Regarding Early Access Release and 35 Minutes of Gameplay
Hey everyone. Rae Michelle here from the That Tiny Spaceship development team with a small update on our tiny game. We haven't posted an update on the Steam side of things in a while since announcing that a demo was coming in the summer and if you live in the northern hemisphere
Hey everyone.
Rae Michelle here from the That Tiny Spaceship development team with a small update on our tiny game. We haven't posted an update on the Steam side of things in a while since announcing that a demo was coming in the summer and if you live in the northern hemisphere you probably notice there is snow on the ground.
Steam’s never public test options allow you, the players, to simply click a button and apply to test the game. Once approved on our end, a test build of TTS appears in your steam library. Why a public test build? To be honest I really want feedback on how the ship handling, encounter difficulty and power-ups feel and to call that a “demo” when the final product could change based on player feedback feels disingenuous.
In the run-up to final checks on the EA Build it turned out that code that was working in the engine’s editor just fine was failing to work on stand-alone builds. It took a little while to track down but without too much detail it has to do with custom keybindings on Keyboard. I’m currently working on a solution to this issue and want to make 100% sure that both Xbox Gamepad support and custom keybindings are functioning 100% before release.
Soon – I hope. Right now work on both builds amounts to basically playing everything a bunch of times with both control styles and ensuring that everything is working 100%. Early Access doesn’t have to mean the game is unplayable and I want folk’s first experience with That Tiny Spaceship to be as smooth as possible.
More info soon!
Original post
Release Plans?
With everything happening in the world and also some personal stuff, work on That Tiny Spaceship has been slower than expected. While it wasn't posted on Steam at the time, I did live-stream and archive 30 minutes of gameplay that was played live on Twitch as well as talk about what has gone into the game's production. You also might have noticed that our Steam page now lists That Tiny Spaceship for Early Access release. It was my intention to have two builds of the game released simultaneously this coming week but we've hit a big snag. [previewyoutube=AoT-wm0CedM;full][/previewyoutube] That Tiny Spaceship will be available via two routes – a public test version that will be replace the “free demo” until development is completed, and an Early Access version of the game. Both versions of the game are built from the same codebase and will be updated simultaneously but will provide players with slightly different experiences.
Steam’s never public test options allow you, the players, to simply click a button and apply to test the game. Once approved on our end, a test build of TTS appears in your steam library. Why a public test build? To be honest I really want feedback on how the ship handling, encounter difficulty and power-ups feel and to call that a “demo” when the final product could change based on player feedback feels disingenuous.
What’s Featured In Each Early Access Build
• “Public Test Build” – Free to anyone to apply to test and hopefully leave feedback.- 1 level – the opening level of the game.
- 1 visual novel section, introducing the pilots and the academy.
- 1 visual novel section closing out the Test Build that is exclusive to this build.
- o Level 1 – Same as Public Test
- o Level 2 – (In development so feedback and glitches please report them!)
- o 2 visual novel cutscenes – Introduction (same as public test) and 1 that introduces level 2.
- o In-development tutorial
What's The Hold-up?
If both the free to access Public Test and paid Early Access builds have been scoped out and the Steam Page updated, what’s the hold up? Well, the way that That Tiny Spaceship is coded – a lot of it is modular so that common elements can be shared between levels. We don’t want to reinvent the wheel when putting power-ups into say level 1 and then need to make changes when level 3 is tested for example.
In the run-up to final checks on the EA Build it turned out that code that was working in the engine’s editor just fine was failing to work on stand-alone builds. It took a little while to track down but without too much detail it has to do with custom keybindings on Keyboard. I’m currently working on a solution to this issue and want to make 100% sure that both Xbox Gamepad support and custom keybindings are functioning 100% before release.
Soon – I hope. Right now work on both builds amounts to basically playing everything a bunch of times with both control styles and ensuring that everything is working 100%. Early Access doesn’t have to mean the game is unplayable and I want folk’s first experience with That Tiny Spaceship to be as smooth as possible.
More info soon!
The year is winding down and while the crisp December air might be chilly - we’ve been working hard to keep warm by focusing on several key aspects of That Tiny Spaceship. Since our last update in September we’ve finalized planning on what gameplay elements will comprise the 5 levels for the final game, tweaked the physics model used for ship movement to make the flow of gameplay faster, completed a draft version of Original Soundtrack and have a number of other things planned that hopefully will surprise players when we launch in 2019.
I've poked both Luca Bicano (Art Lead) and DJ NekoArc (Music) to talk to them about what inspired their contributions to That Tiny Spaceship and what working on the game has been like.
An Example of Characters Developed By Luca!
Right now, the draft version of That Tiny Spaceship’s soundtrack includes 8 energetic synthwave tracks - each of which brings their own distinct sound and emotion while complimenting the vibrant and clean look that we’re going for with That Tiny Spaceship’s aesthetic.
If you want to sample part of what awaits in the final game, part of Neko’s OST was used in the fall ‘retrofitted’ trailer:
Which you can 
In-development screenshot of That Tiny Spaceship Level 3 (art not final)
Folks watching our release date on our Steam Page might have noticed that the date has shifted from Summer 2018 to Fall 2018 and now to Q1 2019. Since game development isn’t an exact science sometimes things take longer than we anticipate. Since announcement back in May we’ve added an additional level and quite a few things to the game’s design/presentation that will lead to an improved experience when everything is done.
As we update TTS’ Steam Page we will continue to put our best estimate for a release date as things progress.
See you in 2019!
