Hello, everyone! Update 0.4.2.04 for The Chaser’s Voyage went live yesterday and it’s the first of our client updates! There’s some really cool stuff to cover, so let’s not waste any more time and get to it!
An example of our new color coding AND new client type names!
The most obvious change in this update is the addition of color coding for certain text! As you can see above, we’ve color coded not just the territory names within the client info, but also any instances of “UGS”, “Empire”, and “Imperial”. Whenever “UGS” and the “Empire” appear in text, they will be color coded orange and purple respectively. Since these two factions have a big impact on client selection, we wanted to make them stand out more. This should make it easier to see at a glance where the client wants to go, and where their allegiances lie. All color coded text is also bold. If this color coding is a bit much for you though, don’t worry! We’ve also added an option to disable the color coding.
Expect to see new client type names!
With the color coding implemented we realized that “Imperial Traitors” and “UGS Traitors” gave the wrong impressions of who they were aligned with. So we decided to take this opportunity to revisit our client type names and ended up updating 4 of them! “Evil Scientist” is now “Outlaw Scientist” (a little more accurate and less mean to those poor scientists!), “Fleeing Criminal” is now “Fugitive” (cooler and more succinct), “Imperial Traitor” is now “Defector to the UGS”, and “UGS Traitor” is now “Defector to the Empire”. This means if a client type has UGS in it, they are always with the UGS, and the same with the Empire. The client types are changed in name only though, so don’t worry about having to learn the intricacies of a new client type. (YET! >:3)
The Client Selection Screen isn’t the only thing with color coding!
Besides the Client Selection Screen, we also added the color coding for the Empire, UGS, and territories to the “Info” section of the main console and to the insignia descriptions. Pretty much every place where the Empire or UGS appear in text is now color coded! We also fixed some bugs we found with the Main Console’s “Info” section, the insignia selection scrollbar, and the scrollbar speed setting in this update. We hope you look forward to our next big update!
Hello everyone! Update 0.4.1 for The Chaser’s Voyage went live last Thursday as a quick bug fix update. We usually aim to update the game on Mondays, specifically because this allows us to be ready to update the game if any terrible bugs are found and that’s exactly what happened!
Those bugs are now fixed (more on that below) and so we’re moving on to our client updates! And unlike our past big updates, we’re going to be able to release the client updates in batches. We currently have 3-4 updates planned for the clients, including some fun color changes, updated stories, and most exciting of all, a new client type! We’ll tell you more as we’re closer to each update and we hope you look forward to them!
Now that you know what’s coming up, time to talk about this update! Some problematic tutorial bugs slipped through our testing for the Performance Update. Fighters and pirates took up pacifism and would not shoot the player anymore! The player also was able to communicate with the pirates, even after they started to crash, which could lead to endless communication sounds. There were also some small changes we had already made before finding these bugs, like fixing our landing pad sprites, making sure the tutorial always led into the intro cutscene, and fixing a typo. Overall small stuff, but the tutorial bugs were nasty enough that we wanted to push out a fix ASAP.
Our new and improved Landing Pad!
You can read the full patch notes here and can follow us on Twitter and join our Discord for more news and to give feedback! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
Hello everyone! I know it’s been a few months since our last game update, but for good reason! We’ve been busy going through almost EVERY part of The Chaser’s Voyage in order to improve performance and make your voyage as smooth as can be! This update contains quite a few miscellaneous changes, so let’s get started with the main one!
We have improved performance for when things spawn, despawn, or interact with other things! This might not sound like much, but it required going through all of the game’s code and optimizing interactions, adding object pools (reusing objects after you’re done with them instead of destroying them), and making sure that everything still worked the way it should. (I happened to break quite a few things with my changes, so HUGE shout out to Eos for testing the game so much while I was busy trying to fix more things, especially since she was in the middle of a move!) This was the main focus these past few months and it was quite the journey to go through all the code and try to optimize it! Along the way, I noticed several other things that we wanted to change (or fix in the bugs’ cases), and those changes make up the rest of this update!
