Hello again, and as always sorry it’s been a while since the last update.
Some good news to start with - Undaunted Normandy Digital has an early access release date. It’ll be available for PC and Mac on the Steam store from Friday 28th July.
What does Early Access mean in this case? And let’s be very clear - this is early access and not the full release.
In the credit column, there will be fourteen scenarios available to play. Everything from the board game plus a couple of bonus scenarios that have been published since. You'll be able to play either against the AI, against a local opponent, or by email (asynchronous). There’s a tutorial to help new players (although this needs more work). Steam achievements are enabled. There are two versions of the AI available, including a stable standard AI, and a machine learning AI. Anyone who has been following the development of this game for the last while will be aware that I’ve had the ML AI in training for a long time now - nearly a year, and it’s taken over 20 million turns in that time. It's still running while I write this. However, the randomised nature of Undaunted Normandy is proving a challenge for it, and as a result it can take odd turns from time to time. Nevertheless I still think a fully self-taught ML AI is an exciting thing, so I’ve left it in the game, enabled just for the first scenario (you’ll find it under “Experimental AI” in the menu). Sometimes it beats me, sometimes it does something stupid. The standard AI works for all scenarios of course. Beyond that the game has been extensively tested on both platforms, and while there will almost certainly be a few bugs it’s pretty stable.
In the debit column, the PBEM solution hasn’t been tested with a significant number of players so in the early days it might struggle (or it might not). The graphics and audio still needs polish (although some will be glad to know that you can switch between board game and 3D visuals). As mentioned, the tutorial needs a bit of work. Campaign mode isn’t enabled yet - this will follow the mode in the board game.
As always the game will be supported during early access, into full release and beyond. This has never been intended to be a release and drop game. I would like to ask one thing: the life of an independent developer can be challenging at times, particularly from a time management point of view. For a number of reasons my available bandwidth has reduced in the last year - that’s one reason why the release date has slipped more than I’d hoped. Bearing this in mind I just ask for your patience if it takes a bit longer than I’d like to resolve any issue or implement any feature that you might request. But I can guarantee that I will do my very best to make the game as fun as possible.
Hopefully that gives you a good understanding of exactly what to expect from early access. However, if you have any questions please post them here or in the discussion board and I’ll do my best to answer them. I try and check the board every few days, although it’s not always possible.
