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[VoyagerGames]

Huge thanks for all the replies! The pixel artist who's working on the death animation system for human sprites sent word that it should be ready within the next 2 weeks, and I should be able to post a pretty compelling demo once that's up and running. Hopefully a better update with more concrete stuff will follow in this thread soon.

Your video has been flagged for kid again. Might want to check that out.

YouTube just baffles me at this point. I just want to upload a video the internet so people can watch it. At some point, when I'm really trying to reach a wider audience, I'll see if I can square this stuff away. Thanks for the heads up, man.

"Dawn has broken."

I hope you are feeling this. 

I'm certainly trying to. Thanks for your post, you made me smile!

/lurks

Tchey, what's up, man? You're on the short list for early release distributions. I can't yet say a definitive time frame, but I hope at some point in the next 6 months, I can send you a fresh installer.

In a lot of ways this project reminds me of the golden age of Maxis.

Oh man, this might be the highest praise I've ever received. Can't tell you how good that makes me feel. I grew up playing SimCity 2000, Sim Tower, Sim Ant, Sim Farm. I had them all. I think Sim Earth is one of the overlooked gems of the collection, and the game and its concept were decades ahead of their time. As a software engineer, Will Wright has kinda' been the guy I've aspired to be. I'd be so proud if this project gets compared to the great Maxis games after release.

Whenever I need inspiration, or just want to relax and have some fun, you know what I load up:

Something about a world of intelligent plants developing atomic weapons and nuking each other...I can always enjoy that. And I really can't believe what was accomplished with this game on computers with such incredibly limited memory and processing resources. It's one of the weirdest, most fascinating "games" I've ever played. The software is a masterpiece.

If it helps, these times have been rough on a lot of people.

Thanks, man. It has blown mightily, and it's sucked a lot worse for tons of other people than it has for me. I've still got my day job, and I haven't had my hours or pay cut or anything like, so that's very fortunate.

Agreed. Glad you're still getting some work on this in, despite everything!

Thanks as always for your support, Mephansteras. When it comes time for release candidates / previews, all you guys who've been with this for years can get binaries.

[geoffroypir]

Interesting project, hum.. fellow developper.
This game looks a bit like one I started developing almost a decade ago (lost the sources though  ). I like how you focus on deep simulations, well done for this impressive work.

I haven't tried the game yet, but I'll certainly do so when I have time.

Also this project could get another attempt on kickstarter, there is nothing to lose.

[Mephansteras]

Oh, man, SimEarth. I should fire that up again sometime!

[Asgarus]

Sucks that you are having a rough time, but I'm sure things will get better again!

The new graphics look amazing! Really looking forward to start an isometric colony.
Keep up the fantastic work! (no pressure though )

[( Tchey )]

Tchey, what's up, man? You're on the short list for early release distributions. I can't yet say a definitive time frame, but I hope at some point in the next 6 months, I can send you a fresh installer.

Thanks ! I hope it will run on my Linux PC, even if i must use WINE.

We will see

[mazarus]

Oh, wow, can't believe it took me a week to see the new update. I swear my notifications from Youtube are buggy. Either way, congrats on getting into the final stretch of this phase, I've gotta say I'm excited to check it out and compare to the old version I have clunking around my hard drive.

Also sorry to hear the last few months haven't been the greatest, but "C'est la vie en 2020" I suppose. Hope everything in this last stretch goes well for you man.

[stingpie]

I've gotta say I'm excited to check it out and compare to the old version I have clunking around my hard drive.

Really? I've been trying to get a demo of this game for a while, but just discovered it as the online demo was taken down. I would appreciate it if you could upload it to dropbox or something.

[mazarus]

Really? I've been trying to get a demo of this game for a while, but just discovered it as the online demo was taken down. I would appreciate it if you could upload it to dropbox or something.

I mean, I have no problem throwing it up there, but I think I'll hold off until I get permission to distribute it around. I know Sam had a reason for pulling the demo originally.

