Greetings! The new year is here and we're moving right along with development! Time for the first report of 2022!
For the VLOG report, please click the video below:
The month of January was quite active for Broken Hammer. While we didn't get the Play Store release we hoped for, we did get Dust and Air's Android APK port released on itch!
You can find it here: https://brokenhammergames.itch.io/all-is-fair-in-dust-and-air
Titled: All is Fair in Dust and Air Mobile or Dust & Air Mobile for short, the port is straight from our 1.2 PC version with some minor tweaks to the main menu and with added touch screen based controls.
There was also some backend work done to resolve some Android only bugs that reared their heads in the release. Special thanks to Michael for his hard work getting this release ready. His help was invaluable.
So why didn't we get the Play Store release? Well, that's simple to answer. Short answer is: "Play Store sucks!" More in depth answer that doesn't voice our frustration with it: Google changed how apps get loaded onto the store and we're trying to figure out how to modularize a 2GB game into a 150MB opening app that isn't designed to be modularized.
This change took place in late summer last year and Michael put in a lot of time trying to figure out how to set it all up. The trouble with the Play Store is, their developer side is incredibly cumbersome. It's like it was developed by dozens of people who all had different ideas on how it should function and then were subsequently allowed to do whatever they wanted. For a big company like Google, it is a bit of an embarrassment. Really is not impressive one bit. Their instructions and guides on how to implement their new system are also about as clear.
It's a bumbling mess and we elected to just release the APK on itch for now until we figure it all out. It'll work just fine, it just will require Android users to install it manually instead of via the Play Store. Tested on phones and tablets and it does work on both.
Moving on with development, Art was busy in the month of January with backgrounds and a supporting cast character of Raven's Prayer either getting done or starting production.
To the right is a little sneak peak of Gwyn's Room. Check out the VLOG for a glimpse of the color version.
We also found development on Project 2 hitting a good stride in the month of January as Ingrid has taken up the task of getting the first finalized models done. It was awhile since we worked with her and we welcomed the opportunity. She'll be working with us solely on Project 2 development going forward with her art style taking the lead on that project. We may throw in a little peak in the VLOG!
Music side of Raven's Prayer has seen some more early rumblings as Gimmen was dabbling a bit in January with some new themes for Raven's Prayer. Which has been our goal from the beginning that each story will tell it's own tale in the music. There may be some shared tracks but we very much have wanted to see each story have their own feel to it. Rehashing a lot of tracks simply won't cut it.
Both art and music will continue into the month of February. With holidays over, production picks up! We'll also be be looking at getting the iOS and MacOS ports underway during the month. Hopefully Apple won't be as frustrating as Google.
In terms of further development on the PC platform, we've done some more exploratory work into adding achievements. While we know it is doable, getting them to talk to Steam servers is requiring some more steps. Other Tyrano devs do not really talk openly about how they did it either. So we're going to take a bit of time to figure it out. Eventually there will be art needed for them too so, even when we figure out the functionality, there will still be some work needed on the art side. Ultimately, we'll pick away at this a bit at a time.
Then lastly as we close up the month, there has been more discussions regarding the DLC. In fact, an idea presented to Michael has been approved for study. This would be developing our own save reader program that is built into a game launcher. Which would allow us to resolve the save file issues and look at making the story expansions as a standalone game. While this isn't quite the DLC approach we'd like, it is development that is necessary to get us to that point.
Alright, that's it for the month! Till next time, see you in the skies!
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