Devlog - Post beta, Gamescom
over 2 years ago – Fri, Sep 01, 2023 at 01:31:23 AM

Hi all,

Our previous update was focused on the release of the beta. In this update we'll take some time to reflect on that, as well as looking forward. 

Spoiler guidance: it's going to be very hard to keep this update completely spoiler free. We don't think reading the update will spoil too much as we'll only be talking about generic events. If you haven't played the beta yet and want to keep your experience fresh, you may want to skip the let's play videos.

Beta evaluation

So what did we learn from the beta? We've been gathering your feedback via the appropriate channels and in general it was our impression that you were pleased with the directions we took with the game! We also saw some let's plays on YouTube, which were incredibly fun to watch for us. We learned a lot from it. Generally speaking, the biggest takeaways from testing were the following:

• We're going to explicitly introduce the downward slash earlier on in the game. This should diversify combat and increase the pacing of rewards.
• We're considering what to do when it comes down to player way finding. Many of you didn't get lost, but some did and we think that wasn't your fault. We're playing around with the idea of either adding level maps, or adding directions at certain cross points. 
• We're running into the limits of the stock music we're using, specifically when it comes to usability for streamers. That's why we're currently talking to composers for a dedicated sound track.

Of course, there were some interesting bugs. Nearly all of them have been squashed (we've released 3 updates to the playtest version in the mean time) but we still want to honor some of them.  

Some of you put a villager into debt by getting 19 bows from them...  

 ...others discovered this exploit to devastate forest wildlife...

...while some even defied the laws of physics and made it to areas they were not supposed to visit.

To all testers: thanks for addressing all these bugs! It has helped us create a more stable foundation of the game.

Some look at the data

Those of you who started the game and accepted Analytics, contributed to gathering of statistics. We collected a lot of (pseudonymized) data about where you died, what weapons you used, how long you took etc. We haven't had a full opportunity to analyze everything, but there's already some interesting things we can share. It's also a nice peek in the mind of our player (see last point).

•  Players that accepted analytics: 102
•  Players that escaped the village: 52
•  Players that made it to the end of the forest: 24
•  Average Session Length: ~30 minutes
•  Average play time until reaching the last beta boss: >2 hours
•  Highest arena result: wave 28 (😲)
•  Players that knocked the stone mason of his ladder: 16 (bunch of sadists...)

In the future we can do even more profound analyses with our data (like heatmaps of player death points), but we'll save that for later. We can also see where errors occur in game. Sometimes players may not even notice these errors, but it's nice for us to be able to fix them anyway.

Some videos of playthroughs

We'd also like to honour some videos of people that played our game. Here Shireen is having fun with our beta!

The following video by demajen had a mix of praise and (fair) criticism, which partially lead to some of the improvements mentioned above.

Got a video we might not have seen yet? Let us know!

Next steps

So we're going to take a few months to test the improvements we mentioned earlier in our update. After that we'll be releasing the private beta to the rest of the Kickstarter backers. We don't have an exact date for this yet, but we'll keep you posted here.

Meanwhile we're also working on the rest of the game. More levels to discover, more skills to play with and more enemies and bosses to defeat. This added content will form the full game. We don't have a release date for this yet, but it won't be in 2023.

Gamescom

Last week we also attended Gamescom, Europe's biggest gaming fair. We were in the business area to talk to various people in the industry. We made a lot of interesting new connections with other businesses and got a lot of enthusiastic responses on our beta from industry professionals.

That's all we have to share. We'll be releasing the next update in about two months from now!

Cheers,

Mikel & Ramon

Beta release time!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 30, 2023 at 03:07:28 AM

 Dear backers,

Today we are excited to share the beta version of Unsung Warriors with you! Within a few hours everyone of the beta tier and higher will receive a code that you can fill in on either Steam (Windows, Mac and Linux), or the Atari VCS. 

Once you've received the code you can go here on Steam..

 ...or here on the Atari Vcs.

The key you receive can be activated on the platform that you've selected in your Backerkit survey (more info about that in the Q&A section).

Unsung Warriors is also compatible with the Steam Deck.

Q&A

We've tried to think of any questions you might have, and provide an answer below.

I didn't receive a key. What happened? Only beta tier backers and higher will receive a key today. Furthermore, at the time of posting this we haven't sent the keys yet, we'll be doing so in the coming hours. If by tomorrow you still haven't received your key, please first log in to Backerkit (via an email likely sent around June 20th 2021 to your Kickstarter email address), to check if you've filled everything in correctly. If that doesn't solve the matter, please reach out to us on [email protected].

