^^ New features ^^

So, whilst LITERALLY EVERYONE I KNOW is playing Fallout 4, I've started work on the next part of the dev cycle. This worked well in Early Access, so I'm going to continue it for the foreseeable future.

I use 3 main branches; Bleeding Edge, Beta, and Mainline.

• In the Steam client, right click on the game in the games list, and select “properties.”
  
• Select the “betas” tab.
  
• Select the appropriate branch. If you can't see any, restart Steam and curse Gaben quietly.
  
• Close the properties dialog.
  
• Click “play” to launch the game.

There should be no circumstances under which you need to start a new world - if this is the case, I will be absolutely clear that this has to happen. It hasn't yet. #planahead

Then progression will generally look like this:

This is often an UNTESTED build, and is usually a snapshot after a feature has been completed, or when there's something I suspect might need some testing.
Absolutely ALWAYS back up your world before running a new Bleeding Edge build.
Once it's been in Bleeding Edge and no-one has screamed at me for breaking things too much (I've got about a 90% success rate so far...), then it'll get moved

Beta should be considered 'reasonably safe'. At least one other person before you will have run it on an existing world and not had it destroy it.
Again, I absolutely recommend you make backups of your world.

The iteration is roughly 1 Bleeding Edge patch a day, and 1 Beta patch a week. After around 3 weeks of this cycle, the code tends to get locked down, new features stop going in, a little tidy-up and polish happens, annoying bugs get fixed, then we move into....


This is what you get if you aren't opted into any steampipe betas. It's old and busted and quite frankly always rubbish compared to the cutting-edge builds. I'll be aiming to update this approximately once a month.


Once a feature has done the rounds through testing, the community and arrived in mainline, it's generally a tad late. It's done. If you want to be heavily involved in the direction of the game, please absolutely wade into the betas, tell me what's broken, what's needed, what has to change. I'll argue with you, but I generally back down once 50 or 60 people tell me I'm wrong. Ahem.

Hop along to here if you want to: see what's new in today's Bleeding Edge update:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/496880503081600266/

Hope to see you there!

^^ New features ^^

So, whilst LITERALLY EVERYONE I KNOW is playing Fallout 4, I've started work on the next part of the dev cycle. This worked well in Early Access, so I'm going to continue it for the foreseeable future.

I use 3 main branches; Bleeding Edge, Beta, and Mainline.

• In the Steam client, right click on the game in the games list, and select “properties.”
  
• Select the “betas” tab.
  
• Select the appropriate branch. If you can't see any, restart Steam and curse Gaben quietly.
  
• Close the properties dialog.
  
• Click “play” to launch the game.

There should be no circumstances under which you need to start a new world - if this is the case, I will be absolutely clear that this has to happen. It hasn't yet. #planahead

Then progression will generally look like this:

This is often an UNTESTED build, and is usually a snapshot after a feature has been completed, or when there's something I suspect might need some testing.
Absolutely ALWAYS back up your world before running a new Bleeding Edge build.
Once it's been in Bleeding Edge and no-one has screamed at me for breaking things too much (I've got about a 90% success rate so far...), then it'll get moved

Beta should be considered 'reasonably safe'. At least one other person before you will have run it on an existing world and not had it destroy it.
Again, I absolutely recommend you make backups of your world.

The iteration is roughly 1 Bleeding Edge patch a day, and 1 Beta patch a week. After around 3 weeks of this cycle, the code tends to get locked down, new features stop going in, a little tidy-up and polish happens, annoying bugs get fixed, then we move into....


This is what you get if you aren't opted into any steampipe betas. It's old and busted and quite frankly always rubbish compared to the cutting-edge builds. I'll be aiming to update this approximately once a month.


Once a feature has done the rounds through testing, the community and arrived in mainline, it's generally a tad late. It's done. If you want to be heavily involved in the direction of the game, please absolutely wade into the betas, tell me what's broken, what's needed, what has to change. I'll argue with you, but I generally back down once 50 or 60 people tell me I'm wrong. Ahem.

Hop along to here if you want to: see what's new in today's Bleeding Edge update:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/496880503081600266/

Hope to see you there!

After 24 very, very long months, FortressCraft has finally left Early Access.

No.

Part of the reason for leaving Early Access is the massive change in the Steam landscape since we entered Early Access.
Touted as a place to put unfinished games and get feedback from the community, many games haven't lived up to this expectation, with broken games, abandoned games and 'oh we aren't making enough money to finish it, it's done now!' games. You know who you are ;)

We used to get continual negative reviews and feedback, telling us the game isn't finished - the entire point of Early Access was to be a safe harbour to develop our game in the public eye. Sadly, this isn't the case.
To this end, we've spent the majority of the last 8 weeks focussing heavily on polish and new player experience, and today, the game is ready to unveil to the world!

