Hello everyone, Alexander Poysky here.
It has been a wild ride, and an intense day here at the office in Turku, Finland!
I flew here from Spain this morning to be with the team when we launched the game. We took the decision of soft launching it now to all of those who currently have it PRIOR to our launch in a few hours.
The changelog from our previous version is WAY too long to even begin to describe, with around one thousand changes having been made, and ALL mantis bugs having been squashed!
Let me list off just a few of the major differences.
There is now an End-Game!
There is now a rather large compendium/tutorial that you can reach by pressing f1.
Cannon combat has been fixed and tweaked, with the focus being on cannon combat only applying BEFORE boarding, and cannon shots target showing in red.
We have DOZENS of new systems in place for all of our FREE content patches that we will be adding in the coming months. Yes, you read correctly, we plan on continuing work on Pixel Piracy TOMORROW. There will be no slow down in work, and we will continue pushing new content as we come out with it!
Here are some basic truths about Pixel Piracy that I thought I would share with you all since I have always been very compelled to be transparent about everything I do.
Pixel Piracy:
Was created with a budget of 80 euros (until early access), which I paid out of pocket to purchase some basic sound effects and music.
Has sold over 200 thousand units worldwide, JUST in early access.
Is one of the quickest games to pass through green-light, in a little under 11 HOURS. Compared to the normal waiting time of 6-8 MONTHS we are very proud of this fact!
Is one of the first games to successfully LEAVE Early Access to become a full game.
Is one of the quickest games to enter and exit Early Access, having first appeared at the end of December and leaving today.
Was taken FROM PROJECT CONCEPTION to PROJECT COMPLETION in UNDER a year (364 days).
I can without a doubt say that this project has changed our lives for the better.
Re-Logic has been a WONDERFUL and INVALUABLE publisher, and I invite everyone who reads this to take this to heart. We aren't writing this to butter anyone up, or are we under any sort of obligation to do so. We feel they are some of the finest PEOPLE we have ever had the chance to meet, and that comes SECOND to the fact that as a company they are incredible, and provide a wealth of knowledge.
Vitali, thank you for trusting me, and for becoming such a dear friend!
Mikko, thank you for all of the wonderful things you have brought to the project, your help has been invaluable!
Andrew, Whitney, David, from the bottom of our hearts, for trusting and believing in our fledgling studio, and for offering the support and guidance we needed!
Jesus, our FANTASTIC community manager who has always been a great friend to me!
Last, but not least, a HUGE thank you to our wonderful testers,
Adrien Francioli
Andrew Wojtkoowsky
Sphynx
Crunchepillar
Kristaps
Lorentz Factor
Naxeus
Seva
Stefan Bauer
pizzaNif,
they have been a critical part of getting this game into tip-top form. I want to thank all of them, even the ones who for one reason or another were not able to stick around to the end, as well as the OVER 200 REGISTERED MANTIS HELPERS WE HAVE!
We also want to thank each and every one of you for making our dreams come true. It is your faith in us that has brought us this far. This game is as much your doing as ours. I'm a good producer, and Vitali is an amazing programmer, thanks to the tools YOU gave us, the funding, the feedback, the support, the COMMUNITY.
Ultimately that is what we set out to prove with Early Access, that it WORKS!
Tomorrow is Pixel Piracy's birthday, if you have been a supporter, if you enjoy the title, and if you like the 1.0 version. I would invite you to write a short review on steam, or leave an honest score.
Thank you all
-Quadro Delta
PS: 1.0 changelog (We've been tweaking the game during the last 24h, so maybe there are a few improvements missing in this list):
IMPORTANT: You should start a new game with 1.0 since the savegame format has been changed to include group configuration. Also devs stated there won't be more savegame wipes.
Bug Fixes
- Character customize screen was looking greyed out
- Player was not able to travel to locations at the very edge of the map
- Hit up or down keys on keyboard, makes WASD stop working until clicking.
- Moving Boxes? Maybe make them stay but make their name "Mimick" and have them be mythical enemies?
- Cannot interact with Chicken Nest?
- Zooming in and out, followed by moving the camera down as far as you can allows you to see underwater, where things despawn
- Counter Attack skill is not getting XP
- Light Steps skill now works again
- Doctor aura skill now works again
- Bounty targets no longer spawn on rooftops in towns
- Not all of pirate greetings were displayed
- Fishmen are no longer OP
- It was possible to get so much gold it would flip over to negative
- Throwing Medicine now works correctly
- Strange white stripe on the ship plant graphic
- Couldn't attack bounty target
- Cannons not spawning on enemy ships
- Sometimes grappling ropes would linger behind when sailing away
Improvements
- Added solid background to in-game settings screen
- BETTER NIGHT
- When creating a new game, on the difficulty screen, we should make the (30% hunger/morale etc say * RECCOMENDED FOR NEW PLAYERS)
- BETTER POOP SPLASH EFFECT
- Pirates will no longer poop if they are hungry (less than 50% hunger)
- Re-organized some skills priorities to make pirates smarter
- Pirates who are hungry, will prioritize fishing if they are holding a fishing rod
- Added like a kazillion (totally a number) new pirate dialog lines, mostly courtesy of the good people at Steam Forums
- Added new ship variations
- Main menu settings has a toggle for autosave
- Pirates will now clean the nearest poop instead of any old poop
- Flying poop now deals 5% max HP damage (as opposed to a small fixed value)
- Passive animals who drown no longer yield XP
- Light Steps will gain XP from walking
- Throwing Medicine: user will now attempt to throw it at the crewmate with the least HP
- Plunder message log has been cleaned up a little
- Cannons have a target indicator effect
- Ship to ship combat has a cannon phase for 30 seconds before boarding comes available
- Ingame tutorial texture updated
- Updated main goal of the game: Kill the 4 legendary pirates