Hi everyone!
It’s been a productive week for Project: C.E.L.L. We’ve added new music, renewed the skill tree, developed a balance-testing bot and continued getting the game ready for its first Steam Playtest.
Here’s a look at what we’ve been working on.
Music & Skill Tree
Our musician finished six new gameplay tracks this week. Six. He’s an absolute beast, give him a task and he gets it done. At this point, we’ve stopped asking how.
We’ve renewed the skill tree and created new icons for every skill. After staring at the old icons for this long, this was very much needed.
We’re continuing to refine how progression feels and how clearly the different paths communicate what they actually do.
Balance Testing & Playtest Preparation
One of our team members built a bot that repeatedly plays the game, unlocks skills and produces balancing data.
At this point, the bot has probably played more Project: C.E.L.L. than any human alive. It’s already better at the game than we are, which feels slightly insulting but the data is extremely useful.
It helps us identify upgrades that are too strong, too weak or progressing at the wrong pace without forcing an actual human to play the same section hundreds of times.
We’re also fixing bugs, adjusting the balance and polishing the overall experience as we get the first Steam Playtest build ready.
Letting strangers play something you’ve been quietly working on for so long is both exciting and mildly terrifying. Still, we need honest feedback and there are things real players will discover that no amount of internal testing can reveal.
Steam Page & Trailer
We renewed the Project: C.E.L.L. Steam page and made it available in 13 languages. Seeing the project presented in so many different languages feels a little surreal.
We’ve also started producing our first gameplay trailer. It turns out that squeezing months of work into a short video is its own kind of boss fight.
We’ll share the trailer and more information about the Steam Playtest soon.
If you haven’t already, please add Project: C.E.L.L. to your Steam Wishlist. It helps the project grow and yes, we check that number more often than we probably should. Every new wishlist genuinely motivates us!
Thank you for following the project. See you in the next devlog!
— Under Stair Games