No.

FortressCraft is a game with a vast, vast scope, a scope that we've barely scratched.


Right now, the game will take a new player between 200 and 300 hours to complete (completion being defined as successfully fending off the mob attacks to the point where the Orbital Power Transmitter is fully charged. Once you've hit the point of automating the Jet Turbines (around 150 hours in), there is a bit of a technology gap; that'll be the first area of focus.

I've had the great privilege to work on many high profile, award-winning AAA titles in my time. Not a single one of them was 'complete' - we had a window in which we needed to write and release the game, and at the end of it, it came out. Every single game that every developer ships is not finished. There's always a million and one things that got cut, that one feature that everyone on the team was clamouring for, but there just wasn't time. FortressCraft is no different - but because this is a digital game, not one shipped on a disc on a PS/2, I can continue to patch, tweak and modify the game.

"Games are never finished - they merely escape"


I'm a huge believer in 'games as a service' - I want to continue working on FortressCraft for a very long time. Assuming I can afford to, I'd like to work my way through a vast, vast list of new features that I've accumulated over the last half a decade, when I first started the original FortressCraft on the Xbox 360! PCs are also gonna be a lot faster in another half-decade, and I'd very much like to take advantage of that.


I've been avoiding adding in any new tiers of machines in this recent polish phase. One of my initial focuses will be a wider variety of options for the player progression; Coal Enrichment, upgradable SpiderBot modules, and a wider variety of base-harrassing enemies, as well as a shedload of new ideas, feedback and features from a hopefully growing community. I'd also like to really revisit the concept of base threat and TD attacks.


Over the last 2 years, we've averaged one patch pushed live every 1.8 days. As long as I'm continuing to work on the game, there's no reason to alter the release cycle; Bleeding Edge is basically updated when I've got a working local build, which then moves into Beta after a couple of days with no OH DEAR GOD IT'S BROKEN feedback. One week out of every 4 is generally a feature lockdown, when the patches go into more extensive testing phase. After that, it goes to mainline, I tidy up any little oversights on my part, and the cycle starts again.

These are the currently planned features. There's at least a couple of years' work here...

• Dedicated servers with headless support, remote admin and Linux.
  
• Vehicles. Think Mole Machines and you're on the right track.
  
• Fluid, piping and pumps for water, lava, rocket fuel, etc
  
• Rocket building and simulation; orbital cargo loading ("Kerbal Lite")
  
• Space Station building; transport to and from your Space Station
  
• More Surface Biomes with unique materials
  
• Multiblock Laser Power Transmitters; lethal to stand in, range of 256+ metres
  
• Coal Refinery and Enrichment; the first choice in alternatives to the current power progression.
  
• Geothermal Energy; utilising the heat differential between the surface and the Magma Caverns.
  
• Nuclear Energy; requires having successfully navigated past the Magma Caverns, almost 2km underground.
  
• Multiblock Ore Extractors
  
• Trains, offering high speed, high capacity transport over vast distances.
  
• More Base-harassing enemies
  
• Improved Tower-Defence attacks; EMP wasps, better route finding, tunnelling mobs, persistent hive mobs and spawns.
  
• Higher tiers of Laser Turrets, including larger Multiblock Laser Turrets
  
• Higher tiers of Missile Turrets
  
• More ARTHER Upgrades!
  
• Full SpiderBot upgrade, including movement speed, secondary AA laser turrets and boss-destroying missile systems, and in-field missile reloading bots
  
• Automated Remote Collection of drops by robots
  
• Suit upgrade interface
  
• Entities to support keeping graphics live outside of graphical range (LPTs, Lifts, Builders)
  
• Dedicated server support and Invite Steam Friends
  
• Multiple bases with permissions and Friend-Or-Foe settings on turrets
  
• Growth into fully-fledged Base Vs Base mechanics.
  
• Workshop support (Mere words cannot express how difficult and un-fun this feature is!)

This is a question I can't answer. I can tell you WHY I'll stop working on the game, tho.


The main reason is money; at the release price of $12, I need to average about 75 sales a day in order to be self-sufficient. Whilst that doesn't really seem like a lot of sales, we've averaged less than half of those numbers to this point, and to be perfectly blunt, I really can't continue to live on that. (For those of you who are good with multiplying, that probably seems like a HUGE amount of money! Once Valve, the publisher and the taxman have taken their cut, I'm left with a terrifingly small pool of cash)

I wish I was in a position to just work on this game forever - I absolutely love FortressCraft, and if it wasn't my own game, I'd absolutely play the shit out of it. However, the harsh reality is that this is my dayjob, not a hobby - FortressCraft hasn't been profitable the entire time it's been in Early Access, and there's a definite window outside of which I'm going to end up on the streets.

