Things are a bit hectic over here whilst we work towards fixing a bunch of these pesky (sometimes longlasting) bugs. We're squashing as much as we can and we're hoping we should be close to only discovering minor bugs!

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

• FIXED - Portals in all Mines Dungeons appearing.
  
• FIXED - Enemies having fake keys.
  
• FIXED - Unable to press Restart or Quit in the Credits scene.
  
• FIXED - General input issues (such as being unable to switch inputs in UIs).
  
  
• OBSERVING - Shopkeeper room sometimes spawning somewhere inaccessible from all rooms but the boss room, making it unusable.
  
• OBSERVING - In Mines, a room with 1 exit may have a black rectangle can appear in the doorway.
  

First off, thank you so much for an awesome launch! It really is awesome being able to say we've finished a game!
Anyways, we've received multiple reports of bugs over these past days, and we've been working our butts off to fix them!

[h2]SPEEDRUNNER HELP ADDITIONS[/h2]
Millions of Minions seems to have a resurgence of speedrunners trying to beat the game in as quick a time as possible. A common problem that was posed was being unable to reset progress without going all the way BEFORE the prologue (meaning you had to redo the tutorial). There are now more options when it comes to resetting progress. Simply press the Reset Progress button as you would before, and you will see the options!


We're hoping to expand our support for speedrunners as we progress. Please let us know what you think would help to make it a better experience for you all! You are welcome to join our Discord here.

[h2]FUTURE PLANS[/h2]
You may be wondering what we're hoping to do with the game now that it is complete. We're still discussing what we can do to extend the support of the project. At the moment, it's not too clear but there may be some plans to share with you shortly so stay tuned!

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

• FIXED - An exploit where you can skip from area 1 (Tomb), dungeon 1 to area 3 (Mines), dungeon 4.
  
• FIXED - Starting dungeon from an enemy infested room/any other room.
  
• FIXED - Being unable to defeat 'Mega Klucken'.
  
• FIXED - Unable to get unlock the dash ability if you enter the portal too fast.
  
• FIXED - Incorrect random generation for Shopkeeper and Boss Rooms in some instances.
  
• FIXED - Unable to defeat the Final Boss majority of the time.
  
• FIXED - Final Boss spazzing out if you go behind him on the Chase scene.
  
• FIXED - Final Boss Enemies spawning incorrectly.
  
• FIXED - Unable to restart on Final Boss.
  
• FIXED - Being able to use Arcade save data with Story Mode.
  
• FIXED - Being able to move whilst loading screen was still active.
  
• POSSIBLY FIXED - Doors being able to open before all enemies are killed.
  

Join the team as we launch the game out of Early Access!

[h2]RELEASE TIMES[/h2]

• ET - 09:00AM/9AM
  
• PT - 06:00AM/6AM
  
• MT - 07:00AM/7AM
  
• CT - 08:00AM/8AM
  
• GMT - 14:00PM/2PM
  
• CET - 15:00PM/3PM
  

• FIXED - Special abilities not being serialised AT ALL
  
• FIXED - Quiet Prison music
  
• FIXED (mostly) - Amulet unlock screen not showing controller inputs
  
• FIXED - Series of bugs caused by spamming buttons
  
• FIXED - Player is unable to enter a seed
  
• FIXED - Pick-up is in the centre of the shopkeeper's room
  
• FIXED - Menu music wouldn't start initially
  
• FIXED - Overlapping music when in a boss fight
  
• FIXED - Minimap walls not rendering correctly
  
• FIXED - Player is unable to progress after entering a portal
  
• FIXED - Weird controller behaviour where the aiming is not be accurate to where the player is
  
• FIXED - Controller is sometimes not recognised
  
• FIXED - Unskippable Prologue
  
• FIXED - General boss cutscene issues
  

[h2]Prologue Progress Report[/h2]
Last week, we mentioned that we'd just rewritten the script for the prologue. Since then, we've made significant progress. All voice lines have been recorded and we have a couple more scenes to finish off before we're done with the new prologue! It lasts about 2 minutes as opposed to the previous 4.5 minutes.

Here's some of Matt's voice recording in action! Ahh, the joys of working from home..


[h2]Enemy Animations Update[/h2]
Also last week, we mentioned that we were almost done with the Mines' enemies animations. It's still not fully implemented yet but I plan on showing it off next week! (I mean it this time!).

[h2]End Cutscene Improvements[/h2]
Furthermore, Enoch (our artist) added some colours and the minions arm to the end cutscene artwork that we showed off last week! It's looking GORGEOUS! What do you all think?


[h2]Thank You![/h2]
Thank you for reading this week's blog. Stay tuned for next Friday! (Where we MIGHT be announcing something pretty cool!).

[h2]Prologue Rewrite/Rework[/h2]

Just today, we rewrote some of the prologue script to cut down on the length and we began planning our new prologue! It'll have the same story but it will be laid out in a much better manner. We're hoping this change will inch us closer and closer to full release!


[h2]Release Delay[/h2]

That links to the somewhat sad announcement that we've pushed back the release date by a few months. The game will be released before the end of the year, however. We are doing this mainly because we felt we were rushing too much. We want 1.0 to feel like a full 1.0 launch and that wasn't possible with our previous work ethic. This gives us time to polish, update and fix everything we can. Once we hit 1.0, we won't be coming back to the project (unless a game breaking bug emerges).

Make sure to follow our Twitter for frequent and exclusive updates!

[h2]Ending Cutscene[/h2]

We won't show TOO much of the WIP ending cutscene. However, take a look at this picturesque scene of the outside world! What do you think is gonna happen next!?


[h2]Mines Area Development[/h2]

This week, we finalised on a Mine environment! Please keep in mind that is WITHOUT implementation into the game so the fidelity may seem a bit less fitting for the game. However, once implemented, it'll be affected by lighting and mimic the atmosphere of our game.

Mines Area Tilesheet

[h3]Enemy Animations[/h3]
We don't have anything to show about this yet, but we're currently in the process of finishing up the Mines enemies! Hopefully I can show off a few things next week! We've also changed their names!

• Sluggard
  
• Crystal Creeper
  
• Klucken
  

[h2]NEW Community Manager[/h2]
Starting off this post, we would like to introduce Arman to the Head Tilt Games team! He will be responsible for managing our social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram), co-ordinating testing schedules and helping us to provide you guys with consistent content. For example, he actually forced me to write this! In the lead-up to launch day, he will be working just as hard as we are in order to provide you all with exclusive sneak peaks and giveaways!


[h2]Boss Update[/h2]
Earlier in the week, we put out an update that revamped some of the bosses and created entrance introductions upon entering a boss room. Standard bosses mimic each other's entrance. However, the unique/definitive bosses have their own customised entrances (something that you'll really get the chance to see when 1.0 releases!).
On top of that, we are planning on implementing the new boss soundtrack in the coming days and it will be available to all players!


[h2]NEW Artwork[/h2]
Finally, Enoch (our artist) has been hard at work in sketching up brand new designs for the final area of the game. Below, you can see both the brand new enemies and the new environment concepts. All of the pieces that you see are subject to change and are not set in stone! Our biggest hope is that we can develop a fascinating final area for you to enjoy (and hopefully die in lol).



[h2]Thank You![/h2]
Thank you for reading this week's blog. Stay tuned for next Friday when we will hopefully have a finished environment and perhaps some GIFs to show off to you all with the environment in action!

[h2]FULL Release incoming![/h2]
We are working really hard on giving you the last bit of content of the game! But for now, here's a version of the game that updates some bosses and fixes some bugs!

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
Bug Fixing!

• Fixed a bug where you couldn't get past bosses
  
• Fixed sound FX
  
• Fixed some generation problems
  

[h2]NEW MODE[/h2]

The Arcade Mode is OUT NOW (Coming soon to Android!)!
A brand new mode in which you roam through an infinite series of dungeons where you gather points and climb up the leaderboards!

• Compete globally and with your friends!
  
• Compete in future tournaments/WIN prizes!
  
• Replay your favourite areas!
  

• Arcade mode
  
• Area 2 decorations (weapon rack, tables, torches and chains!)
  The prison now looks like... a prison!
  
• Difficulty now affects enemies health, projectiles and move speeds.
  It may seem like an obvious decision but at least now it's actually a reality. Good luck, speedrunners! You'll need it!
  
• Debug options
  
• Merchant assets
  Remember when the merchant looked like placeholder artwork? No? Neither do we! Forget that ever existed.
  

[h2]Back to Work![/h2]
After our 2 week break, we are now ready to work again! To give you guys something, we have just released a bug fixing patch!

