I'd say we were on summer break. But unfortunately we were so busy with everyday tasks like looking for a flat, moving etc. You know that this is always time consuming.
Now that everything is back to normal we want to release new updates for you.

I think right at the beginning I would like to mention that we made a stupid mistake. The victory conditions weren't counted individually for each player, they were counted all together. That's why you could quickly end the game with a few BOTS. We fixed that right away.
We would be happy to see a few victory pictures from you. How you cut off so after a certain time. So feel free to post some pictures.

As a bigger feature we have added the money send function. You now have the possibility to send money to every player. Via the star menu and the tab player. Therefore we had to trick something with the HTML DOM elements to get a good input window. I don't think the result is perfect yet. But you can already work with it.



We made some small changes to the options menu. This gives you the possibility to remove moving objects depending on the hardware. Now all corresponding layers are removed from the game and no longer displayed. This might help some people to increase the FPS. Also we could improve the sometimes jerky clicking behavior. We switched to the HTML MouseEvents. These always have the highest priority during execution. So in the future we can integrate much better mouse interactions e.g. the wish to activate street with mouseDown and to build with mousePressUp.

Finally, we also implemented the architecture for the supply buildings. This adds two more buildings: The garbage dump and the sewage plant. These can currently be built easily and are calculated like normal buildings. Of course, other buildings don't want them next door. In further updates the supply buildings will play a bigger role so that the other buildings will work at all. But I have to tell you right now that Summer Islands won't be an economic simulation like ANNO etc.. We want to increase the difficulty and the realism with the utility buildings. There will be more such buildings coming. But at the moment we don't plan with every building what you would need to live. Rather an abstraction for the vacation.



Have fun with the new update!
https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands


Update Log:

• CLIENT: Send money to fellow players
  
• CLIENT: MouseEvents improved
  
• CLIENT: Javascript efficiency improved
  
• SERVER/CLIENT: Supply building integrated
  
• SERVER: Victory calculation BUG FIX
  
• CLIENT: Options menu improved
  
• CLIENT: OptionsMenu Switch Layer On/Off

Hello, together,

finally it's time. We present you the new victory conditions menu.
So it finally makes sense to play Summer Islands :)
At least you've got a clear goal you can work towards or get yourself compared to.

It was very stressful last weeks. Not because of Summer Islands. But you always have in mind that you have to create a new Summer Islands update.
No, the stress came more from a partition error. Which destroyed a few days of programming. Also the important programming laptop had been sent in because of a hardware defect. So you had to set everything up again and that costs time with the little free time you have in the evening. I don't want to complain too much. Everyone has his problems :D

But for you it means now: Set victory conditions at the start of the game:



As you can see in the picture you can currently set 4 different victory conditions. For each goal the player gets a star. Additionally you can set how many stars a player needs to win.
The current 4 categories are:

• Time (this category is always activated)
  
• Money
  
• Number of tourists
  
• Shareholders' equity (sum of all construction costs of existing buildings)

You can set these 4 categories as targets and change them.
When you have started the game you will see a new button with a star icon in the bottom left corner.



If you click on it you will get to the MatchMenu. This shows you some details about the current match via the tabs. At the very beginning you can see the stars. Here you can see who already got how many stars. In the tab game settings you get an overview of the created match and the victory conditions. This helps you to bring the goals back into consciousness.



When you give it 110% and it comes to an end. So a player who has reached the required stars, you will see the winner window with the facts about the match. Who wins based on the total score or the money or stars. This can all be seen at a glance.



We will try to integrate such statistics into Steam in the future so that you can see how your friends have performed with similar game conditions. Or a big chart with all points at what time what happened. For this we have implemented the basic architecture with version 0.1.7.

A disadvantage of version 0.1.7 is: The old savegames don't work anymore, for now. In the future we will try to integrate a more complex savegame correction system so that old savegames will continue to work and will be corrected when loaded. But until then I have released version 0.1.6 as beta for every player out there. Just right click on Summer Islands > Properties. Then select the version 0.1.6 in the dropdown menu under the tab Betas and have fun with the old savegames. :D

On request we have also integrated a switch in the start menu to switch off the catastrophes. For everyone who doesn't want to be restricted by nature. ;)

Furthermore we could fix the bugs that occurred on bigger screens (bigger than 1080p). It is now possible to use the whole screen. There is only one limitation. The zoom function with mouse wheel does not work here unfortunately. But we already have that in mind and take care of it. Give us some more patience and we'll be able to fix it. :)

In the next weeks we try not to implement such big changes but to improve the gameplay and atmosphere. We were thinking about improvements to the SoundFX or maybe music or or or or. There is still a lot to do and the roadmap looks promising that we won't get bored. :D

If you like Summer Islands and you think the two/three weekly updates are great, give us a positive review. We read every review and write the improvements into the roadmap and we don't want to be satisfied with a balanced one. So thumbs up! ;)

https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

Hello together,

In recent weeks we have focused on new consultants in the area of security and sabotage.



