At the time of me typing this, Vault of the Void sits around 10 reviews shy of 500. Once this post goes live, the game will have hit 500+ reviews.
Also, the game will hold the “Overwhelmingly Positive” review rating. I'm speechless at this point.
I took a look back through my files - it looked like it was around mid 2018 when I fired open Gamemaker for the first time. I'd been listening to the Butterscotch Shenanigans podcast since close to it's inception, and finally took their advice to "just give it a try!". I followed a random tutorial online, which showed how to make and interact with a deck of cards. After spending a few hours on that, I pretty much shrugged and settled on the fact that I’d be making a card game. I mean, I literally just spent 2 whole hours on it - I'm mostly there right?
Fast forward nearly 4 years and here we are. Figured I should include a shot of my crusty, well worn notebooks which travelled EVERYWHERE with me during the early years (seriously, it still has sand in the pages from a beach trip on a family holiday one year). There was a 3rd one... I just can't find it haha.
It’s been a journey, and whilst this thing still isn’t my full time job, working on Vault has been nothing short of an amazing experience so far. Built on trial and error, and slowly carved and shaped through amazing player feedback, Vault of the Void is one of things I’m most proud of to date. The shudder to think of the handful of times I almost walked away from it.
Heres some old, cringy screenshots dug out from the Vault! (excuse the borrowed artwork in some of these, was just for prototyping!)
The best thing is - the job isn’t done yet.
I never thought I’d even get 50 reviews, let alone 500. The incredible feedback and support and love for the game is just lighting the fire even more to keep pushing ahead. There's so much more to add, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come.
Community Reward
The latest community reward, which is the reactive background, is almost ready to be released. Just waiting on some stuff on the art side of things from a 3rd party. The animation portion is next, which shouldn’t take too long at all, a day or two. The systems in game are now setup and ready for use.
Heres an early gif from the original sketch. You can see the cracks in the battlefield - those will be animated and "react" as you do various things, like purging, ending turn, taking damage etc!
I do genuinely apologize for not having it ready - the timeline was set based on the trend of 20-30 reviews a month. Then you all crushed it with over 100! It is coming though, and will be included in the Challenge Coin patch - I promise!!
Challenge Coins
So to clarify, this was an entire system rework - how you obtained them, how it tracks your plays etc - whilst also adding a good deal more! Currently about 90% in place, the only thing left to do is now add the new coins! Here’s a sneak peak at the new UI.
As you can see, there are still a few more things to clean up - scrollbar just hanging out in no man's land, and most of the UI bits still need to be hand painted to add texture etc. But hopefully this gives enough to get excited by. Currently, it looks like there will be around 15 Challenge Coins in total when it goes live. You buy the CC once to unlock it, and then you can run it forever! Each will have 4 Achievements attached to them, you’ll start to see those go live over the next little while.
750 Reward!
Will there be a 750 Community Reward? Of course! In fact, I already have a few ideas in mind. I’ll provide more details as I iron things out. The beauty about this one now is the fact that, thanks to the Steam API, I can factor it into the game and have it “unlock” as soon as the goal is hit! Definitely more to come here :)
In closing, just another big thank you. I know this post doesn't come coupled with the new patch, which I really wanted it to, but it's not far now. But there was no way I was going to let this goal slip past without typing my thoughts on it. Vault has been a huge part of my life now for nearly 4 years, and sharing, experiencing and growing it with you all has been so much fun. Not just from me, but from my family as well - thanks for your love and and support, and being apart of the journey so far.
Okay - enough typing for me. Back to code!
All for now
- Josh
