2023 Review / 2024 Preview
Looking Back At 2023 Earlier in the year, our demo for The BridgeMaster was released on Steam, coinciding with its feature in the Steam Puzzle Fest ! This got a lot more eyes on the game and produced more of your valuable feedback (more on that below). Then we were pleasantly sur
Looking Back At 2023
Earlier in the year, our demo for The BridgeMaster was released on Steam, coinciding with its feature in the Steam Puzzle Fest! This got a lot more eyes on the game and produced more of your valuable feedback (more on that below).
Then we were pleasantly surprised and very honored to be selected for the Seattle Indies Expo! We were among 25 games in the showcase, chosen from more than 50 that applied, so we feel very grateful indeed. Be sure to check out SIX's other games too!
About a month later, we were back for the SIX Online portion of the expo to share the game in an interview on Twitch! ICYMI, here's the video:
(click to view at the timestamp where our segment begins)
The builds for both of these events were preceded by plenty of playtesting and polishing. We made many enhancements, including:
- Adding the much requested option to "Undo" per action
- Adding the scroll collectibles advancing the plot
- Expanding the intro to help establish the premise
- Introducing tutorial prompts to help onboard new players
- Lots of improvements with VFX, SFX, and bug-fixing
Check out our previous posts to see more details on these events and all the various changes.
Looking Ahead To 2024
With all that's occurred in 2023, we feel set up for success in 2024! 🎉
Now that we've got a reasonably polished demo as a "vertical slice" of the game, we're building a "horizontal slice" that spans the full game's breadth of content. Once complete, we can avoid the risks of otherwise premature polish efforts being invalidated by major content iteration. That looks like so:
In the near term, this means we're primarily prototyping our next puzzle mechanics. We'll then utilize these to design, test, and iterate on the remainder of the level progression. We've already made some headway on that effort, which you can see a sneak peek of here:
Before long, we'll have several new levels utilizing these mechanics and more. Remember I mentioned your valuable feedback? Later in 2024, we will be seeking folks for playtesting to help us make a greater game. If you'd like to contribute, be sure to follow us both here and on Twitter (@CrimsonStoneDev) to find out how you can join us when the time comes!