As you can see, there is now a separate tab for the advisors in the Finance menu. This was planned from the beginning. But for the Early Access release we have chosen the previous display to keep things simple.
But now in detail:

• The security consultant and the sabotage consultant, like the other consultants, also have a notice period of 180 days.
  
• Both have a basic salary and additional bonus payments.
  
• Both consultants are promoted. Up to level 15.
  
• The sabotage advisor unlocks further sabotage options at Level 6 and Level 11.
  
• Furthermore, sabotage becomes cheaper for you with every level of him.
  
• On the other hand, every player can hire a security advisor. This makes it more expensive for every other player if someone wants to sabotage his buildings.
  
• In the future, the Security Advisor will have even more advantages for the reputation of the players. But that's yet to come.

So much for the two new advisors. The BOTS are not yet able to strike back with sabotage. But they will hire one or the other security advisor.

On the BOT side, we have made a few changes in the reconstruction of after a natural disaster or sabotage. The BOTs should now be able to rebuild themselves over time. Of course this can go wrong one or the other time. Because such a recalculation of the situation is not easy for us sometimes :D.

In this direction we now see the potential to expand further consultants and existing consultants in the future. Because with the two additional consultants we have laid the system architecture to simplify this in the future.
When I write these lines, it doesn't see much of what we have implemented. But appearances are deceptive.
Because as I have already mentioned X times Summer Islands is created in our spare time in addition to our day job.
We continue to work and have new ideas for Summer Islands every day. We are currently working on some soundtracks and SoundFX as well, as this has been requested several times and we had planned this from the beginning.

I hope you have fun with the new update. We are looking forward to every screenshot and mail from you. Recommend Summer Islands to others. Until the next update.

https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands


-SERVER/CLIENT: Security Consultant added
-SERVER/CLIENT: Sabotage Consultant added
-SERVER/CLIENT: Money Calculation Consultant changed
-CLIENT: Sabotage Consultant activates different sabotages
-SERVER: BOTs rebuild after destruction
-CLIENT: BUG FIX Earthfield after destruction
-SERVER/CLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency

Hello together,

it's been 3 weeks since the last update. Sometimes the "day job" is holding you up longer and lately in Germany also the weather. At 40° Celsius one would rather not switch on any heat-producing devices in the apartment.
But don't worry. We are constantly working on Summer Islands and would like to present you version 0.1.5 today.

So what's new for you in version 0.1.5:
First of all we were extremely happy about the pictures that some of you uploaded to Steam. We think it's really great to see your holiday paradises and how you earn your money. But we were also a bit surprised how you could earn so much money in such a short time. We know that we have to implement some goals in Summer Islands, like a highscore list that you can share with friends or some missions.

The first step was to improve the finetuning building a bit. This only happened slightly. But I guess you will notice an effect during the game.
In detail, we have reduced the advertising boost and the neighboring buildings flow more into the buildings popular.
The bots also build more densely than before. This way you don't get so often the chance to place your buildings in another player's city.

To increase the player ergonomics we have added the possibility to select your desired position from the icon menu bar.
Moving the mouse to every edge of the screen is fun but time consuming. But everyone as he wants it to be.






Furthermore we fixed some smaller bugs. The construction crane animation didn't run through properly or even the creation of airplanes, cars or ships is now calculated differently based on: Popularity of the building + number of already created objects + a bit of chance.
But what we only noticed now: The demolition and the sabotage explosions animation were no longer visible. Unfortunately two lines of code were missing. In some Let's Plays that was a good laugh. Because you tore something down and suddenly the house was gone, just with one click.



