Hello everybody,
in the last weeks we could not integrate big new features due to time constraints. Especially at the beginning of the year there are always some things from life that you have to do first. Also the review 2019 I could not write in the scope I had hoped for. Therefore I try to summarize some information of the last year in this update.
The year 2019 started with a disappointment. Because we did not manage to start the Early Access at the end of 2018. But it was really still necessary. In the first months of 2019 we were able to fix some bugs and integrate new textures. You could see from update to update how the game became fuller and the atmosphere increased. In the middle of the year we had finally made it. At the beginning of summer, the 21.06.2019 we could start the Early Access.
If you want to know more about these stressful days before and after, you should read our update, here: https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791461530243/announcements/detail/1593627410379279953
I can only say this much. It was close and some bugs had to be fixed right afterwards. We had only managed this with your help. A big thank you to all of you!
The following months in Early Access were characterized by a larger expenditure of time with the forum. All your suggestions for improvement were added to our todo list and we are slowly but surely working our way through everything. Unfortunately, there were also some criticism we had to deal with. With unconstructive feedback it was also often very time consuming. But on a marketplace that is open to the whole world you get in contact with all kinds of people.
We appeal to all critics of Summer Islands to give us some more time. Our todo list is far from empty 😉
At the end of 2019 we have integrated some more features, e.g. the advisor menu, the victory window menu, sending money to other players, first architecture for supply buildings, the extended terraforming, savegamemanagement and of course the music. We even managed to create a trailer for Xmas.
I must admit that we are satisfied with the progress. Unfortunately this does not reflect our evaluation at Steam. Therefore we would like to motivate all Summer Islands players to give a review. Preferably a positive 😀
Here are also some interesting charts from our Git repository from 10.2016 – 01.2020:
What you can see from them:
-We usually commit in the evening
-We’ve never committed at 5am
-Most commits come in on Sunday
-In the month we are continuously committing.
-Im Monat sind wir kontinuierlich am commiten.
-commits make no statement about the quality of the new/changed code 😉
At the beginning of the year 2020 we took a closer look at your feedback on constant small freezes.
We took apart the complete architecture. Especially at the places that are called every second. We have optimized them and made them more efficient. There were also a few comments which did not understand the movement (one press per field) or found it too jerky. So we changed the movement on the map and made it smoother. Pressing the button immediately moves the field of view in one direction and only releasing the button stops the movement. Also there is now no longer jumping but moving. The result, we think, looks much better and also gives the computer more time to render the new fields. So basically a win-win situation :D:D
We are happy to release the support for MacOS today (finally). As a Windows/Linux user I must admit it was very interesting. Due to the fact that Summer Islands is a HTML5 game and we compile it executable file with a Nodejs server, we had to integrate some complicated functions to allow for example saving files. As you probably know it is forbidden for a HTML with JS file to manipulate files on your computer (except temporary files). So we had to look at MacOS how to implement these functions correctly. We hope that it works for all Mac users out there and wish you a lot of fun with Summer Islands.
Last but not least we are constantly working on the BOTS. Last month we played the Settlers 3 & 4 again and were horrified to see how primitive the game principle was, which had captivated us for so long 😀
Also the opponents were after some time no longer so active. That gives us enough motivation to improve the bots in Summer Islands so that they will really challenge you. In this update we have integrated approaches to the bots, which allow the reconstruction of the buildings after a natural disaster. We are also trying to implement a second city of the bots. I don’t want to guarantee 100% that the bots will always be able to do this. But be warned they are getting smarter and smarter. 😀
https://trello.com/b/FbC1a19w/devboard-summer-islands
I wish you a lot of fun with the new update.