Almost There! We Hope.

As we've said in quite a few blog posts, we think that we're almost there. This console certification process is extremely long and painful, and new things keep popping up which weren't caught in previous certification rounds. 

This is kind of what this submission process has felt like. As you all know, we're trying to get the game out on console as soon as possible, and it feels like it's almost there, but we're at the mercy of the submission process so we can only keep fixing stuff and keep our fingers crossed. 

That's also what it feels like. But we're going to get there, and it's going to be glorious when we do.

In other news, we're hiring a part-time community manager at Clever Endeavour Games, and applications are only open until the 21st. Please tell anyone you know that might be interested in this position. This new person will be responsible for our social media and helping to grow our community as we move toward and beyond console release, as well as potentially working with us on future games. 

Apart from that, there's still a chance to sign up for the Ultimate Chicken Horse tournament this weekend by following this link. The tournament is run by fans, and is always a great time. Brush up on your skills and give it a shot!

More updates coming soon, fingers crossed on console updates!

Console Certification Troubles and Updated Professional Services

Hello friends! This month's update will cover console certification troubles and an update to our workflow / professional services.

Console Certification Troubles

As you might be aware, we still haven't announced a release date for Ultimate Chicken Horse on consoles. This is because we've been stuck in certification, and there's been a ton of back and forth with the platform holders (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) about issues and fixes. The majority of the issues we've had are minor, often silly things that weren't properly set up, were done according to some old documentation, or were never explained to us in the first place. Another issue with the process is the amount of time spent communicating. For every request, it seems to take 20 people to look at it, come up with a response, respond to it, and finally respond so that we can move to the next steps. 

That's what we all look like when we work, by the way.

As we work on fixing these console-specific things, we've also been improving general things in the game such as connectivity issues, user interface bugs, etc. The new content for our big mega upcoming update is pretty much ready, and we'll announce that stuff when we announce our launch date, once we pass certification.

Updated Professional Services

As part of our year end, we look at all of the things we do critically and try to improve ourselves in terms of efficiency and workflow. It's extremely important that companies, especially small businesses, evaluate the way they work and stay dynamic so that they don't end up with the excuse I have heard too often: "we do it this way because it's always been done this way".

Efficiency, by the way, isn't only about squeezing as much profit out of the company as possible (in case you were worried this sounded too business-ey). It's also about being able to create a work environment where partners and employees can come in and find what they need, know what tasks they are assigned, have the resources to get information easily, and all of the other stuff that makes for a happy work environment. 

Part of that investigation involved looking at our project management tools and techniques, our folder structure, as well as the professional services we use (accounting, tax credits, payroll, etc.). We were able to do this through a few meetings, and then Rich (the business guy who is writing this and who isn't able to fix console bugs) was able to look into these things while the others were hammering away at console stuff.

That's all for this month, but we'll be back next month and hopefully we'll have a confirmed release date by then! Thanks for hangin' in there.

Updates and Some Recommended Videos

As much as people would love to know, we still don't have a release date for our console release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch. The main reason for this is that we want to wait until we pass all of certification before committing to a date. We figure that people will be less upset if we wait, but actually hit the release date we announce, rather than set a date and miss it because of unforeseen issues.

That said, we have a bunch of new content which will be released with console launch, and that content will come free for PC players as well. This new content also comes along with a slew of bug fixes, stability improvements, and quality of life fixes.

I wanted to share today a few videos that are geared toward game developers or people interested in game development. They're all understandable by people who don't work in the industry, and they can address some issues that game developers talk about often.

The first video, from Extra Credits, is about demos. Should you make a demo? Should you not? We had a demo when our Kickstarter launched, and think it was paramount to our success. 

The next video is not related to video games necessarily, but has very important ideas about innovation and design and branding. If you haven't seen this video already, you really should, no matter what industry you're in.

This next video is an amazing description of meaningful choice in game design, and does a great job of talking about enemy types and why you need to carefully consider their qualities. One of the biggest issues we see with indie games (that have combat and enemies) is the lack of meaningful choice in combat. These games often default to a hack-n-slash kind of mechanic, even when that wasn't the goal.

This last one is a bit game dev-focused, but could still be interesting to people who like video games but are not necessarily making them. 

Anyway, that's all for this update. As soon as we pass certification and choose a release date, we'll make sure to let everyone know.