A propro Let's plays. The requests for free CD-Keys have fortunately decreased. Also some negative reviews were preceded by unanswered requests.
Nevertheless, we can say as a conclusion:
Also Let's Plays that were clicked more than 100.000 times didn't give us any change in the purchase statistics. We as a 3-person developer team, which operates Summer Islands only as a sideline, it's relative whether a marketing strategy is successful or not. But I personally prefer to play a game myself rather than have it pretend. Everyone sees it differently, of course. I just wanted to address the issue of influence and doubt the marketing strategy, at least in the gaming industry. Probably it depends also strongly on the Influencer and their Community. Nevermind.

We are looking forward to providing you with new Summer Islands updates and hope you have fun with Summer Islands.

https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands


-SERVER: reduce advertising Boost
-SERVER: neighbor buildings Boost
-CLIENT: Build field/Sabotage/Destruction Animation Bug Fix
-CLIENT: Moveable Objects depending on: Popularity of the building + number of already created objects + a bit of chance
-CLIENT: flexible MenuIcons position
-SERVER/CLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency

Hello together,

the first stress has gone and we get into the mode to release new features. Additionally there is also Steam Summer Sale and of course everyone is busy with sales of other games :)
We've gathered all the feedback and packed with our ideas. Out came a Trello board where you can see a lot about the future planning of Summer Islands. It's not yet so perfectly arranged and colored. So WIP:
https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands

But let's get to the innovations for this week:
Today we proudly present the Linux Support. Some bugs and implementations had to be done. But we made it to the end. The MAC support mentioned above is still in progress. We are still testing and hope for positive results.
Since we are not the experts of Linux and MAC we hope for your help to fix bugs. In addition I would like to refer to the "BUG REPORTS" rider in the discussions:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/731650/discussions/

Of course we also implemented some small things that disturbed you.
The button for infinite money will still not be available! :D Little joke.

As a small change we have arranged the New History antichronologically. So the latest news are always at the top of the window. This way you don't always have to scroll and we should have integrated it right away.

Furthermore, we have looked at the compulsion to road connections and loosened this a bit. For some buildings there is now the possibility to place them a little away from the street without getting losses. There may be a maximum of 2 fields distance to the next street, no matter in which direction.
Currently the buildings can be: beach volleyball, tennis, beach chairs, ice shop and surf shop.
But we are still considering to mark this directly in the building menu with a small icon or something.

(Picture will be handed in later. Steam overload.)

The campsite has also been upgraded. As soon as a campsite is connected to a street, you can build as many campsites as you like on it and the others on it. Thus a large camp site can be realized. However, at least one camp site must be connected to a street. Somewhere the visitors have to get to the campsite.

That was it for this week and we hope you are looking forward to the coming weeks/months, just like we are:
https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands


-LINUX support
-CLIENT: News History antichronological
-SERVER: Streetnetwork: a few buildings can have two fields between building and street to connect (Beach volleyball, tennis, beach chairs, ice shop and surf shop)
-SERVER: Tents can connect other tents if one tent is connected with street.

Hello together,

it's really been a few hectic weeks since the last blog entry. We are really happy that we are mostly rated positive on Steam. But let's start chronologically from the beginning. What's happened since the last blog entry.



The two weeks before our release on 21.06 we had made ourselves a good plan. What things still have to be integrated. What definitely has to run stable. We have divided up our time well and have tackled things with priorities. It was really hard to let go sometimes.
Unfortunately we were a bit too optimistic with the submission to Steam. Over the last weekend Steam had checked the game for the first time. Unfortunately many critical results came back there. So we had to deactivate a lot of things for the first time in order to submit the game again as soon as possible. We did that on the Monday before the release. MUCH TOO SHORT!! As already said we had to switch off many things. Mainly the operating system support like Linux and MAC. But that should be only temporary. We all work in our team with Windows. Therefore we never had the possibility to test MAC or Linux. Only after the release we switched on the virtual machine and started Linux. But more about that later. So we switched off many features and hoped that Steam would check the game before the 21.06. That went almost wrong. Because in the morning on 21.06 we received the feedback that Summer Islands was ready for Early Access.
To be honest that was quite a relief. Because Q2 2019 was only June and there were a lot of Steam comments asking for a release day.
So we were lucky again.
But now came the much bigger task. We released Summer Islands with the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere on 21.06 at shortly after 12 o'clock. It was an incredible feeling. Even if it was just a click on a button somewhere in the Steamworks account.

