My dumb game releases by end Sept??

1kṀ20k

resolved Sep 27

Resolved

YES

ALL

I fucked up early drafts of my itemdefs schema on the steam backend and valve doesn't have the tools to flush it 😭 it's gonna take a few hours of data forensics to rectify the JSON so it works with the new better-designed one, and I'm not even sure how possible it's gonna be. feels bad to have such an early fundamental setback

status update: today marks 3 weeks of working on this project. I have 3 weeks left to hit the deadline for this market before I leave on my trip. I don't feel like I'm 50% of the way through 😱 like not even close but the good news is I'm still progressing at a blazing speed. today alone my steam api integration went from "the player automatically connects to steam" to being able to fetch player items and trigger & receive item drops and I'm now working on using all that data to load dynamic items at runtime. on any given dedicated work day I'm pushing out a couple dozen crappy art assets, a few hundred lines of code, and/ or doing significant measurable level/UI/data/game design. major milestones completed so far: 6/10 main levels (+0/5 secret levels) menu navigation level loading economy design core gameplay and physics 19/34 tools (sans special features) instance scoring item drops inventory loading (wip rn!) a couple easter eggs some juice but also plenty of other fundamental work like: repo and project structure data management control logic and code architecture itemdefs schema workflow and uploads playing a song, just one, that I snagged from a creative commons site I don't want to share the list of what remains unfinished or not-even-started. it's much, much longer. but I'm actively trimming it on both ends by cutting scope and Getting Shit Done™️ back to it

I ran into an issue with loading that slowed me down dramatically so I pivoted to working on adjacent things. The Steam API wrapper I'm using is returning null data when I attempt to fetch inventory tags from the database. This is a blocker for item customization, a key part of the scope that reduces effort bloat, and I'm discussing it with the OSS dev who makes the wrapper. Unclear if it will be resolved in time. So in the meantime I've added: about half of the item art naive menu and crafting scene inventory loading more eating utensils' special functionality the framework for item crafting and consumption, early tests are successful a debug menu for generating dev items limited time beta drops, for early users dynamic item drop logic that detects when a drop isn't available more juice and fx I've also been working on building the Steam page. I discovered that I have to get the page up as "Coming Soon" ASAP, since apparently it needs to be live for 2 weeks before I can hit "release", and is dependent on getting reviewed and approved directly by Valve (which, ofc, is not instantaneous). This will involve major effort, including: a trailer (+ tailored screenshots) store descriptions and metadata incl features, age rating, tags, and genre filters (this bullet is all done) key art and custom images in a couple dozen formats achievements, their thumbnails, stats and leaderboards, icons for drops (wip) a bazillion bits, bobs, and toggles that need to be set and flipped and probably a working build I expect to slow down in this part of the week due to my intense pace, and will rest and be otherwise occupied for most of the weekend, so time will be critical on Monday. I also have a bunch of design work in the backlog for my priority project that I need to do by Monday, which I haven't made time for. tl;dr: feeling the pressure

it's now been 4 weeks. aghhhgahghgh I submitted steam store assets for review. they say it should be 2-3 days, so if everything goes smoothly I'm looking at a release while I'm on my trip. I guess I'll do it from my phone, if I can. if it doesn't go smoothly, this market might resolve early 😭 I noticed that a build and a trailer weren't required for this part, so I didn't make those yet. Future Work for Future Pat, yay I know I'm at least a week late, but I'm hoping that Build-thing comes together this week so I can get some folks in to test, since it requires Steam auth for the game to work. stuff done since last update: steam page + all assets a small amount of in-game assets and art a second crafting station (currently super bugged) music mute button loading chosen toppings and tools into levels, with buttons that match icons and colors tooltips on a bunch of stuff achievements and steam stats (missing assets still) a bunch of crafting recipe data buuuut I'm gonna have to revamp the crafting system before moving much further. it doesn't work for 100% of my use cases and is clearly bugging out. since it's gameplay critical, it's where my immediate dev time is gonna go. here's the mission-critical todo list for the next couple of weeks (I'm sure more stuff will get added): crafting system achievement assets steam inventory item assets trailer builds + testing 3 more main path levels 15 more items (boxes and tools, mostly) 1 more crafting station tool alt actions for silverware and all the missing tools hitting that release button but there's a lot of other stuff I feel the game would be incomplete without and might get promoted if they become blockers for some reason, so here's the wishlist, roughly in order of importance for releasing this janky game: splash screens 8 new paint items late game crafting station + 10 related items a fake loading screen, just for people with slow computers and so I can show gameplay tips in-game leaderboard and stats screen ~5 secret levels a few other secrets and unlocking the secret crafting station more juice run booster system and 6 run booster items "you got drop!" notifications a credits screen (I'm using a single CC4.0 music file sigh but I guess I can drop it in the page description) audio of any kind other than the music 😅 more vfx and pets (this one 100% isn't gonna happen, file in: haha-in-your-dreams-pat) in other news I tried making a fucked up homemade pizza today in a brand new pizza oven and furiously ate it despite the smell and only later realized I forgot to burn in the oven. I may end up ill for a couple of days if I'm unlucky

