I can't deny, it hasn't been as productive of a first month since launch as I'd like. Early Spring + some life stuff keeping me busy for a bit and whoops the time flies by in a way that makes me baffled a month has already passed.
But besides life, the two major things that hit recently was a mix of burnout after rushing to hit my own deadline, and decision paralysis.
I really had to tie myself to the ground and stop chasing each shiny different feature I wanted to work on all at once now that I'm free from deadline-necessary features. Oooh gauntlets! Oooh new players! Oooh polish! Bug fixes! Updating UI! More arenas! Finishing the proper roadmap! Better tutorials! Ooh shiny oooh shiiiny! Aaaaaand you leave yourself doing none of it because you want to do all of it. Luckily I think I've gotten ahold of myself and progress is starting to inch along faster again.
Of course, I don't want this to just be some "woe is me" post about "my dream job too hard :(", so let's talk about what we HAVE managed to do in the last month!
Starting with something more exciting, I've decided to completely rework the level select screen to have the much needed cool factor it was lacking. Also to help it scale well with possible changes to what content is planned, but that's news for another day.
I've occasionally mentioned a so called "Mission Mode" idea as possible extra side content later into development, but recently I realized it was a bit silly to come up with this UI design for side content when I could use it to bless the main content with well needed vibes.
So now Survival Mode and Mission Mode will be in the same level select screen! If/when we finally think to add some Missions, they'll be added as a different shaped peg on the grid with a somewhat different unlock format.
The screen feels a little empty for now, but trust me, I've got big plans for it!
On a less visually exciting bit of news, we've also been working with the controls a bit more since launch. We've gotten just enough feedback to realize we need to put more effort into the keyboard and mouse controls, like... a lot more effort.
Unfortunately most people try playing with WASD and/or Mouse and... yowch, admittedly we added those more just so people would have them, we highly underestimated just how much the PC market doesn't use controller and it seems most people were putting the game down without knowing how much better that control method feels.
The game will always be night and day with the quality of using a gamepad vs using mouse or keyboard, it was built for controller from the get-go, but we really want to try to polish the alternate controls as best as we can just in hopes the game can play okay without a controller.
I might add more indicators in the game to recommend controller as it boots up, like seriously I can't stress enough how much better it feels with thumbsticks. It makes me realize GGG is probably more of a console game than a PC game, but console ports are a long ways away so for now we'll do everything we can to make the PC experience better.
So yeah, more settings and sliders and better defaults has been a bit of the focus recently. Along with two new control buttons that might help some players.
8Besides controls and the level select screen, I suppose we've also been working on patching bugs and doing general polish. Gameplay is a little more consistent now, and the boss fights have a better consistency to how their cycles work. No more issues with guns still in the arena when the fight starts.
The update with all this should come out soon enough, still need to finish the level select UI but we're getting there.
More places you can keep up with development: