A lighthearted adventure story game by Lori and Corey Cole, creators of Quest for Glory, Hero-U, and Castle of Dr. Brain.
This post is for backers only. Please visit Kickstarter.com and log in to read.
Hello, dear friends and backers!
It’s been a while since I updated because the last two months were mostly taken up by illnesses in the family. Lori and I are pretty sure we caught Covid-19 Omicron B.5 variant in early August, even though we tested negative a few weeks later. I’m still recovering.
We are this close to a backer-only launch of Summer Daze: Tilly’s Tale. I’ve requested one final fix - to an audio issue with the closing credits movie - and build before I share the game with all of you! The game is now fully playable, with no known game-stopping bugs.
The initial backer-only launch will be only on Windows, likely through Steam. I also have Graham working on getting the MacOS version on TestFlight, Apple’s beta testing platform. We’ve done approximately zero testing of the Mac build, so that will definitely be an adventure in indie game testing!
Lori and I are streaming on our Twitch channel, https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames, this Saturday starting at 2 pm PDT. The theme is, “Don’t Fall For It!” We’ll have tree puns, and talk about unreliable narrators such as Bruno in Quest for Glory 1. I believe that “negative inferences” give as much, or more, information that positive ones. Just because someone is lying to you, that doesn’t mean you can’t learn something useful from them.
In other news, Lori and I are working on an inventory of Hero-U merchandise. Once we're done with that, we'll be able to offer some of it for sale on the http://www.hero-u.com/ website.
Lori and I are streaming on Twitch in just under an hour. Join us if you can, or check out the VOD afterwards.
The stream starts at 2 pm PDT (GMT -8) at https://www.twitch.tv/transolargames.
We'll be talking about Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale and showing some of the game. Did I mention that I made an executive decision to remove "at Hero-U" from the game title to keep it a little tighter and focused on the main character?
Why is the game still "coming soon" when Lori finished writing it in December 2020, and we started playtesting about a year ago? There are many reasons, ranging from external disruptions to our tiny team, to "Good things take time."
We've fixed many issues found by our beta testers, as well as things a tester can't be expected to realize are wrong:
My quandary has been that I want to get the game into backers' hands as soon as we can, but I don't want to deliver an incomplete, and possibly unsatisfying experience. As soon as we stop finding issues that impact enjoyment of the game, we'll send out game keys to all backers.
In the meantime, if you're an alpha or beta tester, it would be awesome if you would revisit the game with an eye towards inconsistent or possibly incomplete sequences. Example: You talk with Kalbin about providing food for the harvest festival, but when a character asks Tilly if she has thought about food, she says, "I haven't talked to the chef yet." That's an easily fixed issue, but sometimes tricky to realize anything is wrong. If it doesn't feel right, that might be because it isn't right. :-)
What we do not plan to do at this point is to add any additional dialogue to the game. That's the challenge with having a fully-voiced game - We can't simply add lines late in the process.
I think I mentioned in the last update that GOG.com has opted out of distributing Summer Daze: Tilly's Tale. We'll make arrangements for backers who requested a GOG key to either get direct download from our itch.io page, switch to Steam, or possibly another site. We're looking into Epic Games, for example.
Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS versions are temporarily on hold. We'll work on those after the PC releases (Windows, Mac, Linux). More on that in future updates.
We're streaming tomorrow on Twitch. For more info, visit https://www.patreon.com/posts/64908682. Come join us for foolishness and participatory games.
Backer early access to Tilly's Tale on Stream is "any day now." We have a new build that I think will be the one, but I need to do some more testing before I declare it as "ready."
We are missing some voice lines, but I won't hold up backer release for that.
Tilly's Tale is a finalist in the AT&T Unlocked Games contest!
AT&T recently started a competition for women game developers that they call "AT&T Unlocked Games." We entered their second competition last November, and were thrilled to learn that Summer Daze at Hero-U: Tilly's Tale has been chosen as one of the six finalists!
The winners will be announced during a livestream on Tuesday, March 8 starting at 5:00 pm PST on the ATT Twitch channel - Twitch.tv/ATT.
Part of the stream is a viewer poll for the Gamer's Choice prize. We hope many of you will attend to show your love for Lori and the Hero-U games. <3
Here's AT&T's teaser trailer for the event:
Our small team meets weekly to go over the latest art and programming. I thought you might enjoy seeing some of JP's work in progress.
This is Mombera MacGillicuddy, the Warrior instructor at Hero-U. Half-Simbani and half Heelander, he cuts quite a figure in his traditional Heeland kilt and Simbani fighting spear. (That's Masai from the Kenya area, and the highlands of Scotland for those who prefer Earth analogues to Gloriana locations.)
Mombera will be an important character in Summer Daze at Hero-U: Sami's Story if we manage to make that game. Currently the art and animation are well ahead of the writing, programming, and testing because it's hard to do the last two until the first two are done. Sami is a lovable, brave, and strong Corgi Warrior. We're really looking forward to having his charming presence in a Summer Daze at Hero-U game.
Here's one of Mombera's animation sequences in progress. JP draws each frame individually, adjusts them to animate perfectly, then paints the frames. It's a time-consuming process, but leads to beautiful results.
As I mentioned in the previous update, we've pushed back both the game release and the early access release for backers. This is due to some stubborn bugs in the La Boomba! mini-game. As that game is on the critical path for one of the character relationships, we need to fix it before we can release even an early access version of the game. Besides, La Boomba! is as charming and fun as Tilly. :-)
At a guess, figure late March to early April for backer release.
We just got some bad news that will affect backers expecting to get Tilly's Tale on GOG.com. At least for now, they feel it's too much of a niche game for their site. As a result, initial release will be only on Steam, and Smilegate Stove in Korea. We'll port it to the Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android after PC launch on Steam. Due to our very small team, we can't test all of the versions at the same time.
I'll keep you up to date if the situation changes, but for now, no GOG release. Voting for Summer Daze in the AT&T Unlocked Games livestream may help. Wishlisting the game on GOG could also be useful.