Some of the bigger remaining changes we made with this update have to do with obstacles. Not only did we fix some bugs regarding obstacle interactions and background obstacle spawn rates, but we decided to implement 2 new options regarding background obstacles. We added a slider that lets the player set the rate at which the background obstacles spawn and a slider that changes how bright the background obstacles are! In the earlier stages of creating The Chaser’s Voyage, we really wanted to fill out the screen space with fake background obstacles that the player couldn’t interact with, to add a bit more depth to the experience. We were cautious to not make those obstacles too bright though, lest they be confused for objects that the player actually needs to dodge. They were a little darker than we’d like, but we didn’t want to brighten them until we made an option for the player to customize the object brightness. We felt that this update was the right time to do that, and both added the option, and increased the default brightness of the background obstacles to better match what we wanted. Also, in fixing the spawn rates of the background obstacles, we were easily able to make a system to let the player control the spawn rate themselves, and decided to add that in as well.
Besides the general changes, sentries also got some tune ups. Sentries have enemies based on their affiliation (UGS dislike bounty hunters and the Empire dislikes pirates), but this was not being expressed the way we wanted it to be. The sentries would become hostile to these enemies, but usually after being attacked, not by default. The sentries now work how we want, and will target their enemies right from the get go! (Also, they will no longer target their army’s own fighters. Sorry about that fighter pilots!) Space battles also got a change, with exploding battleships no longer slowing down. This change was made to make sure that the battleships didn’t get too clogged up at slower speeds.
The next batch of changes are visual ones. We wanted to add some slight improvements to various visuals, to go with our performance improvements. First, we now have subtitles on as the default. Since our game starts immediately with the tutorial and more specifically with Argi talking to you, we wanted to make sure anyone who needs subtitles would have them from the get go. Second, we slightly darkened Nila’s subtitle color to better match the rest of the crew’s subtitle colors. Third, we added some subtle shadows to Battleships, Bounty Hunters, Buildings, Fighters, Merchant Ships, Obstacles, and Pirates. These help the sprites “pop” a little better (and in the case of buildings on planets, a LOT better). Finally we made it so that the insignia on the Loading Screen will now cycle through all of the insignias, not just the 3 Chaser insignias.
And, as always, there are the bug fixes. Since we were going through all of the game to make performance improvements we found a lot of bugs (and a couple of typos) that had slipped under our radar! They have all been squashed, but if you happen to find more, please be sure to tell us!
Last week we got to participate in the Ambitious Game Night hosted by the OC Indie Developers group and showed off The Chaser’s Voyage to local gamers in the area. It was a great night of playing indie games, talking shop with people from all over the industry, and food and drinks.
If we saw you there, we hope you had a good time. It was very exciting setting up our game for a kind of an open demo like that. We have never done anything like that before and we learned a lot about how to present our game in such a setting. We’re looking forward to the next one!
For more news follow us on Twitter and join our Discord. (Where you can also give feedback!)
Last week, we made a post showing off the new trailer for The Chaser’s Voyage and it’s a video I’m personally very proud of. To make it, I went back to the basics to learn more about video editing and, specifically, more about how to make good trailers.
First, let me go over some of the follies I think I made during our last trailers. I’m okay with admitting that they weren’t the best trailers, or even “good” game trailers, because I’m still learning this whole process. Trust me, when I started making this game with Cameron, I had no idea about all the things I’d have to learn and do for marketing purposes.
Do not be mistaken though, I am proud of those older trailers. I think editing and style wise they are pretty good. Our reveal trailer is pretty boring visually, but there are hints of something stylish buried beneath an understandably amateurish composition. Our steam trailer, I like to think, has a lot more flair with trailer unique animations and swooshing character introductions, but it was flair in the wrong direction. Seeing hypothetical people’s perspectives can be really rough. I’ve spent so much time with Edwin, Tai, Nila, and Wolfe, that I forget that most people don’t know how awesome they are. Still, this trailer came about after I redid our entire user interface, meaning my skills in GIMP were still burgeoning.
I really like this composition and still think the effects are really cool, but without anyone really knowing our characters, most people would tune this out
Our early access trailer wasn’t actually meant to be our “big trailer.” It was meant to be a smaller trailer that used the flashier steam trailer as a supplement. You can actually tell though that some of the problems with our marketing strategy were starting to be addressed. Less emphasis on the characters nobody knows about and an attempt to better communicate the mechanics of the game. Still, more often than not, audiences did not seem to see what made our game unique and why it was fun. Your advertisements are often the first time people encounter your game, especially in the wild, so making a good first impression that catches people’s attention is absolutely essential.