[VoyagerGames]

Hey Mazarus, thanks for the kind words, man. I've been really tied up with my day job for the last couple weeks, but as soon as I can carve out some time, I'll DM / email you.

I had a little bit of time to work on OC this weekend, but I've had to put the hours I could carve out into development work. I'm getting all the little sprites in place for procedural death animations, and there are a lot of them...it's ultra-tedious grunt work, but I've just got to push through it.

Some of you guys might've noticed there were a few website issues this week. I'm looking to see if I can migrate to a cheaper host, since years of dropping $30 a month kinda' sucks. Migrating a WordPress installation though, my God. I might see if I can use a PTO day coming up just to take care of this task.

I've gotta say I'm excited to check it out and compare to the old version I have clunking around my hard drive.

Really? I've been trying to get a demo of this game for a while, but just discovered it as the online demo was taken down. I would appreciate it if you could upload it to dropbox or something.

Thanks for the interest, Stingpie. If you can, I'd really recommend waiting for the isometric re-release. Everyone except the most hardcore players seemed to struggle with the overhead graphics. There are a ton of general UX improvements that have been made since I last had a demo on the website, and I think you'll have a way better experience trying the game out if you hold tight. If you'd still really like to get your hands on the previous beta, feel free to DM me, and I'll see if I can figure something out.

Thanks as always for everybody's continued patience.

[geoffroypir]

It is true that the graphics and UI intimidated me a lot and was the reason why I haven't dug into the game (I tried it some days ago).
And I am saying this while I am an avid player of games like dwarf fortress, Aurora, cataclysm dda etc...
But clearly, with a good UI overhaul and proper hierarchisation of informations (by showing less sometimes) and seeing the isometric rendering, I think you will take the game to another level of accessibility.

So I keep an eye on this rough gem. 

[EuchreJack]

Yeah, I recall having to change view every time I wanted to do literally anything.  It was still fun, but took forever and I generally screamed if I accidentally moved the camera even the slightest bit, as I might never find my colonists again. 

The re-release looks to have a lot more features, which look well worth the wait.

[VoyagerGames]

Yeah, I recall having to change view every time I wanted to do literally anything.  It was still fun, but took forever and I generally screamed if I accidentally moved the camera even the slightest bit, as I might never find my colonists again. 

This kind of feedback is super, super useful.

There actually is a button in the toolbar to warp your view back to the center of your colony. It's the one with the bed icon, it's got a tooltip to try to help convey what it does:


Can you suggest anything to make this a little easier to understand / figure out? What I really, really want to do is hone in on exactly these kinds of experiences and make those critical improvements.

It is true that the graphics and UI intimidated me a lot and was the reason why I haven't dug into the game (I tried it some days ago).

Yeah, if the look and feel isn't up your alley, I'd recommend holding off on playing it. I always kinda' like the overhead graphics, but to each his own.

Did you find a download of the former beta release with overhead graphics? I think it was taken offline ~3 years ago. It shouldn't really be accessible anymore, at least not via the website.

[ndkid]

Yeah, I recall having to change view every time I wanted to do literally anything.  It was still fun, but took forever and I generally screamed if I accidentally moved the camera even the slightest bit, as I might never find my colonists again. 

This kind of feedback is super, super useful.

Can you suggest anything to make this a little easier to understand / figure out? What I really, really want to do is hone in on exactly these kinds of experiences and make those critical improvements.

I think the bed isn't the most obvious icon choice for that behavior. A crosshair probably gives the wrong impression... a magnifying glass over a house? That probably looks too much like inspect. An arcing error pointing at a house, maybe? If that doesn't fit well, a straight error pointing at a house probably also works.

[Shooer]

How about a system like DF does for setting bookmarked locations to warp the camera to?  So you can have multiple such locations, and not get stuck with just one.

[BigD145]

Have you used Discord at all to do screen sharing and just watch playtesters play? See exactly how a stranger interacts with the interface?