We've also taken the sad decision to remove the demo from the Steam page. Somebody was able to find an exploit that gave them the opportunity to bypass the demo block and play the full game. We're very sorry for this, we might reconsider this for full release but for now, this is how it'll be.

[h2]Changelog[/h2]
The bugs we have fixed were all listed in the previous post! We have almost got everything! However, if you find anything else, please let us know!

• Dying in tutorial is broken
  
• Keys sometimes don't spawn
  
• Achievements don't work for tutorial nor prologue
  
• Increasing max health via the merchant has no effect
  

In this post, I will quickly go over the known bugs and the temporary solutions for each! We will be fixing them when our break is over in 2 weeks!

[h2]Bugs[/h2]

• Dying in tutorial is broken
  Back out to main menu and press play (this will skip the tutorial)
  
• Keys sometimes don't spawn
  Back out to main menu and press play (unsure if this fix works on Mage mode. This will reset the
  dungeon.
  
• Achievements don't work for tutorial nor prologue
  Wait for patch.
  
• Increasing max health via the merchant has no effect
  Wait for patch.
  
• Minions die upon spawning
  Back out to the main menu and hit reset progress (this usually happens if you have played the demo
  and transferred over).
  

• Achievements do not function in the tutorial nor prologue
  
• Tutorial music doesn't loop
  
• Music doesn't play from where it stopped if interrupted by another track
  
• You can get repeating objects in the market
  
• Minion ash should not be present
  
• Prologue says "Wishlist it now" despite being released
  

Wow. Okay. So, our game is out for everyone now? That's cool, but crazy.

[h2]WHAT'S IN THE GAME CURRENTLY?[/h2]

• In this version of the game, there are 2 areas present. Each area holds 3 different enemy types and 4 bosses. Each boss and enemy have a different attack pattern.
  
• The merchant system is still in it's infancy: so the looks aren't updated just yet (we'll be working on it shortly!). However, the functionality is there. Simply kill enemies or break decorations to get some more currency (known as Fallen Souls).
  
• Sounds and music are all complete for this version of the game: giving you a fluid feel throughout your playthrough.
  
• Difficulty options don't actually change the enemy health (which we may change): they simply decide whether you will respawn or not. Initially, we wanted the game to be permadeath but it seemed more fair to give you that option.
  
• Bugs should be pretty limited but we'll constantly be sifting through them as you report them (via our Discord or Twitter) to ensure you have a smooth experience.
  

• There's one more area in development, which we hope to be done by August. This will give the game a total of 9 enemies and 12 bosses.
  
• We're hoping to fully release by October 31st but it could happen earlier: this is simply a deadline for us.
  
• We want to add some more visual diversity so more decorations are in the works.
  

Watch the developers play through the upcoming Early Access version of the game! Ask them your burning questions or just hang out! You can download the demo from our Steam page.

Got any questions? Want to see exclusive gameplay? Come on over and join us!

Hello everyone, my name is Mattabulous, or Matt! I am a 17 year old game developer and content creator. Ive been in the industry for more than three years and Ive been developing my first commercial game since Ludum Dare 45, in October of 2019. Prior to this, I had been forming a team. Now named Head Tilt Games.

[h2]TEAM ORIGINS[/h2]
From a simple, ugly, advert that I put out on Twitter and on one of my YouTube videos, I gathered up two people who contacted me. Our first member was Ectho, an artist - I had/have no experience in artwork and he was essentially the missing piece of the puzzle. The second was someone who I was friends with, Spitzy, and he was wanting to start doing game development. As a token of my gratitude to our friendship, I invited him to join the team. He had experience in video editing and some in programming.


[h2]FIRST GAME JAM[/h2]
Shortly after we had a team, we partook in the Community Game Jam. As a result of this game jam, we developed a game called Belated, a difficult and ridiculously unforgiving platformer. It had some fantastic voice acting done by yours truly.. It was at least comical. Nonetheless, it was the start of our journey and we placed 43rd which was an extreme feat for all of us. If youre interested, you can play it here:
You can also watch the development log I did on it via YouTube:
https://youtu.be/OaCXfHi9zG0


[h2]OUR BREAK[/h2]
Although its not the most impactful, negative decision weve made; we took a break for around a month but during that month, we probably could have made something.. But instead, we just sat there. Please dont make the same mistake we did because having this unproductive time is super bad for motivational purposes within the team.

