The Return
After spending the last 3 months of 2023 travelling South America, I am back to working on Critias Empire. A lot (lot lot!) of bugs have been fixed, the demo is ready and there's even a tutorial now!
Bugs Bugs Bugs
Way back in August, I took Critias Empire to devcom conference in Cologne, Germany. Mostly for pitching the game to publishers, but I also had a table at the show on which I had the game running. I got a huge amount of feedback from watching and talking to people who played the game.
There were a lot of bugs, UX issues and things which as the developer, I could ignore or work around, but which tripped up new players completely unfamiliar with the game.
Since returning from my travels at the start of this month, I've been hard at work fixing more small things than I could possibly list in this update.
More heartening was seeing people understand the game and enjoy it, and then start taking about all the different aspects of the game. That was a really big morale boost for me personally and a good sign the game is on the right track.
So, what do I do?
However, I didn't have a tutorial in time for devcom, and so I had to babysit the stand and explain how to play to each new player.
A tutorial therefore became top priority in the new year, both for the game in general, and also for the more immediate aim of being able to put a demo in the hands of publishers, and not have them go "ermm... bwah?... what?" when they open the game.
The new tutorial is more basic than I'd like, both in terms of content, and in only giving the player one way to learn. But I'm quite pleased with how it isn't too restrictive. The player can mostly ignore it, rather than being forced to jump through hoops. I know many strategy game fans are the sort to learn by jumping in and making mistakes, so this is quite important.
What's Next?
The demo is all set up on Steam and ready to be launched. I sent beta keys for the demo to many of the publishers I pitched to in the summer, and a few more beyond that. Waiting to hear back from them before deciding if and when to go live.
The plan is to keep updating the demo and building it "in the wild". Ultimately I want Critias Empire to be a living game that continues to evolve and improve. So aiming to get into that mode from demo launch onward.
Priorities wise, there will doubtlessly be bugs and issues to fix once the demo goes live. Beyond that, I have some ideas on how to make interacting with the Gods a bit more fun and less formulaic.
And after that, the long planned "Festivals" feature should also give players an extra dimension when it comes to playing into or against the Gods.
Lastly, I have started working on a couple of new games. These small projects are designed to give me a bit of a break from Critias Empire, and get something out on the store that can earn a bit of revenue and sustain development in case I'm not able to find a publisher for Critias Empire. For those of you following me on social media, you may see me talking about them very soon. But fear not, as work is still continuing on Critias Empire in parallel.
As usual, if you have any of your own feedback or thoughts on the game's progress, you can always contact me or leave a comment!