Belay being bored because beta begins!

It's been over a year since development began on the Fantasy Toggle expansion and it's finally time to start testing.
This megalodon can't wait to sink his teeth into your ship.

What's happening?

As of today, the final preparations to release Fantasy Toggle are underway! The game has become so internally complex that I've already got a list of known bugs to start fixing. Rather than making the beta public and wasting time responding to forum threads and bug reports, the beta will be done in stages. I'm having my friends take the first trick at the helm so I can watch how they play in person and see what does and doesn't make sense to them. After the bugs they found are flogged to death and the necessary improvements have been made, I'll have a few specifically chosen lads help improve the grammar and playtest on multiple platforms. After every problem we could find has been addressed, I'll be porting TCS from GameMaker: Studio to GameMaker 2 and The Caribbean Sailors crew of beta testers will be brought aboard to make suggestions, hunt for bugs, give feedback and give me my much needed ego petting. If Fantasy Toggle can survive all of that then I'll know she's ready for the sea. That's probably not what you expected but it's better than watching her sink after the bottle christens her.
Remember when this big boi sneaked into the game on launch day? His time to shine will come soon.

What's left to do?

All of the content for Fantasy mode is nearly complete, but there's some polishing left to do. New feature tutorials, gameplay balancing, achievements, fringe case scenarios that can leave you stuck or aimless, and other assorted little tasks to complete. Like adding more particle effects. If you want to follow the progress, I'd recommend the official Victorian Clambake Discord Server or Twitter.

WHEN WILL IT BE DONE???

By the end of the month hopefully. There's a lot to take into consideration that I can't estimate. How many bugs will be found? How hard will it be to port TCS through Game Maker 2? How long will it take for Apple to approve the 64-bit Mac version? What does Jenkins do with all the empty turtle shells we catch? What I can say for sure is that I'm working hard to make the best game I can, which means taking the time to get it right. That's what the giant mollusk running Victorian Clambake mandated.
Captain! A fire breathing ship is trying to ram us!

What other words are you going to make me read in this long post?

These ones, and the next ones; Over the weekend you'll be able to plunder yourself a copy of The Caribbean Sail for $2.99 which you won't see again for a long time. After the sale I'm raising the price to $14.99 to reflect the new value. It will literally be two games in one. After Fantasy Toggle, I'll have to "Gold Master" The Caribbean Sail and end development. Then I can release the soundtrack, make some merch, and see what else can be done with what I've created! It's been a long voyage but port is finally in sight. Now it's time to head into the beta development storm. - Your Captain, Evan.

[ 2020-05-01 00:06:56 CET ] [ Original post ]