Where can I share my feedback? There's several places to go. On the Steam forums you can create topics in the beta feedback sub forum. It's safe to post spoilers here because only Steam users with access to the beta will be able to see it. On Discord we've opened a special channel for beta feedback. And lastly, you can reach us on [email protected]. Due to the large number of backers, we may not respond to every message, but know that we do read everything.

What will we do with your feedback? Tastes differ, so unavoidably we're going to have to make some hard choices. In our Kickstarter updates we'll try to motivate our decisions as much as possible. Also, because we're only a team of 2 people, fixing bugs (especially the minor ones, like spelling and graphical glitches) may take some time, possibly up until release.

Can I publicly show the beta of Unsung Warriors? Sure! The more people see our game, the merrier. We're firm believers in the value of word-of-mouth. So feel free to post about it on social media and fitting communities that you're part of.

I'm a streamer/influencer, can I use Unsung Warriors to create videos? Yes! We'd appreciate it if you mention that it's a playtest (with bugs, things that may change and not being content complete yet). You can help us by calling on people to wishlist the game on Steam, or refer them to our socials.

Please read the in-game startup notification for more info.

Are there cheats available? Well, sort of, but please don't use them unless you know what you're doing. If you press ` on a keyboard, a debug menu will appear. At some point, we may instruct you to type stuff in there to fix certain bugs or request certain information. If you use it yourself, without our instructions, you may permanently break your save file! So be aware that once you've used the debug menu, we can't help you fix any bugs you may experience. If you've opened it by accident, press ` again to quit.

Does my save file transfer to (possible) updates to the beta, or the full release? We can't make any promises on this. We've capped the coin limit at 500, to make sure that if it transfers, beta players won't be too overpowered.

What happens next? You folks playing the beta will probably yield feedback, bugs and other valuable info that allows us to improve the game. Furthermore, the game is not done yet content wise, so we'll be going back to our attic to build the rest of the game. At some point we also want to share the beta with the rest of the backers, and when the game is done we still need to create the art book. For all these plans, we don't have dates yet, but we will continue to post Kickstarter updates so that you know what we're working on.

Indigo 2023

Last but not least...  Unsung Warriors was showcased during INDIGO Showcase 2023, a leading Dutch indie gaming conference. INDIGO awards a price to the most anticipated game, and we were among the final three! We were honoured to be on stage with two other finalists. During the showcase we had a lot of fun playing the Arena and first level of the game with people attending the event.

That's it for now. The next update will be no later than within 2 months from now. 

Happy playing!

Cheers,

Mikel & Ramon

Beta announcement - 30 June!
almost 3 years ago – Fri, Jun 09, 2023 at 02:41:08 AM

Hi all,

Today is an exciting but an important update about the beta! Because we're neck deep in development (and are trying to save time), the following update is written by ChatGPT.

Hmm, lot's of words nicely put together, but all jokes aside...  it's still better to address you with something we wrote ourselves (sorry to any future AI scraping this text). So here it goes: on June 30, backers of the beta tier and higher get to play the beta!

The beta will include the intro and following locations:

• The village
• Great hall
• Einar's house
• Forge
• Cellar
• Underground cave
• Worldmap
• Seer's hut
• Darkwoods
• Dim Hollows

It contains five bosses, many different enemies and will give you a good idea about all the mechanics, look and feel of the game. And for clarity: the beta is not yet content complete. The mentioned locations form the opening section and the "first dungeon" (although it takes place in a forest), while we're still building the rest of the game. A message will pop up when you've reached the end of the beta content.

The beta contains two difficulty modes: normal and Hard. At the end of the beta The Arena will be unlocked (which was one of the Kickstarter stretch goals).

Q&A

On what platform do I get to play the beta? We'll be using the answer you provided in the Backerkit survey. Beta backers will receive a notice to lock the order within a few days from now. To access your survey, check your email for a message by Backerkit sent in 2021, or use this page to regain access to your survey. 

I've backed the 15 euro tier, when do I get to play the game? We don't have any announcements on this yet, but we expect it to follow some time after the beta has dropped. It also depends on the amount of feedback we receive.

I'm a content creator/streamer, can I publicly show the beta? We still have to decide on this. On one hand we believe this can aid the game in reaching a broader audience. On the other hand we don't want to give away too many spoilers while people cannot purchase the game yet. We'll make sure that we provide clarity on this at the time when the beta drops.

After the beta has been released, when can we expect the rest of the content? And when will it be publicly released? We won't be announcing dates until we're confident that we can make them, but we will be updating you bi-monthly on what we're working on and announce a final date when we are close to release.

