Hi all!
I’m back from holidays and ready to dive into another weekly update with you!
Preview Branch:
This has been out for just over a week now, and we’ve received a lot of feedback from our Discord community.
We are happy with the progress we have made with AI and with the preview system as a whole, including backing up of saves.
There’s more work we want to do around data backups – mainly around making it more automated as it’s not as simple to revert on Steam Deck.
However! As the feedback on AI and the overall flow is working, we’re ready to ‘open’ up the Preview Branch to more users. Keep an eye out in the Steam Discussion forums next week for details how to access the Preview Branch.
I would also like to note, moving forward we are expecting that updates will get released to Preview Branch first, and then moved into the ‘game’ branch after we’ve had a bit of time for the community to feedback on these.
Minor Update Release:
As some of you might have noticed, we didn’t put out an update this week. There are a few reasons for this.
One being the team did two pieces of work last week; Minor Update 3, and Preview Branch. We needed to give the team a break from doing updates so quickly.
Secondly, we have been focusing on the AI updates in the Preview Branch. We did get an update out in this branch - you just won’t see it in the ‘main game’ branch!
Lastly, we want to start moving to Minor Updates every two weeks. Moving minor updates to every two weeks will allow us more development time to get not just minor code updates out, but minor content drops as well! Currently, weekly updates mean the team only gets 3 days of work time before we need to stop work and start testing.
Minor Update 4:
ETA: 29th July
- Additional Modes of Transportation (these were originally part of the Wheels in Motion pack)
- Worker AI Updates (this will be the updates we tested in the Preview Branch)
- General Bug Fixes & Performance Improvements
Major Update 1 – Player Feedback Pack:
ETA: Late August
Work has started on this update, and I’ll get you solid delivery dates in the next week or two.🥳
We’ve had some healthy discussions about how we’ll be moving tourists around the town. Subway/Metro stations are the winner here. In time we’ll add more ways for tourists to move around with vehicles, promise.
We also have a prototype of zone customisation working. It was listed as a stretch goal, I know, but we know a lot of you were asking for this (I’m looking at you Fishing zone) so we’ve decided to make it an ‘official’ feature. The prototype for this has already raised some really good discussions internally, and we’ll be looking forward to getting this into players hands next month for more feedback!
Now I know I can write a lot, and props to all of you who read what I write, however I want to make sure we start showing you THINGS and STUFF.
So, this week is a bit of a teaser for the 'Plants and Parks' and 'Freeway' sets
Gamescom
We (well, me!) will be attending Gamescom this year. Go-Go Town! is being showcased as part of Indie Arena Booth Hall 10.2, Booth F010g - E019 and it would be amazing to say hello if you are attending!
And who knows… we might have some cool stuff to show off (and giveaway) while we are there :eyes:
Roadmap
It’s updated! Sorry this took a bit of time but here’s the latest and greatest (we are getting this localised, but for now it’s English only, I’m sorry!) Props to Joel for spending today helping me get this updated!
It amazes me to consider where we are at, given Go-Go Town! is ‘only’ 5 weeks old.
We’ve been squashing bugs, have done 3 minor updates, have completed a big rework of the AI systems, and we have the Preview Branch running.
The team has been working hard, and after Major Update 1 the team will also be getting a bit of a rest. We’ll be making sure everyone gets some time off and gets batteries recharged. These holidays are included in the revised Roadmap, so don’t worry too much there :blush:
We cannot begin to say how much we appreciate everyone’s faith and trust in us, as well as in Go-Go Town! itself. While our Playtests helped set us up with the mindset of Early Access, we are still amazed at how much support we have received!
We are looking forward to sharing more about the Player Feedback Pack (and beyond) in the coming weeks!
-Cheryl