Hi all!
# Progress Report
Journey Express will be released in a matter of hours! Thank you so much to everyone that helped test the game, given feedback, and provided comments! 🎉 A note to all that play-tested the game: your Steam keys will continue remain valid permanently -- thank you again for your help! 🤝
Since the last dev diary there have been dozens of changes, fixes, and improvements across the entire scope of the game! There is still quite a bit to do before I consider the game "done," but I hope you enjoy what's there already!
## Release Notes
The build available as soon as Journey Express - Early Access goes live includes all of the changes made that are listed in the smaller patch notes from the last couple of weeks, as well as the things listed below!
Fixed an issue that would prevent the fishing minigame from being available even if you had a fish pole in your backpack
Updated SFX for the fishing minigame so that it's not literally my voice anymore
Add new SFX assets for future use
After Early Access release, my plan is to prioritize any bugs or balance issues that people encounter. Once I'm reasonably confident everything is working as expected, I'll move onto things that are in the backlog (see the linked roadmap below!).
I see the game as having two major components: the 2D travel side and the 3D exploration side. The former has definitely gotten more attention over the last few months than the latter, so I have much more feature-work to do on the exploration scenes. The travel side is more feature-complete, but needs more polish, balancing, and general content here and there. That all said, I'll continue working on both as time goes on to make the whole game feel complete by the time 1.0 is on the horizon.
## Beta Branches
If you're interested in playing more frequently updated builds of the game, there are two branches you can activate in the game's properties window. The beta branch is updated more often than the release branch, but often has parity with it. Meanwhile the alpha branch is updated very often, sometimes with breaking changes. I would use caution when changing the branch that you're on!
# Project Status Update
Journey to Alpha: Arrived!
Journey to Playtesting: Arrived!
Journey to Early Access: Imminent!
Journey to Release: Coming soon!
Discord Server:
Roadmap & Blog:
https://starcatgames.ltd/Starcat+Games/Projects/Journey+Express+Roadmap
Bluesky:
https://bsky.app/profile/starcatgames.ltd
Thanks for reading!
- C