I hope you like the game I've put together, and I look forwards to seeing you all on the forums and letting me know what you think of the game!

PS For those of you interested in 'what else I'm doing', then you might like to pop a follow onto : twitter.com/tacticsforever/ - this is what I spend my days off working on!

After 24 very, very long months, FortressCraft has finally left Early Access.

No.

Part of the reason for leaving Early Access is the massive change in the Steam landscape since we entered Early Access.
Touted as a place to put unfinished games and get feedback from the community, many games haven't lived up to this expectation, with broken games, abandoned games and 'oh we aren't making enough money to finish it, it's done now!' games. You know who you are ;)

We used to get continual negative reviews and feedback, telling us the game isn't finished - the entire point of Early Access was to be a safe harbour to develop our game in the public eye. Sadly, this isn't the case.
To this end, we've spent the majority of the last 8 weeks focussing heavily on polish and new player experience, and today, the game is ready to unveil to the world!

No.

FortressCraft is a game with a vast, vast scope, a scope that we've barely scratched.


Right now, the game will take a new player between 200 and 300 hours to complete (completion being defined as successfully fending off the mob attacks to the point where the Orbital Power Transmitter is fully charged. Once you've hit the point of automating the Jet Turbines (around 150 hours in), there is a bit of a technology gap; that'll be the first area of focus.

I've had the great privilege to work on many high profile, award-winning AAA titles in my time. Not a single one of them was 'complete' - we had a window in which we needed to write and release the game, and at the end of it, it came out. Every single game that every developer ships is not finished. There's always a million and one things that got cut, that one feature that everyone on the team was clamouring for, but there just wasn't time. FortressCraft is no different - but because this is a digital game, not one shipped on a disc on a PS/2, I can continue to patch, tweak and modify the game.

"Games are never finished - they merely escape"


I'm a huge believer in 'games as a service' - I want to continue working on FortressCraft for a very long time. Assuming I can afford to, I'd like to work my way through a vast, vast list of new features that I've accumulated over the last half a decade, when I first started the original FortressCraft on the Xbox 360! PCs are also gonna be a lot faster in another half-decade, and I'd very much like to take advantage of that.


I've been avoiding adding in any new tiers of machines in this recent polish phase. One of my initial focuses will be a wider variety of options for the player progression; Coal Enrichment, upgradable SpiderBot modules, and a wider variety of base-harrassing enemies, as well as a shedload of new ideas, feedback and features from a hopefully growing community. I'd also like to really revisit the concept of base threat and TD attacks.


Over the last 2 years, we've averaged one patch pushed live every 1.8 days. As long as I'm continuing to work on the game, there's no reason to alter the release cycle; Bleeding Edge is basically updated when I've got a working local build, which then moves into Beta after a couple of days with no OH DEAR GOD IT'S BROKEN feedback. One week out of every 4 is generally a feature lockdown, when the patches go into more extensive testing phase. After that, it goes to mainline, I tidy up any little oversights on my part, and the cycle starts again.

These are the currently planned features. There's at least a couple of years' work here...

• Dedicated servers with headless support, remote admin and Linux.
  
• Vehicles. Think Mole Machines and you're on the right track.
  
• Fluid, piping and pumps for water, lava, rocket fuel, etc
  
• Rocket building and simulation; orbital cargo loading ("Kerbal Lite")
  
• Space Station building; transport to and from your Space Station
  
• More Surface Biomes with unique materials
  
• Multiblock Laser Power Transmitters; lethal to stand in, range of 256+ metres
  
• Coal Refinery and Enrichment; the first choice in alternatives to the current power progression.
  
• Geothermal Energy; utilising the heat differential between the surface and the Magma Caverns.
  
• Nuclear Energy; requires having successfully navigated past the Magma Caverns, almost 2km underground.
  
• Multiblock Ore Extractors
  
• Trains, offering high speed, high capacity transport over vast distances.
  
• More Base-harassing enemies
  
• Improved Tower-Defence attacks; EMP wasps, better route finding, tunnelling mobs, persistent hive mobs and spawns.
  
• Higher tiers of Laser Turrets, including larger Multiblock Laser Turrets
  
• Higher tiers of Missile Turrets
  
• More ARTHER Upgrades!
  
• Full SpiderBot upgrade, including movement speed, secondary AA laser turrets and boss-destroying missile systems, and in-field missile reloading bots
  
• Automated Remote Collection of drops by robots
  
• Suit upgrade interface
  
• Entities to support keeping graphics live outside of graphical range (LPTs, Lifts, Builders)
  
• Dedicated server support and Invite Steam Friends
  
• Multiple bases with permissions and Friend-Or-Foe settings on turrets
  
• Growth into fully-fledged Base Vs Base mechanics.
  
