Hey, what’s up, everyone? It’s time to start sharing some progress updates on my game, and for the first post, I've chosen the format of a Q&A.
Let‘s start with the thing you’re probably all wondering about.
Q: How’s the progress on Salvo Shuffle?
A: It’s going pretty well. I've noticed my to-do list getting shorter by the week. However, the game is still not quite finished yet and I am already committed to releasing the game fully instead of only in early access, so I’ll still need some more time.
One thing I can say for sure though: I have seen a lot of other indie devs not being able to finish their game and being stuck in an infinite development loop for eternity. I can promise you that this won't be like that. Salvo Shuffle will see the light of day. The only question is: when?
Q: When (will Salvo Shuffle come out)?
A: Likely in early 2024. 2023 is just not happening with the current pace; the game still needs some additional polish and gameplay depth.
Q: What’s happening to your YouTube channel?
A: Trying to balance both game development and video creation at the same time is not easy. So for now I have decided to put all my attention into Salvo Shuffle first and YouTube second.
Q: How much content will Salvo Shuffle launch with?
A: Before I answer, know that I intend to update Salvo Shuffle after release, especially if there's enough player engagement. So the only question is when I decide to hit the 'release' button.
Currently, a single run takes around 30 minutes (at least if you succeed). Doing a run with some challenges enabled is the real challenge and it might take you multiple attempts.
Achievements are another factor for 100% completion and some of those might require a lot of time and skill, like the achievement in which you can't use your primary attack for a whole run (I still need to figure out whether this is even possible).
So while there isn't a shortage of tasks, the game needs some more items to make the time spent on completion fun. I have some item ideas in mind and with the way the game is programmed it should be relatively easy to add those; sprites being the biggest problem.
As a roguelike deck-builder, Salvo Shuffle should be pretty replayable and I'm working to achieve that.
Q: How much will Salvo Shuffle cost?
A: As stated on the store page, Salvo Shuffle will be completely free to play. I made this choice to prioritize reaching as many players as possible over making a tiny amount of money from less players.
However, I intend to release the OST on Steam as well, which might not be free. Given that the OST will be uploaded to streaming services anyway, it's more about creating an easy way to make a small donation.
Q: Where can I learn more about Salvo Shuffle and its development progress and get involved in it? How can I talk to you and the community?
A: Discord is the primary platform to engage with me and the community. I have a still quite small Discord server set up. It's a lot easier for me to share some screenshots or tiny updates there than on Steam and as soon as I get a few more members on the server I will start doing just that.
Q: What's left on your to-do list?
A: The following list is not complete, but here are some highlights:
- Many more augments.
- Active augments with health/coins/etc. requirements or specific charging conditions.
- I'm having a lot of trouble implementing Steam Input. So far this has taken up more time than any other feature.
- Improving the challenge selection menu and potentially overhauling the challenge system entirely.
- Adding an ending cutscene after beating the final boss, along with a recap featuring statistics.
- An 'extras' menu featuring stats/achievements/etc.
- Simplifying the tutorial to only focus on combat.
- A mountain of tiny improvements that are faster to fix than to write down in this post.
What's written on my "to do after release"-list I'll tell you in another post.
And that's it
I hope this post gives you a better understanding of what's happening behind the scenes. I don't want to leave you in the dark, but whenever I'm working on a YouTube devlog or similar I always think to myself that I should rather spend this time working on the game. I hope to change that in the future.
At any rate, that covers most of what I wanted to say. See ya on the discord server or in the next post.
