Things have taken longer than intended, as they tend to do, but we’re almost there! In fact enough there to start publicly testing the beta! Specifically, the “open beta” bit concerns the online level-sharing feature, that has so far been off-limits outside of the closed testing group. I apologize for the lack of announcements or updates; things have been very busy all year.
Since this is the first time we’re setting up something like this and we want to get an idea of how much there is to worry about and what kind of troubles and such we’ll need to prepare for, the level-sharing is quite rudimentary initially. The way it’ll work for now is:
- When you upload a level, you get a 9-symbol level code (in the format XXXX-YYYY) that others can use to download your level.
- The game contains a “featured levels” list that we’ll update every now and then by hand with new interesting levels.
- When playing a level, you can at any time report it in the pause menu. Please do this if the level contains offensive things or is otherwise thematically unpleasant.
The main way to access these features is via the Steam beta branch system; a lot of Steam players have been able to check out the progress of the editor over the past months already, albeit without the level-sharing.
Now then, I’ve felt very bad about the fact that people not on Steam haven’t been able to access the beta; it’s especially unfortunate for Nintendo Switch™ users, since they’ve had to wait the longest for updates in general. Due to this, here’s how I plan to go forward:
- The update will go live on Sunday (Dec 13th) or Monday (Dec 14th), most likely. There are still some final things to be handled (although the editor will still be slightly unfinished even when the level-sharing goes live – there will be translations & music missing, among other things), and I will try to get those sorted out this weekend.
- I have an idea that I want to try to possibly offer limited access to the beta editor for those not on Steam. This might not work, so I won’t promise that it will be a thing yet, but I will investigate the possibility and share news on it when it either becomes apparent that it could never work or that it’s feasible. Apologies, but there are factors here that are beyond my ability to affect.
- The beta won’t include the new upcoming levelpacks, as those need some more work and assets.
- The beta will be available throughout December; the actual update unfortunately probably won’t be released in 2020 after all, since even if everything went swimmingly, there are some necessary procedures we have to go through that take time. Sorry about that. Once we know for sure when everything will be done, I’ll make a cool trailer and set a release date. Apologies for missing the planned date, but I hope this public beta alleviates things somewhat.
Finally, thanks to all of you for your amazing support and kindness towards the project over the years! I really want to offer all of you some neat extra content and hope that the editor works and is fun to use. I also think that Baba & friends will appear in some future games, although nothing is set in stone regarding that.
You can read this message also on my blog: https://www.hempuli.com/blogblog/archives/2338
