Hey everyone! Bit overdue for an update, but I've been pretty busy these past couple months! Thanks to the efforts of the 1st Light Brigade, I've been able to iron out some priorities, so it's about time I filled y'all in.
Matchmaking/Dedicated Servers Alpha
Light Strike Array is complex & ambitious. It takes a lot of brainpower to learn—which means I can't be having players wasting precious neurons on coordinating a match. To remedy that, I've been working on a new dedicated server system which enables players to queue for matches without the need for peer-to-peer hosting. You can even play around in the single-player Trials modes while you wait for the queue to pop!
In fact, if you check out the Light Strike Array alpha channel right now, you can try it out! For now, only the 1v1 Duel (formerly known as Deathmatch) is available. Please bear with me as I get the other modes working!
Check out the Discord if you need someone to play against. As long as you queue for the same mode & overlapping regions, you should be able to find each other pretty quickly! Please let me know in Discord if you encounter any problems.
The alpha branch also features leaderboard support! The leaderboards track your Skill Rating in ranked matches, plus your fastest completion times for each Target Rush & Salt Run map. Best of luck!
Fanime 2018 Diary
If you haven't seen it already, I showcased LSA off at the Fanime Gaming Hall! Check out the diary here.
The Road to Release
LSA's getting closer and closer to full release, but I'm not likely to hit the "6 to 9 months" estimate I posted to Steam. More realistically, 1.0 should be out by the end of the year. The last critical tasks are in converting the existing modes to play nice with matchmaking, and in giving LSA the marketing push it deserves.
I've been looking for teammates to help out with this ambitious journey, but my low budget limits my options drastically. (I'm not a fan of making people work for free.)
Regardless, I'm in this for the long haul. Every vote of confidence from friends & fans renews my faith in Light Strike Array and keeps me pushing forward.
So with that... see you on the other side!
--CrimsonZen