Well, its been a while. Admittedly, I wasnt sure what I was getting into when I made my first game. I think coming from an animation background I thought it would be like releasing a short video or something (ie: Put it out there and see what happens.) \n\nThis isnt the case for games though. Games are kinda like restaurants I feel, its almost a service industry. Youve got people playing it and ultimately they want to experience something so good theyll come back for more. They want to like your game, but it also takes only the smallest things for them to dislike it. Also, considering there is an upfront price for entry they will have discerning thoughts about a number of factors you never thought of before purchasing (let alone playing, leaving a review, etc).\n\nIts an uphill battle *after* the release, not just getting to release.\n\nSo, putting it out there is not an optimal mindset for a game. Theres a whole second reserve tank you need for after the game - and it took me about a year to find that reserve. These changes could have all been done earlier, but I didnt have the energy or will at that point. I had a one and done strategy at the time.\n\nBut, surprisingly, I just opened it up one day and started coding again. I realized all the mistakes I had made along the way and some glaring problems with difficulty/accessibility and wanted to address them with this patch.\n\nIm not sure how many more of these I have in me, patch-wise. I have a *great* idea for a new game Im still fleshing out and definitely should just move onto it. But I thought Id give Boyce a few more lines of love before I do.\n\n[u]PATCH NOTES 1.25[/u]\n

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• Note: Unfortunately any past save file will be deleted with this patch.\n\n
• Removed two arbitrary difficulty levels to reduce upfront decision fatigue.\n\n
• Redesigned Story/Normal difficulty levels based off player feedback.\n\n
• Added checkpoints on Story/Normal to make levels easier.\n\n
• Added Tutorial on first play to give players an understanding of how the hitboxes and scoring works.\n\n
• Added Stage Select after first completion of the game, a much requested feature.\n\n
• Removed fast reload. It made sense with longer play lengths, but with the checkpoints added it seemed to add more confusion and accidental presses.\n\n
• Reedited and shortened cutscene 1 as it was too long for most players, it was skipped and a decent amount of story setup was ignored.\n\n
• Added intro cutscene. A few scenes from old cutscene 1 are moved to a new intro\n\n
• Controller Recommended added to splash screen as I really wanted to reiterate to players that it was built for a controller.\n\n

Hey All! Thanks for a very educational launch. I've got quite a few things on the roadmap, but alas I'm only one person so I have to pick my battles accordingly. And this week those battles are:

-Changed windows taskbar logo from Godot to custom Boyce
-Defaulted difficulty to beginner (formerly known as 'easy')
-Story mode now loads a custom 'beat map' for levels 3,5, and 6 to address player comments on overall difficulty.
-Story/Beginner mode now regenerates health at a faster rate
-Attempted to address case of PS5 controller bumpers not working (thanks papercoyote!)
-D-pad movement now works to select first option on summary screen (thanks brett!)

I'm going to make an effort to tweak the ability to be a bit more accessible to non-rhythm gamer folk. If you run into any issues please throw them on the discussion page or hit me up on the discord directly - thanks!

-hotfix for saving issue

Hello everyone!

I just want to thank you if you're reading this. It's been a long journey of learning, failing, and trying again to get here - and although the product isn't perfect - I'm still pretty proud of what I've done so far. A little background: I started coding during the pandemic and really enjoyed it, I quickly joined multiple game jams, took a couple programming classes, and discovered the Godot Engine.

Fast forward two years and here we are: Boyce the Voice! It's a silly little game and I've got lots of work to do still. Please bear with me - this is my first commercial release so I'm still figuring out quite a bit. Prepare for errors, bugs, save files being corrupted, and long unnecessary cutscenes (whoops!).

I think we're just going to move into a shoddy beta where I build this thing as I go along and hopefully the chaos will be manageable if you're along for the ride. There are quite a few things I need to get to critically, and a ton of quality of life improvements I need to get on as well.

But I'll be frank: I'm a little tired of working on this game. I intentionally scoped it small, and like all good software projects it ballooned into an wreck about a year in. Haha. I'm trying to claw it all back to a tidy little piece you can play and get a memorable experience out of.

Okay, thanks for reading and see you on the other side.

-E