[h2]MILLIONS OF MINIONS[/h2]
In October, Ludum Dare 45 took place: and this was where Millions of Minions was born. Despite the rushed nature of Ludum Dare, we were able to produce a fairly decent game that we named Millions of Minions. This was initially named as this because there was no limit to the amount of minions you could carry, but we later tailored this to the storyline of the Steam release.
https://youtu.be/gpuA289fArg


After a month of failed prototyping for another project, we went back to the Millions of Minions project and decided to take this to the next level, and get it onto Steam. One thing that we are countlessly talking about is this fact that NO preparation was done and that was a large reason for our downfall.

[h2]GOEST, A NEW MEMBER[/h2]
Itd be wrong not to mention our previous lead programmer. Goest was able to fill a void that we couldnt fill with three of us. With Goest, our systems were refined to be readable and maintainable. Its honestly crazy how much help you can get from a single person. Goest has saved us many hours of work and completely improved the workflow of our project. Without him, I can imagine this release would have been delayed to as late as next year. If youre reading this Goest. Thank you.


[h2]BECOMING OFFICIAL[/h2]
By December, we had a public demo to show everybody: the whole world. I cant even fathom how cool this feeling was. I had released games before, but it really felt like we were doing something even more extraordinary, and we were. Later that month, Head Tilt Games was an official business, and our Steam page was created. All of this came at once, so whilst it was quite overwhelming: one thing kept us going. We were doing what we loved, we were doing exactly what we had envisioned when we had started game development. I cannot put into words how enthralled I felt upon these events.


[h2]GETTING FEEDBACK[/h2]
After these events, content creators started playing our game, I was featured on a couple of podcasts, and everything just kept going. Our website was finally looking fairly clean, the Steam page was almost perfect and we were met with a lot of good feedback. Including some really constructive feedback.

Although, one piece of feedback we received countless times was how it reminded them of Binding of Isaac. Whilst this isnt a bad thing by any stretch, we wanted our game to be unique. It was with this that we put more of an emphasis on the minions: allowing you to unlock abilities for them, upgrade them, and purchase other upgrades to enhance the players experience.


[h2]LOSING A MEMBER[/h2]
A month before we were scheduled for release, a member of the team departed Head Tilt Games. His reasoning was justified but it still hit us hard, at least it did for me. One thing I learnt though, was to make sure you knew as much as you could about how systems they create work. On a more broad note, ensure you know what the person is doing and how theyre doing it.

[h2]POOR MARKETING[/h2]
Something that Ive realised is that our release probably wont be the most smooth. I cant imagine it going viral. We didnt really market the game as much as we should have and its a true shame. Even with my YouTube channel, I didnt promote it enough. Its hard to predict this as we are going to make sure that this next month will be our marketing month.

[h2]PRESENT[/h2]
That leads us to now; 8 months into development, with an almost complete commercial game. Here are our thoughts on the development as a whole:

Most of the planning and organizing was done spur of the moment, but as development continued, we started to get to know Millions Of Minions, and each other. We learned how to work together, and how to manage ourselves as well as the team to create a game. - Ectho.

At first, we only had some ideas and temporary plans for the game, and didn't really know what we wanted to do with the project, though later on, it quickly became our main project as we all liked and enjoyed working on it. The last 8 months of development were a big journey and a really good experience, as the game is almost complete at this point. - Spitzy.

I wish we would have planned more but Im glad we have still been able to make a game that I am proud of. Its been a weird rollercoaster, honestly. From weird marketing strategies, to poor planning: Ive learnt so much from this. - Matt.

[h2]Thank you for reading[/h2]
I cant explain how much it means to me, personally, knowing that somebody is interested in the process. It would mean so much to us if we could get to 300 wishlists: currently at 164. Go here to wishlist the game. You can also support us by pre-ordering via our website (more expensive than EA will be, but is a good way of supporting us), or signing up to our mailing list.

Hello everyone, been a while huh? My name's Matt; founder of Head Tilt Games!

[h2]Where have we been?[/h2]
As you can imagine, things have been hectic leading up to the release and we've had to pull some strings here and there. Our new marketing campaign doesn't really cater to development blogs like this one but we'd like to change that! These strange times haven't affected Millions of Minions development luckily due to the nature of our remote work. In fact, our productivity has been on the rise!

