Welcome back to another weekly update for Echoes of Steel!

If you read last week's log, you might remember I was submitting the Alpha build to Steam. Well, round one was a learning experience! Steam bounced the build back to me due to a few technical hurdles: my initial trailer didn't feature enough raw gameplay, my screenshots contained text, and I missed listing the mandatory Visual Studio redistributables required to run the game.

I spent some time clearing up those issues, and the biggest win from this detour is that I have officially uploaded a brand-new gameplay trailer! The Alpha build has been successfully resubmitted, and I am back to waiting for the green light so I can distribute keys to my testing group.

While navigating the Steam review process, I spent the last four days doing a massive overhaul of the UI/UX, specifically focusing on the Research Tree.

Originally, my tech tree was essentially a flat list. It functioned, but it didn't feel satisfying or intuitive. I’ve entirely rebuilt it into a visual, node-based web. Now, when you are routing your progression for your mechs, you can visually track your prerequisite paths and tier unlocks. It was an incredibly time-taxing process, but getting the visualizations right is crucial for the tactical depth I want to deliver.

However, if you are a list person in your soul, don't worry! I added a toggle button so you can instantly switch back and forth between the new visual tree and the classic list mode (check out the side-by-side image below!).

What’s Next? Next week is going to be all about gathering feedback. Once the testers get their hands on the Alpha, I will be setting up a weekly feedback loop to relentlessly hone the core gameplay. I also have a Twitch streamer lined up to try out the game soon!

For now, it is back to work on polishing those visualizations. Thank you for following along with my solo development journey!