Hey there folks, Alex and Jason here!
Our Beta is almost a month old!
In that time, we've fixed more than a hundred issues, and made some serious improvements to UI, AI, and navigation.
As the stream of bugs is slowing down, we're ready to add more players to our Beta. Read on to find out how to join the Beta!
In the 28 days Spy DNA has been in Beta, we've fixed more than 100 issues that our Beta participants and ourselves have found testing. We've given priority to any issue that was a potential crash or was otherwise game-breaking. "Game-breaking" in this context means that the game gets into a state that makes it impossible to continue, and you must close it and reload; e.g. situations where you can't complete a level because of a bug.
We tracked down some hardware compatibility issues, and a few software ones. At the time of this writing, we've pushed 20 builds to our Steam Beta channel. That's just under one a day on average if you count the weekends, and one a day if you only count workdays.
Spy DNA has undergone a few changes since the Beta started. Outside of bug fixes, we've added, refined, and sometimes even re-implemented things in response to player feedback.
Right now we don't have any crashes or game-breaking bugs in our tracking tool. We have received a lot of feedback we are still working on for improvements to tutorials and making the UX easier to understand.
We have a few things we want to focus on before pushing this to early access. The big things we still need to do are:
- Add tutorials for a few more game mechanics. Right now we have enough unique mechanics that some parts of the game are difficult to pick up just by playing.
- Add a few more missions so the players have enough to do.
- Improve a few parts of the UI where information isn't communicated clearly to the player; mostly around pausing and encumbrance.
- Refine the artificial intelligence controlling the NPCs in the game, to make the levels more engaging and challenging to complete.
As we approach Early Access, the rate of releases will be slowing. During the early part of the Beta we wanted to push out fixes as fast as we could, but now that things are much more stable, we want to put more effort into keeping the release build stable. We have separate channels set up in Steam, with the main branch being a conservative stable build, and "Beta," where we will continue to push more frequent releases.
Early Access players will have access to both though Steam and will be able to choose the one that fits them best.
Finally, now that we have hammered down the biggest issues, we're ready to expand the Beta to include more players. We've
reopened our Beta enrollment form and we'd like to invite you to join the Beta if you haven't already. Or, if you know someone who likes tactical combat sims, feel free to share the link with them too!
We've condensed this update to fit in an email, which means lots of stuff got cut.
Read the full update on our blog.
Two easy way to get encumbered in Spy DNA
Spy DNA handles equipment differently than other games. We attempt to simulate the real world as much as possible. So let's talk about encumbrance, uniforms, and accessories.
Encumbrance in Spy DNA involves two mechanics: weight, and free items. Weight will be familiar to everyone. More weight means it becomes harder to move and you have to slow down.
We also add the mechanic of free items. The idea is that to carry an item, you either need to store it in a pocket, backpack, or other location made for the purpose, or you have to carry it in your hand. Because of this, even a few free items will quickly make it impossible to move. This represents the character's inability to hold everything without dropping anything.
To clearly show why a character is slowed down or can't move at all, we now show two distinct icons over the character portrait to indicate the two encumbrance conditions: a kettle-bell weight for weight encumbrance, and juggling hands for too many free items.
For more on how uniforms and storage work, head on over to the blog.