This week in numbers
First up, the most important number of them all: Slipways sold 19000 copies so far across all the stores it is available on! THANK YOU!
When I started all of this, my initial hope as a no-name indie developer with a tiny budget was to sell 10000 copies. That was ten thousand copies total - not in the first week! Your response has far exceeded my expectations, letting me not worry about where rent is coming from for a while. This was my biggest hope all along: earn enough money to make a living and get to make another game down the road!
I'm overwhelmed by the positive response the game is getting - after 440 reviews, we're hovering at around 94%-95% positive. If this keeps up, who knows? Maybe for a brief while, Slipways can manage that elusive "Overwhelmingly Positive" rating? (that requires 500 reviews total and 95%+ positive reviews, as far as I know)
But leaving arbitrary cutoffs and labels aside, what makes me happy the most is seeing people enjoy the game so much! Last time I looked (and as you might imagine, I'm looking at these numbers a lot), we had 5000 people playing each day, and a thousand people are already past 20 hours in-game - so it looks like my hopes about the game's replayability have been realized as well.
Let me end this section with one last number. Slipways is made by just the one guy - me. Thank you for making that guy's dream a reality! It's mind-blowing to see my little project rub shoulders with the likes of Mass Effect, Need for Speed and Cyberpunk on the top-sellers list, even if it was for just one day :)
What's still coming
Well, we're not done yet! This first week was full of small patches to make the game as stable and playable as possible for the biggest number of players. There are still assorted bugs waiting on my to-do list, but by now, the big stuff is already fixed and the remaining issues are either rare or minor. This means I can move my focus to the three post-release updates that are still waiting in the wings! These updates are not DLC and will be coming free to everybody owning a copy of the game.
UPDATE #1: PROGRESSION, ACCESSIBILITY, QUALITY OF LIFE, WAYS TO PLAY
The first update will probably come in multiple parts, since these are going to be smaller features that can be added piece-wise. Nevertheless, they are still grouped in my mind as one big chunk of work to be done before we move to pure content updates. Here's what's on the menu:
- Stat-tracking and achievements - so that you can see your progress through the game and try new things.
- New player experience - various features to make learning the game a little easier, which is something we're sometimes struggling with now.
- Quality of life improvements - things like improved pinning UI, a quick restart button, ability to quickly jump to unhappy planets, etc.
- Accessibility features - I'd like everybody who wants to play Slipways to be able to do so comfortably, so we'll add options to help out.
- Ways to play - these I'm not sure about yet, but if time permits, I'd like to return to two ideas that didn't make it for release: a tough+ difficulty (for those who need even more challenge) and a second endless mode (less of a sandbox and more of a fight to stay in power for as long as possible)
- Additional polish to existing modes - now that I have the benefit of your feedback, I'd like to do some improvements (especially to ranked)
This list is a work in progress. I will be doing a poll soon to see which features are wanted the most, and I'm still reprioritizing stuff based on all your feedback.
UPDATE #2: MORE THINGS!
While the first update focuses on small features that make the game better, the second one is all about content.
- More big stuff - the second act of the campaign, with 3-4 new missions and corresponding new sector types and achievements
- More small stuff - more ruins events, more council tasks, more sector and planet quirks to push games in different directions, a few new technologies/perks
- More tight stuff - balancing changes based on how things are going so far
UPDATE #3: CAPPING THINGS OFF
This is probably going to be the final big update, and it's just two things, but they're big ones:
- The final act of the campaign, again with about 3-4 missions
- Modding support - so that the game can live on and get new stuff even if I'm not the one doing it
When when when?
These updates are all roughly month-long chunks of work, but I don't want to publish any dates just yet. Getting Slipways ready for release was a one-and-a-half-year-long marathon, often done at a sprint's pace. Right now, what Slipways needs the most is me getting a little rest before plunging back into full-on development. My new short-term plan: get my first weekend off since March! What can I say, work-life balance is not an easy thing to swing for a solo developer.
I'll be keeping an eye on the game, of course, and you'll definitely see me writing back on the forums and making small fixes here and there - but I promised myself no big feature work until I'm back at a 100%. Once I am back, expect the usual development updates on Discord and Twitter to pick up again, and of course new posts here once I have something important to tell you.
Until then, see you around the galaxy!
