Greetings! Welcome to our first studio report of 2023!
For the VLOG version, click below!
January was a busy month as we picked up where we left off from 2022. First order of business was to get the Mac OS port out the door. To which we're happy to say, did happen in January. You can find it here: https://brokenhammergames.itch.io/all-is-fair-in-dust-and-air
The downside of this release is we could not get it notarized through Apple. Despite us having an Apple developer account, the process of getting software notarized is so bad that a lot of indie devs refuse to do it and just drop the Mac platform entirely. It's actually easier to get an iOS game released than Mac.
Apple's system is a mess that they seem to be fixing and making more cumbersome at the same time. We tried to figure this out for months and in the end, we decided to just release via itch since notarization doesn't matter there. Will we eventually release a full notarized Mac OS version? We'd like to. Just depends on Apple at this point.
So what is next? A Linux port is now getting another look. We attempted this some time back but ran into a lot of issues just getting the Linux machine running. Time has passed and we have a spare old MacBook Pro now that we're thinking to load Linux on. No guarantee yet but we'll be dabbling on this in February.
The other major update regarding the game is we released our 1.3 update along with the Mac version release. This has trimmed the fat on the game down to around 1GB instead of 2GB. The other port now which sits on the bigger file size is the Android APK which is on hold a moment as Michael hasn't been free to finish that platform update. Hopefully we'll get that resolved early into 2023 here.
Art development in Dust and Air continued forward as we held some discussions regarding the cityscape and implementing some of the new ideas John helped concept. Conn has begun reviewing work done and setting aside some time in his schedule. We also saw more expressions get done for character models and Georgy began working on a major supporting character.
Project 2 saw it's pace calm down a bit coming in from a hot December with John feverishly drawing away for it. Part of this was due to him taking time to assist on Dust and Air, the other part has been him finding more work with some other projects. Which we're happy to help him find.
However, Project 2 picked up again towards the end of the month with another model and both backgrounds and key images done. We can't be happier with this progress.
The image shown is a quick revealing of a character on Project 2 that shows the sketch, lineart, and final version all in one. It is just an example of one of the many characters which have been completed now for the project's cast.
Closing out this report, there was actually a VN conference which took place in January. We didn't attend due to lack of notice beforehand but, the Renpy devs brought some very nice updates to their engine. The most important of which, they now have a save file system that will work on any platform and transfer saves between platforms.
Save files is still an issue using Tyrano that has never been properly addressed by Strikeworks. Will Renpy's announcement make us do a switch? Not immediately. We are hoping this news causes Strikeworks to make a change sooner rather than later. How this will affect save files, no idea yet. We'd like to work out a solution before implementing it all so saves aren't completely lost. At least, not the progress.
Time will tell how this all comes out. We're just happy to be ever marching forwards on our development schedule. Till next time, see you in the skies!
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