[h2]"Millions of Minions Weekly?"[/h2]
To make up to our absence, we will be doing weekly development blogs on here from now until our completion of the project which we hope will be a very short time after release. In these, you will see some sneak peeks, announcements to awesome things to come, and what we've been up to.

[h2]NEW Demo[/h2]
It'd be stupid not to start with one of the biggest events that has happened this past couple of months. Our goal when we released our first demo was initially to only release one version. However, through experience, we learnt that is NOT the way you should do things. Instead, we decided to release a final, press-release-suitable version towards the end of development. The version we just released is one of the final versions we will be releasing prior to release.



[h2]Marketing Campaign[/h2]
Onto the marketing campaign! Me and Ectho (lead artist) have recently made the decision to devote ourselves to promoting our works a bit more thoroughly. This includes weekly uploads on our YouTube, and twice-weekly posts on Twitter and Instagram. Whilst Twitter and Instagram are more sneak peek and development related, our YouTube channel is for the general audience. Our new campaign also includes getting one content creator to play our game, per week. We've been lucky enough to get in contact with people like Bandsmen Games and THE ULTIMATE DESTROYER.

[previewyoutube=TeeYoDltNnM;leftthumb][/previewyoutube][previewyoutube=H9JGPReIxWQ;rightthumb][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Merchant System[/h2]
Something that has been suggested from people's reactions, has been to change secret rooms. Previously, secret rooms were super hard to spot -- especially when hurt; and they were pretty... dull.

It's with this that we have begun prototyping a merchant system! The entrance that was present for the secret room has now been removed. Finally, there is only one maximum merchant per dungeon.



[h2]Final Words[/h2]
Before heading off, I want to quickly ask you to spread the word of the game wherever you can. We are hoping to release late next month but we would appreciate your help to be as successful as possible.

See you next week!

My name is Mattabulous and I am the founder of Head Tilt Games. Today, I'm going to tell you about what has been going on in the past month!

[h2]DEMO SUPPORT[/h2]
We've had so much support recently; and we could not be more grateful. We've had multiple content creators making content for the game; and people are already loving the new look, feel, and updates we've made.



Make sure to check out: ExodusGA and Ethrilis; they're support has been immeasurable and hearing their interest in the game is absolutely exhilarating.

[h2]LIGHTING CHANGES[/h2]
Probably the biggest change throughout all of development, quite honestly. Adding this lighting has given the game a huge amount of depth and it's crazy to think that me, a non-artist, was the main person behind the change (I know, mad!). It's only thanks to Max from Glitchers as he suggested it!

Through normal maps, we've been able to make the tiles feel more '3D-like' which I believe makes the game super immersive.



[h2]DUNGEON KEY[/h2]
Despite the art not being in place, the key system is set! What is the key system? Essentially, it gives you more of a reason to explore the dungeon. A random enemy is given the key and you need to defeat this enemy to receive it. Once you get this key, you can then walk into the boss room and defeat the boss!



[h2]RESTARTING[/h2]
Restarting will no longer restart you from the beginning of the game. Permadeath is a bit rough... Sorry! There will, however, be a mode in which you can play the game in permadeath as I know how many players would love to have that extra difficulty.

[h2]MULTIPLAYER[/h2]
This should be kept PRETTY quiet but I can't really hold myself back. There's nothing we can show for this but I'll give you a couple of details. Local multiplayer will be in the game upon release! Unlike other dungeon crawlers, every player will have the same abilities and player 2 won't be treated as a sidekick. This should make the game a little easier, but not to the point where you can fly through the game. We will ensure extensive testing takes place for this feature as we want it to be as balanced as possible.

[h2]DOORNAIL[/h2]
Nobody likes this guy. Like genuinely nobody. We attempted to make him harder but this change may be reverted in future. His difficulty has been met with mixed signals so it's hard to gauge. However, we do know that he needs to be made slightly easier as the demo is the FIRST level of the game.



[h2]SEE YOU NEXT MONTH[/h2]
Thank you so much for reading this devblog; don't forget to follow our social media for exclusive sneak peeks!

• Discord
  
• Reddit
  
• Twitter
  
• Website
  

Thank you for the support!
Before we start, I'd like to personally thank you all for the support you've given us and the team! At the time of writing, we are at 91 wishlists! That's crazy! Thank you.

What's new?
So... what's actually changed?

• [h2]FEATURES[/h2]
  
• Boss count upped to 4!
  