store page is live!! now the two week timer before I'm allowed to hit release has started. I'm feeling great about progress the past couple of days, too, but more info next week https://store.steampowered.com/app/3182800/Eat_That_Ice_Cream/

Alright, time for that status update: Game is fully playable end-to-end, but missing critical features that make it worth playing imo. 5 weeks in, 1 week left. Feeling fantastic about last week, but unsure about what's left ahead. Optimistic but anxious. Done: Store page is live, including trailer Crafting is fully implemented, all recipes and both remaining crafting stations are in the game (one still needs its unlock trigger) All main path levels are done Achievements are fully implemented and asseted Finished the glow effect, so 7/8 extra paints are in the game One of my testers has come back with incredible feedback and QoL suggestions, game is feeling more robust since they've been added Splash screen (w/ credits on it) and loading screen done Up next: HARD BLOCKER: Review build was rejected due to inaccessible content. I've given them a new build, might not have time for any more fixes if they take awhile to need further changes HARD BLOCKER: Items still don't appear in Steam inventory. lots of assets left to make for them (~200 new art files, but I don't need to draw [much] new art for them) and I'm unsure what config I need to set up for this critical infrastructure to work. It's a game about item drops! Internally they're fully functional, but the drops don't appear outside the game! SOFT BLOCKER: Stats and leaderboards aren't setting or fetching correctly. While technically shippable without them, they feel like a central part of the experience that need to get sorted. I've stubbed the UI, but it'll need a functionality pass once the core tech is fixed. Finish the last items. 68/107 are done, 31 need art and implementation, and I intend to skip the last 8, which will probably become the last 14 if time is tight I'd love to have time to add a couple of secret levels. Polish, touch-ups, balancing, more QoL, maybe a couple more features if time is generous

I'm making a dumb game, in reaction to Banana.

I was bothered by how the economy in Banana is entirely speculative and the items have no intrinsic value. So I started designing something that's also simple but actually has a use for the items it creates. I guess I really like making interesting economies 😅

Now that it's been a bit more than ~~two~~ ~~three~~ five weeks, I'd say the project is going ~~well~~ ~~horridly~~ surprisingly fine and I think it's turning into something more charming than I expected. Still, it's no small feat to quickly make anything with real design, solo, and drop it on Steam, and generally I'm very skeptical of anyone's release timelines, especially in software, especially in games. You should be, too.

I'll only bet and place limits on YES, often irrationally, and never sell, in order to incentivize myself.

Reasons to bet YES:

I'm an industry veteran and generalist with ~13 years of professional experience
I've done solo releases before, both smaller and bigger
I'm oddly good at learning new things when rising to a challenge
It's a shitty free game. I keep saying things like "Eh, that's good enough!" and "That's a bug, but this project is supposed to be janky. I'll leave it alone."
I really don't want to be still working on releasing this during the holiday season (which, of course, starts in October)
To: cheer me on

Reasons to bet NO:

To: support me by providing incentive
Everything is always over-scoped
Something always comes up out of the blue that wasn't expected
I'm deep diving into some tech I don't have a ton of experience with
I use Manifold a lot
I'm taking a trip at the end of September into October, so in reality I have less than the full month
I'm also working on getting funding for a more serious project, which requires some time and takes priority if it gets traction
I probably should be doing other things with my ~~time~~ life