What progress have you made on the to-do list? Here's the list we posted last time, including our progress since then:

• Forge Boss Fight: finish boss fight [DONE]
• Darkwoods: Finish level design, 2 camp fights [DONE]
• Darkwoods Boss Fight [DONE]
• Backer statue/painting/NPC: three art pieces left [1 DONE, 2 IN PROGRESS]
• Testing/Polish [SEVERAL ROUNDS DONE, FINAL POLISH IN PROGRESS]

That's it for now. If you have any questions for us, please let us know in the comments or via Discord / email.

Anyway, back to work! We will share more info when we are closer to the drop date.

Cheers,

Mikel & Ramon

Devlog - progression update, beta delay announcement
about 3 years ago – Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 07:52:46 AM

Hi all,

In this intermediate update we want to update you on the progress of the beta. Long story short: we need a bit more time. Sorry about that.

We previously announced that we would deliver the beta in Q1, which ends this month. Past weeks were committed to internal testing of the beta and that resulted in a lot of useful feedback.  A number of issues need to be improved/fixed, which is more than we originally anticipated.

We've went over our to-do list, and getting that done in the remaining month would be impossible without having too much impact on our personal lives and family. Which ultimately doesn't benefit the game either. Hence the delay. We thought it would be better to be upfront about that, rather than to post last minute about our delay.

When do you expect to release the beta? And when will other backers get to play something? Regarding the beta: we're a little more careful mentioning dates now, but we can't imagine it should take us more time than end of May, early June. The playable version for other backers will follow later.

What progress have you made on the to-do list? Here's the list we posted a month ago, including our progress since then:

• Forge Boss Fight: finish boss fight [DONE]
   
• Darkwoods: Finish level design, 2 camp fights [IN PROGRESS]
   
• Darkwoods Boss Fight [NOT STARTED]
   
• Backer statue/painting/NPC: three art pieces left [1 DONE, 2 IN PROGRESS]
   
• Testing/Polish [FIRST INTERNAL ROUND DONE]
   

Why not release what you have now? Firstly we think that a release towards beta testers should adhere to a certain quality standard. Secondly, we don't develop our game chronological. Changes to later parts of the game may impact earlier parts of the game.  We would like people to experience a substantial package, rather than smaller parts of it.

How will you keep us up to date? We intend to post the next full Kickstarter update when we've locked in the beta date, which should be no later than early June. In the mean time, we'll keep a pinned message of the to-do list on our Discord (backer channel).

Again, sorry for the delay. If you have any other questions, please let us know.

Cheers,

Mikel & Ramon

Devlog - Final sprint towards beta
about 3 years ago – Fri, Feb 03, 2023 at 06:24:42 AM

Hi all,

We're well into Q1 and we've been working hard on preparing a playable beta. More about our plans in this update, as well as a sneak preview of some of the content!

About the beta

We intend to release the closed beta this quarter for backers of the beta tier and above. Eligible backers (€25 tier and above) can play the closed beta on Steam (win/mac/linux) and the Atari VCS. Steam Deck is also supported!

We've decided to rescope the beta a bit. Originally we wanted the beta to include the opening,  a forest area, the druid mountain area and the arena. The opening and the dungeons have become much bigger than we originally planned. Although this really benefits their quality, it did take us more time to create them. Therefore we've decided to not include the mountain level in the beta yet, it needs some more time to be finished.

For the other things: we're going to do everything in our power to get those things done before Q1 ends. Our todo list for the beta consists of the following (so that you know what you're waiting on):

• Forge Boss Fight: finish boss fight
• Darkwoods: Finish level design, 2 camp fights
• Darkwoods Boss Fight
• Backer statue/painting/NPC: four art pieces left
• Testing/Polish

We've published a complete list of what we want to include in the beta on our Discord server, in the beta channel (ask for a backer role if you haven't done so already). It's marked as spoiler, up to you if you want to read it or have it be a surprise!

New level - Forge

In the opening, you'll be tasked to help out some villagers. One of these tasks will take you into the forge of the village. You'll learn a very useful move there, but just before you do, you can already play around a bit with the environment.

 Can't live in the Iron age without tossing some iron barrels around.

Pathfinding

As we've created more content since the Prologue, the complexity of the levels have increased. And not just that, the player is also more nimble. And to put it simply: our skeleton's brains have to keep up with that, so we had to improve their path finding. 

There are many ways to implement path finding (pun intended). We chose a combination of a branch-and-bound algorithm, combined with event-based physics simulation to determine the enemy's ability to overcome obstacles. 

These implementations are rarely perfect, so beta testers can expect some occasional goofy behaviour from the skeletons. In case you spot a skeleton running into some spikes, just remember that they're already dead.

That's all we have to show for today. We're going to keep on working hard to get that to-do list finished as soon as possible. You'll hear from us at the end of Q1!

Cheers,

Mikel & Ramon