• Dungeon generation system revamped
  
• Secret rooms (cracks in walls)
  
• Health and mana packs (found in the secret rooms)
  
• New minimap system
  
• Mana system
  
• New minion handling (no longer just clicking)
  
• Storyline (voiced and illustrated, subtitles coming soon!).
  
• Balancing (lots of testing...), should be SLIGHTLY easier.
  
• New tutorial!
  
• Controller support
  
• Melee swipes rather than stabs (may revert in future)
  
• Warning marker where an enemy will spawn
  
• Mana system (used for spawning minions and will be used for abilities)
  
• Removed bug report UI
  
• Revamped many systems to ensure maintainability of the project.
  
• Menu remade once again
  
• More impact when locked in a room
  
• Lifetime for minions and Big Kisser projectiles
  
• Fog effect to add some more depth to rooms
  
  
• [h2]BUG FIXES[/h2]
  
• Fixed wonky knockback
  
• Optimisation updates -- constantly at 60FPS+ on all tested PCs
  
• Minions no longer face the wrong direction when launched
  
• Dungeons no longer generate with no exit (hopefully)
  
• Audio slider is now accurate
  
• Doors no longer close too fast
  
• Deadends are now properly signified in the minimap
  

DEVBLOG #2
My name is Mattabulous and I am the founder of Head Tilt Games. Today, I'm going to tell you about what we've been up to in the past month!

[h2]Demotivated[/h2]
This past month has been quite slow, and has only begun picking up again recently. This is a result of it being 'that month'. None of us are in the proper game dev mood, but thats okay! It's worth noting that this blog will probably be shorter than others. I'm writing this whilst I'm taking a break from my PC as a whole; currently in a car on my way home from Sweden! This was a much-needed break and I am already beginning to feel more creative juices flowing again. Ectho's clearly been flowing with creativity recently, because he's been making GitHub commits like there is no tomorrow!

[h2]Bosses[/h2]
There's some really cool things going on in the background. More specifically on Ectho's computer. He has been working on the first UNIQUE boss. The first boss is called Death Robes, and despite it being tempting, I won't be showing you what he looks like yet. You'll just have to wait for the demo later this month (keep reading for more info on this!).


[h2]Storyline[/h2]
Me and Ectho have a fair amount of experience with storytelling so it only makes sense that we work on the story. We've been working very closely with each other and this has resulted in a prologue being made. The prologue is a fully illustrated, voiced and subtitled (in development) section at the start of the game that fills the player in with what the story entails. It also includes a soundtrack made by the talented Scotty Rich, I paid him some money and he got straight to work!


[h2]Rework of Systems[/h2]
We have collectively been trying to rework everything for maintainability reasons which will allow us to implement more features, quicker. One of the features we've added after this rework has been the warning before enemies spawning which gives players the chance to react to the enemies and prepare for the onslaught. This new feature has also brought along 'waves'. Waves give the game an extra dimension of difficulty; where multiple waves of enemies are spawned before you can proceed. This obviously wouldn't work with the generation system we had in place so Ectho reworked some of it and implemented the ability for us to add maximum and a minimum amount of rooms in the dungeon.


[h2]Balancing[/h2]
In our previous demo, we had a lot of feedback saying how difficult the 'lips guy' was. After a lot of reworking, the Big Kisser is now in an easier state and should allow the player to actually beat them. We hope these changes will allow you to beat the enemies as a whole a lot easier.

[h2]Demo releasing soon[/h2]
It's coming to that time again where we release a public demo! In just under 2 weeks, we'll have another demo out on Steam where you'll be able to properly see in what direction the game is going in! Please stay tuned by wishlisting the game!

[h2]Future plans[/h2]
Next week, I am attending PlayEXPO Margate so we are currently working hard to provide an experience for the attendees. The hope is that we'll receive crucial feedback, more wishlists and increase hype for the product. We are also hoping to completely finish the first area of the game so we can get to work on the second area soon! Ectho is going to be reworking more assets to ensure that this area is perfect.

[h2]Thanks for reading[/h2]
I hope you enjoyed reading this blog! We cannot wait to hear your feedback when the demo releases in a couple of weeks! See you in the next blog in March!

FIRST STEAM BLOG!
My name is Mattabulous and I am the founder of Head Tilt Games. Today, I'm going to tell you about what we've been up to in the past month!

