It's time to launch Toys of War on Steam Early Access! It's going to be a long couple of nights, but the team here at 2Bit is excited people will finally be able to enjoy the game we've sunk over a year of blood, sweat, and often tears into. Let's start with the current state of the game, including known bugs and areas of feedback-interest for us, as well as how to contribute to each of these. Once that's laid out, we'll go over our roadmap for the Early Access all the way to launch, including what you can expect over the next three-or-so months.

State of the Game

Toys of War is pretty much complete as a local multiplayer game. Online multiplayer will land shortly (~2 months) after launch. We have an active Known Bugs list on our Steam forums (which will no doubt grow in short order), as well as our Feature Roadmap with rough delivery dates. Note that these dates are estimates and are subject to change. The only placeholder art in-game are the game mode icons/previews on the map board, and the instruction videos in the tutorial. If you find any other broken or sub-par art then please report it to us. We're interested in all feedback, but specific areas of importance to us are:

• AI competence and difficulty
• Vehicle balance
• The ability of new players to pick-up-and-play

That last point of feedback is particularly important. We want the game to be engaging and challenging for experienced users, but new players have to be able to pick it up without feeling out of their depth. AI difficulty for new players and the intuitiveness of the controls are key points of focus in making that a reality. If you find a bug or have feedback to discuss, head over to our Bugs and Feedback forum. Be sure to read the pinned guidelines before posting.

The Battle Plan

The estimated delivery dates for all of our planned features can be found in the previously mentioned Feature Roadmap forum post, but we want to elaborate a little on those dates and features here. Note again that these are rough estimates, and may change as we approach them. The first milestone on the list is to replace the placeholder art assets - something that should be done by the end of this month. The game mode previews and tutorial instructions will all be videos, so this will inflate the download size of the game but not to an unreasonable level. The second milestone is the long awaited Online Multiplayer. This will be rolled out slowly, but should be available for testing some time in August. We mean to make online multiplayer as similar to local multiplayer as possible, meaning that players can leave and join flexibly (as well as control) any screen of the game (including mid-play). We don't want Toys of War to be 'just another online lobby game', but instead focus more on a friendly couch feel even when you play with strangers. It's a lofty goal, but we hope to meet it and then some. The final planned milestone is a community-driven game mode. We'll announce details of this once Online Multiplayer lands, but we aim to involve the community as much as possible when making our 12th game mode! That's about all we have for you now. Thanks for all of your support so far, and we look forward to seeing you on the forums!

[ 2016-07-12 23:01:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's time to launch Toys of War on Steam Early Access! It's going to be a long couple of nights, but the team here at 2Bit is excited people will finally be able to enjoy the game we've sunk over a year of blood, sweat, and often tears into. Let's start with the current state of the game, including known bugs and areas of feedback-interest for us, as well as how to contribute to each of these. Once that's laid out, we'll go over our roadmap for the Early Access all the way to launch, including what you can expect over the next three-or-so months.

State of the Game

Toys of War is pretty much complete as a local multiplayer game. Online multiplayer will land shortly (~2 months) after launch. We have an active Known Bugs list on our Steam forums (which will no doubt grow in short order), as well as our Feature Roadmap with rough delivery dates. Note that these dates are estimates and are subject to change. The only placeholder art in-game are the game mode icons/previews on the map board, and the instruction videos in the tutorial. If you find any other broken or sub-par art then please report it to us. We're interested in all feedback, but specific areas of importance to us are:

• AI competence and difficulty
• Vehicle balance
• The ability of new players to pick-up-and-play

That last point of feedback is particularly important. We want the game to be engaging and challenging for experienced users, but new players have to be able to pick it up without feeling out of their depth. AI difficulty for new players and the intuitiveness of the controls are key points of focus in making that a reality. If you find a bug or have feedback to discuss, head over to our Bugs and Feedback forum. Be sure to read the pinned guidelines before posting.

The Battle Plan

The estimated delivery dates for all of our planned features can be found in the previously mentioned Feature Roadmap forum post, but we want to elaborate a little on those dates and features here. Note again that these are rough estimates, and may change as we approach them. The first milestone on the list is to replace the placeholder art assets - something that should be done by the end of this month. The game mode previews and tutorial instructions will all be videos, so this will inflate the download size of the game but not to an unreasonable level. The second milestone is the long awaited Online Multiplayer. This will be rolled out slowly, but should be available for testing some time in August. We mean to make online multiplayer as similar to local multiplayer as possible, meaning that players can leave and join flexibly (as well as control) any screen of the game (including mid-play). We don't want Toys of War to be 'just another online lobby game', but instead focus more on a friendly couch feel even when you play with strangers. It's a lofty goal, but we hope to meet it and then some. The final planned milestone is a community-driven game mode. We'll announce details of this once Online Multiplayer lands, but we aim to involve the community as much as possible when making our 12th game mode! That's about all we have for you now. Thanks for all of your support so far, and we look forward to seeing you on the forums!

[ 2016-07-12 23:01:03 CET ] [ Original post ]