Hey everyone, hope you've been doing well!
I'm gonna get straight into the devlog as there's some important info to unravel and some explanations for why we're choosing to do things in that way.
Miami Series Debut
As you all know, we've been working hard on getting the Miami series done. In the last devlog we pointed out we're putting more effort into the level design in an effort to make each chapter feel unique from one another, due to this change it does increase development time and we've already spent a LONG time trying to get this new update done (almost 7-8 months of no updates to the official branch, minus the Test/Beta branch).
Not having an update out for almost a year honestly makes me as a developer feel extremely guilty as I always strived to have consistent updates (we started out doing weekly updates with new mechanics almost each time), due to this guilt it definitely got in the way of me as a lead developer to function properly and get things done in a respectable time-frame. As a way of lifting up that guilt and hopefully getting into a more productive groove, we'll be shifting into a new release schedule for the Miami series.
The Miami series will Debut with 3 of the first chapters, all of the mechanics we've been working on, including a lot of changes and upgrades to animations and existing systems. We're kind of starting a "Season" of sorts (I guess, I wouldn't want to consider it as like, a game-as-a-service structure but more of our own thing).
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The video above shows a little sneakpeek of what we've been improving ranging from our character's suit cloth physics, recoil animations, and improving trickposing. Lots more to come!
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So I suppose we're introducing the Miami Series as a season of updates, once the debut begins, we'll work hard on resolving any bugs and issues you have. Before pushing the Miami debut to the official branch though, we'll have a important test session for 2 days on the Test/Beta branch to gather any important bug reports and issues that players are having so the official branch is smoother.
We'd appreciate anyone who's willing to test and break the sh** out of the game to try it out and provide feedback either through our Discord or the Community Hub, we want to make sure this big update runs smoothly (the Test branch isn't updated just yet).
After the debut of the Miami series, we'll be working hard on the additional chapters and releasing them at specific periods, we'll be aiming at semi-weekly but we can't promise that just yet. The goal for the Miami series is to of course have 7 chapters including some fun replayable ones like a Survival mode.
These updates may also come with new weapons, enemies, and more! So there's a plethora of things that you can look forward to as we do these new update sprints.
I'd like to personally apologize for not having this update done way earlier, like I stated earlier, it definitely has been eating at me the fact this update hasn't been released yet and I understand anybody's frustrations with the lack of content, etc. I'm hoping with this adjustment we'll be able to release things at a steadier pace again.
That means we're hoping to release the Miami series very soon (not like a developer soonTM, but like an actual soon)!
We'll have more details in a future announcement post as we begin the urgent testing for the update.
Let us know what you think, we hope you have a fantastic week, we'll be here working away on the game and reading any of your comments/feedback!