[h2]Incorporating our business[/h2]
We are now an official business. This was the first step towards a goal that I will be informing you all about shortly. As a result, we can now brag to all our friends... I'm just kidding! Now, we can actually earn money and have a legal standpoint! This was a huge moment for all of us: for me, it's my dream to be self-employed and so, this is really important. We were all just as excited, though, of course.

[h2]Musician[/h2]
We now have an official musician working for us, allowing us to ask of his help when necessary. He believes in the project too: which a contracted musician may have found more difficult. In the long-term, we should have a complete soundtrack for the game because everyone knows how important music is in a game!

[h2]Website[/h2]
Over the course of the month, I used Wix to create our website. Initially, I was going to teach myself how to make a website through the use of HTML, CSS, and JS. However, this wasn't very feasible because at this time, we were also working towards a Steam page release by the end of the year. I'll get onto that shortly. The website came out really well, and I'm proud that I did it in a fairly short time. It does what it needs to do: and for now, it's good for us.
Finally, we also have a merch store now so you can flex on everyone with official clothing that we've designed for you all to wear! REPRESENT!
You can view the website here, and the merch store here.

[h2]Demo release[/h2]
As stated in the previous blog, we were working towards a tight deadline. We were working towards releasing version 0.2 for the public. Thinking back on it, we should have delayed the demo but we didn't think that'd be very fair on everyone as we had hyped it up so much. The demo itself was met with pretty good feedback: and we were given really insightful suggestions.
Our dedicated tester team were extremely helpful and we received loads of feedback including how we could balance the game better, bugs they encountered and much more.
We also saw the first content creator playing our game: this was insanely cool to watch and I felt like a kid after getting a whole bucket of candy: it was literally unbelievable and none of us could really believe it (Thank you Buraflux!).

[h2]Steam page (and the pains we went through)[/h2]
This was, by far, the best highlight of last month. As I mentioned in the previous blog, Ectho was busy working on the Steam assets for the page. He did an amazing job at that, here's just one amazing piece!
I also mentioned that we were raising money for the page, and we were able to successfully do that. On the 21st, we paid the submission fee. However, we were met with irritating issues with banks. My Dad is managing that side of things, and he applied for a UK-only bank, which resulted in us having to wait another day for an international bank, that was online-based too. We were able to find one luckily: it's called Starling Bank and I would recommend it to people in a similar situation as we are in.
After a few days, I was able to correctly fill out the forms and set up payment procedures and tax information. Then, we had to do another week of waiting..
31st of December, we were finally able to edit the page and within 5 or 6 hours, I had the page completed! It's also worth noting that I was on holiday to celebrate New Years (an annual tradition for our family) so I had that taking up a fair bit of time anyways. Despite this, everything went smoothly... kinda. Luckily, the internet exists.
In essence, we did technically commit to our goals... 8 days into 2020, and we had the page up and running. YOU CAN WISHLIST IT ON HERE!

[h2]Next steps[/h2]
We now have a set goal in mind, after several discussions, and over the next month: we should get ourselves on the right track.

Ectho will be recreating the assets as he has improved his digital art over the past few months. Although, we are unsure to what extent this recreation will reach to at the moment.

Spitzy will be reworking how the map works, and possibly making it into a smaller, dynamic, minimap that's always on the HUD. We noticed that many people ignored the map, but those who found it were able to easily navigate.

Goest is going to be refactoring a lot of code, and has even worked on a programming guide to ensure we all stick to the same conventions. This should also allow us to implement more abilities at ease.

I will be working on a select menu for a certain thing that I can't tell you about just yet. We are hoping that this should make the gameplay a lot more fluid and really alter how the gameplay feels. Drastically.

We have also thought about the possibility to publish a Kickstarter page but we will wait for your feedback on that one. This is because we have a business now and we've got to stay afloat -- this isn't just a passion, it's a genuine job.

[h2]Notes[/h2]
Next month, February, I will be attending the PlayEXPO Margate convention in the UK. If you are close-by, feel free to check it out as you'll be able to play exclusive builds of the game that nobody else will have played (other than testers).
Also, I will be on holiday again from the 2nd to the 9th of February so a blog will be out on the 1st!

[h2]Thank you for reading[/h2]

I hope you enjoyed this blog! As said last time, I will be doing a blog a month. I may start releasing dev blogs once a month on Blogger too (just a copy of this!) so you have the option to choose what you'd rather follow us on.

Feel free to follow and wishlist the game!