With the release came the first problems. Due to our limited hardware test possibilities one could of course not test the almost infinite number of hardare combinations. This was already pre-programmed that some errors would come. We were always awake the weekend immediately after the release to fix the bugs. In summary, we did our best. There were a few bugs with the different hardware. But also errors with variable declarations in rare cases. In the end we managed to fix the biggest bugs and with the current version 0.1.3 Summer Islands is enjoyable. For all of you who WANT to enjoy Summer Islands!!

Nowadays you have to emphasize such sentences a bit more. Because some negative ratings simply cannot be understood. Give money back and still give a negative rating. We have often mentioned that Summer Islands will not be a substitute for childhood memories. Even if we have integrated a similar concept and much more Features into Summer Islands. Tip on the side: you don't have to flatten an entire island to build buildings. But we're working on another conzept.

Therefore we are twice and three times grateful to you for the many positive reviews and emails with feedback. The people who understood the meaning of Early Access. The people who even take the time to send us suggestions for improvement. With all these people who follow us on twitter, support us on steam or wherever and motivated us, recommended us to others, to these people we want to say THANK YOU!
Without you the game would not have been possible.

So and what comes now?
We continue to work as before and even better. Because we work with even more feedback from you. We already have a rough roadmap which we want to show you in the next weeks. But all in all there will be things like that:
-complex nature (more alive)
-Call integration with impact
-Many more consultants
-Weather Forecast
-Other catastrophes
-Campaigns
-BOT Increase difficulty
-....
-....

I hope you notice that there will be a lot more to come. It is still screwed at all places and we try to consider each feedback and if possible to integrate it.

So we hope you'll give us the opportunity to implement the planned features and we promise you Summer Islands will develop its potential in the game feel yet.

The finanz icon works again after loading a game. :)
We worked on the BOTs init method after loading a game.
And in the end we integrated a reload init method after a black screen when starting the game.

-CLIENT: Finanz menu date obejct BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Canvas init reload after error
-SERVERCLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency extended.

We hope the freezes are now complete gone. :)

-SERVERCLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency extended.

Hello together,

we have now managed to release our first patch. Unfortunately a bit late. Some problems have dragged on a bit.

We have worked a lot on the solution of the freezes and on the savegames mechanism with the BOTs.

We also uncovered the insurance fraud and changed some resolution settings.
So it might now be possible to play normally on larger screens like Full HD. Unfortunately we couldn't test it. But if you could give us feedback we would be very grateful.

We would also like to thank all the positive reviews that have been written.
Thanks a lot for that :)

Update log:
-CLIENT: resolution setting improved
-SERVER/CLIENT: Freezes with earthquake disaster BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Savegame array BUG FIX
-SERVER: SavegameKI init BUG FIX
-SERVER: Insurance fraud uncovered
-CLIENT: TUTORIAL is opened right at the beginning
-CLIENT: default maxcredit set to 10Mio
-CLIENT: Shortcuts added to tutorial
-SERVER/CLIENT: Add BOTS/Remove game start BUG FIX

Hello together,


We have released Summer Islands for early access. We are extremely excited about your constructive feedback.

We fixed a few extreme bugs yesterday and hope that they will all work the same today.

MAC & LINUX Support:

Through the steam check we were informed about some serious problems which we have to fix first. BUT we try to do this next week. Because MAC & LINUX is definitely supported.

Furthermore there is a tutorial on

BUG REPORT

in the Steam Forum.

I hope you like the Early Access of Summer Islands :)

-SERVER/CLIENT: English language added
-CLIENT: Pictures Preload BUG FIX

-CLIENT: TUTORIAL menu added & improved
-SERVER/CLIENT: Pause function integrated
-SERVER/CLIENT: Lobby/savegame communication BUG FIXES
-SERVERCLIENT: Javascript stability/efficiency extended.

-SERVER/CLIENT: textures corrected/new inserted
-CLIENT: Scroll functions in menu BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Mouse icons position BUG FIX
-SERVER: Cluster calculation improved
-SERVER: Building Finetuning
-SERVER/CLIENT: Building activation improved
-CLIENT: Credits extended with links
-CLIENT: Financial menu interface bug fixes
-CLIENT: Minimap colorbarray BUG FIX
-SERVER: Send Map BUG FIX
-SERVER: monthly money exchange BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Ship movements BUG FIX
-CLIENT: Info display extended with memory text
-CLIENT: Building manager losses in red