• Workshop support (Mere words cannot express how difficult and un-fun this feature is!)

This is a question I can't answer. I can tell you WHY I'll stop working on the game, tho.


The main reason is money; at the release price of $12, I need to average about 75 sales a day in order to be self-sufficient. Whilst that doesn't really seem like a lot of sales, we've averaged less than half of those numbers to this point, and to be perfectly blunt, I really can't continue to live on that. (For those of you who are good with multiplying, that probably seems like a HUGE amount of money! Once Valve, the publisher and the taxman have taken their cut, I'm left with a terrifingly small pool of cash)

I wish I was in a position to just work on this game forever - I absolutely love FortressCraft, and if it wasn't my own game, I'd absolutely play the shit out of it. However, the harsh reality is that this is my dayjob, not a hobby - FortressCraft hasn't been profitable the entire time it's been in Early Access, and there's a definite window outside of which I'm going to end up on the streets.

I hope you like the game I've put together, and I look forwards to seeing you all on the forums and letting me know what you think of the game!

PS For those of you interested in 'what else I'm doing', then you might like to pop a follow onto : twitter.com/tacticsforever/ - this is what I spend my days off working on!

If you opt into the Bleeding Edge build, you'll get the final release a couple of days ahead of release.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/523897653295711315/

The build will move to Beta in about 24 hours, then to mainline another 24 hours from them. Then I can FINALLY get on with implementing new stuff again!


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/391045911813749636/7B2CB4233CB10C1D5C83037224C8E596D2A6A98F/

If you opt into the Bleeding Edge build, you'll get the final release a couple of days ahead of release.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/254200/discussions/0/523897653295711315/

The build will move to Beta in about 24 hours, then to mainline another 24 hours from them. Then I can FINALLY get on with implementing new stuff again!


http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/391045911813749636/7B2CB4233CB10C1D5C83037224C8E596D2A6A98F/

There will be another minor patch on Saturday, and I expect to spend the majority of the day playing and livestreaming the game.

Last chance to get your Early Adopter achievement!

There will be another minor patch on Saturday, and I expect to spend the majority of the day playing and livestreaming the game.

Last chance to get your Early Adopter achievement!

So, just going to fill you all in on The Plan.

All dates subject to slippage ;-)

• The current test patch will go into Bleeding Edge on the 27th of October.
  
• There's plans for a network test session to regress out all the multiple early progress issues on the 29th of October
  
• If no major issues are found, then the Bleeding Edge patch will be promoted to Beta on the 29th/30th
  
• We then have a weekend of testing - this patch has been low risk improvements and polish. If nothing comes up, this patch will go to mainline on the 2nd of November.

Our current date for coming out of Early Access is the 9th of November - this gives a week after the patch goes live before the world will turn its beady eye to the game.

There may not be an actual patch for this date - with SOME luck, the 2nd of November patch will be good enough, and we're done! (This is known as a stealth-launch or soft-launch)

As ever, I'll continue to work the game based on feedback from the community - fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!

Apologies that the last few weeks has been pretty boring - the focus has been entirely on the new player experience, the handbook, glitches and bugs that have been sitting around for months. What I REALLY want to do is start work on the new multiblock turrets, the multi-shot defence launchers and the Orbital Cargo Rockets, but these are gonna have to wait until after we're shipped.

So, just going to fill you all in on The Plan.

All dates subject to slippage ;-)

• The current test patch will go into Bleeding Edge on the 27th of October.
  
• There's plans for a network test session to regress out all the multiple early progress issues on the 29th of October
  
• If no major issues are found, then the Bleeding Edge patch will be promoted to Beta on the 29th/30th
  
• We then have a weekend of testing - this patch has been low risk improvements and polish. If nothing comes up, this patch will go to mainline on the 2nd of November.

Our current date for coming out of Early Access is the 9th of November - this gives a week after the patch goes live before the world will turn its beady eye to the game.

There may not be an actual patch for this date - with SOME luck, the 2nd of November patch will be good enough, and we're done! (This is known as a stealth-launch or soft-launch)

As ever, I'll continue to work the game based on feedback from the community - fingers crossed everything goes smoothly!

Apologies that the last few weeks has been pretty boring - the focus has been entirely on the new player experience, the handbook, glitches and bugs that have been sitting around for months. What I REALLY want to do is start work on the new multiblock turrets, the multi-shot defence launchers and the Orbital Cargo Rockets, but these are gonna have to wait until after we're shipped.