One Year In Beta! (August 23rd - September 4th, 2017) Wow! What an amazing first year!
We are super excited about the progress, and blessed by everyone's support of Build a Game Universe. Your constant testing and feedback has been amazing! Thank you for all your help. :) Let's Review Last year, we made excellent progress in multiple areas of development. Let's highlight several achievements from the year.
+ Almost 2,000 beta testers using Build a Game Universe + Fixed 3,000+ bugs (I guess that's good). :) + Nearly 4,000 commits (revisions) + Added over 16 tile type + Recorded over 800 training videos + Polished the user interface and icons + Added a tooltip system (community request (super fun!)) + Created a bug tracking system + Completed the loop (tile builder - to reviewer app - to market - to game builder - to publish) + Added full joystick support + Added 8 player co-op mode (edit and play) + Added 12 tilesets to the Market Center + Used Build a Game in two summer camps + Three developers...still the same three :) + Weekly updates (almost) + And more :) Awesome!
Let's take a look at where the Universe is headed! As we continue to round out Build a Game for developers, players, and on-lookers, our goals are the tiles, the tools and the talent. :) First Tiles. We have a short list of 130 tile type ready for development. Here are a few from the list. :) + 2d boned character + Inventory, crafting (the works) + Item - Builder (aka. minecraft tool) + Item - Cannon launcher + Item - Sling shot + Item - Vehicle (side, top, 3/4) + Board game type (chess, checkers, connect 5, cards, dice, dominoes, puzzles, and more) + Sports (billiards, bowling, tennis, ping pong, darts) + Random ones -> Status indicators, mini-map, lasers and more. Below are a few prototypes for animated characters (bones) and vehicles (side, top). The character system will be a seamless transition between the current single tile animation and the bone sprites. But we'll talk more on that when the time comes. :) Character with bone driven animations
Vehicle side view (arcade style)
Vehicle top view (arcade style)
Second Tools. What makes Build a Game Universe so much fun for us, are the tools. We've mentioned the 'other' tools once or twice in previous posts, so let's take a look at just the apps we will focus on during this next year. + Game Builder (Build a Game Editor) + Tile Builder + Market Center + Reviewer App (Approval system) + Image Editor (Drawing/animation tool) Image Editor (wip)
The image editor continues to take shape. A quick feature list includes: + Standard 2d drawing tools + Color picker and swatch + Animation previewing + Layers and blending + Timeline and clips Third Talent. It's time to start gathering the artists and designers. That's right! This month (probably the end of the month), Tile Builder will be available! Along with a full set of training videos and starter content to help with development. :)
Final Notes Okay! That wraps up our year end review (overview), and sets the stage for the coming months. We hope you've enjoyed the updates. Thank you! Training Videos 810+ Videos are available for learning Build a Game! Our Silver Standard Reminder (Silver Coin Allowance)! During the beta program, you will receive 1,000 silver coins into your account each week. Have fun purchasing games and tiles! Beta Group Signup Sign up for the Beta. Email steamkeyplease@buildagameuniverse.com to get your steam key and be a part of the testing. =) Thank you! Chad - Nathan - Eric