise for now so he can focus on getting support for Steam notifications into the game.

Which brings us to the exciting fact that, thanks to Luis spending long hours wrestling with the Steam backend across multiple app ids, STEAM NOTIFICATIONS ARE WORKING and we no longer rely solely on email to let you know when there’s a turn waiting. Currently they are only switched on for our dev builds, but we will be rolling them out across all versions of the game soon.

With the notifications out of the way, Luis has been configuring the demo in preparation for Steam Next Fest. The build integrates a lot of cool new things which we are excited to share in the next week or so. The main restriction on the demo build is a limit on the number of online and practice games you can play, although the ‘play with friends’ will be unlimited. Always happy to encourage players to bring new friends to the game!

JIM

Jim has been hard at work shepherding the demo build toward release, making sure we get to include all the new features we’ve been hoping for. Alongside handling the design work for these new features, Jim has been keeping a firm hand on the tiller, constantly managing scope and so that we can ensure we’re putting our best possible build out for Next Fest. One of the new aspects of the game we’re most excited for has some broad implications, re-framing the narrative of the game, and touching a lot of core systems. So we’ve had to tread very carefully so as not to trip up as we assemble all the pieces.

As maintainer of the Steam services, Jim has also been getting everything organized on the back end in preparation for Next Fest, making sure our developer livestreams are locked in, hooking up the demo package, updating the store page, and more endless fiddling about.

Somehow, finding time for art is always hard, but the soldier portrait generator is now done! Jim shared it in a couple of subreddits, and got a great response. The procedural art has been really getting people excited, which goes a long way toward making us feel like it was the right call to put our efforts in that direction.

The current need to keep his focus on design and production, means Jim’s list of art he needs to make is getting longer by the day, but even what’s in there now already adds new life to the game.

BEN

Family life has been keeping Ben busy lately, especially during the challenges of lockdown, but over the past few weeks he’s found the time to knock out some key features for the demo. He’s been putting the finishing touches on the fancy new homescreen, adding animations and extra UI tweaks. He’s also converted all the location portraits in the game over to the procedural art system, so that in the future they can be generated like the spy and soldier portraits.

MADDY

After some sulking about the postponement of our eagerly anticipated Pixel Bar event, Maddy got back to work alongside the team, sharing the game with some new online communities. We brought in some new fans from strategy discords, a few of which are very quickly mastering the game, and continued reaching out to livestreamers. Maddy has also been working on a list of journalists who love strategy games, so we can loop them in on future Spies & Soldiers announcements. When not busy with outreach, Maddy has been hitting buttons behind the scenes in the livestreams, making sure they go as smoothly as possible.

STREAMING & OUTREACH

In the lead up to Next Fest, Luis and Jim have been practicing their livestreaming, to make sure our setup works smoothly. We’ve been using a fun ‘diary room’ format, that allows the viewers to experience both sides of the strategic masterminding, then laugh as they watch everyone’s best laid plans crumble. You can check out our streams up on our twitch channel. Give us a quick follow to be alerted when we next go live!

Keen to find more players while the playtest is live, we’ve been doing a bit more community outreach. So far Reddit has been one of the places we’ve got the most interest, resulting in a steady trickle of new players and some lovely feedback on the game.

Weekly play sessions are still happening on Discord every Sunday at 8pm, both AEST and EST, so feel free to drop by for a match or just say hello. They’ve been very relaxed affairs, and a lot of fun.

NEXT FEST!

Steam Next Fest kicks off next week, so join us on Wednesday June 16th for our first livestream at 8pm EST. We will show off the new demo, play a game or two, and talk through the new features.

To keep up with the latest updates, follow Ghostbat Games on Twitter or join the Spies & Soldiers Discord server.

And as always those Steam wishlists are truly appreciated!