As I detailed a couple months ago, for this new video, I went back to the basics and scoured the internet for resources to learn how to make a better game trailer. Luckily, professional game trailer editor Derek Lieu has many videos and articles all about the art form. There’s still so much more to learn and do, but for anyone who wants to learn how to make a trailer on their own, I couldn’t recommend Derek’s stuff more.
For our newest trailer, there’s a few key things I experimented with. The first was zooming in to block off the UI. Unlike many other games, our game is VERY UI dependent. How you interact with the UI is how you play the game, so turning it off completely was just not going to happen. For a long time, I was worried that zooming in so much to completely block off the UI would make the game look not as crisp and that might leave a bad impression, but after some tests, I found that it actually looked really great at 1080p. So with that fear assuaged, I used a lot of zoomed in footage to better get across the daring space adventurer vibe without worrying about the UI detracting at all from that. It also made the beginning of the trailer feel much more dynamic.
It’s worrying that this could give a false impression of how The Chaser’s Voyage is played, but what was more important was just hooking people’s attention.
I also learned how to do picture-in-picture in order to better highlight certain elements (and by that I mean the power management mechanics). This actually allowed me to still show off our characters a bit by connecting them to the primary mechanics. A little pip shows which system is going up, a banner says what action the player will get to do, and the character lets the audience associate the system with the character.
Sound mixing and balancing was also a big focus this time on the trailer. I made sure that every cut was on some sort of beat and that the music was properly balanced to emphasize the voices when they were talking, but to also emphasize the music when nobody was talking. Which is important because our music is still incredible. These are all things I learned from Derek’s videos and articles.
Lastly, it was just making sure we showed off everything we’ve done since the last trailer and this one. Showing off cutscenes, using our new Steam thumbnail art, and even using new character art for the villain of the game, that we showed off as a wallpaper a while back. We also were able to include our player death stops for a very dramatic and suspenseful ending.
While progress can be slow, I feel like we’ve made a lot of progress nonetheless. Cutscenes were a huge milestone for us!
The results were a better trailer. One that I think really shows off what we love about The Chaser’s Voyage and will hopefully be the reason everyone else loves it too. It was totally a lot of work, but it goes to show you that as long as you’re willing to put in the work, check your ego at the door, and always be trying and doing, you can go from a know-nothing novice to a knows-a-little-bit novice like me.
For more updates on The Chaser’s Voyage, be sure to check back on our blog, follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
Hello everyone! Our Performance Update for The Chaser’s Voyage is coming along well, we just put out a new, awesome trailer, and it’s time for another Steam sale! Get The Chaser’s Voyage for $10.19 and enjoy!
For more news follow us on Twitter and join our Discord. (Where you can also give feedback!)
Check it out! Our second early access trailer for The Chaser’s Voyage. It’s been a while since our last trailer and we wanted to incorporate some of the new elements we’ve implemented since then.
We’re really proud of this one and it’s going to be our main trailer going forward. Please, share this trailer with as many people as you can. Let’s keep building up this hype starship!
For more updates on The Chaser’s Voyage, be sure to check back on our blog, follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
I was creating some art arrangements for our new trailer trailer when I made something that I thought would be cool desktop wallpaper (1920×1080).
For more updates on The Chaser’s Voyage, be sure to check back on our blog, follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
Hello everyone. Today I thought I would just give you all an update on what I’ve been doing since starting work this year.
With some minor graphical updates made to The Chaser’s Voyage and our tutorial and intro cutscenes from last year now behind us, it was clearly time to begin work on making a new trailer to celebrate the milestones of our latest version. To prepare, I’ve been watching various tips & tricks videos on game trailer editing coupled with some feedback during our time in early access, I’ve been honing my trailer making skills to hopefully best convey the wonderful game I know Cameron and I have been working on.
For anyone curious, I have been singing the praises of Derek Lieu over on our twitter for providing such in-depth looks into what makes game trailers work. Personally, I have felt for a long time now that indie game trailers never adequately explain the “game” part of their game and instead try to sell me on either a world or a vibe. Worlds and vibes are cool and all, but, when I think of indie games, I think of new and exciting ways to play games. Derek’s videos helped me put into words why I think so many indie game trailers either look very unappealing or leave me asking “What am I actually going to do in this game?”
“When does the game trailer get to gameplay part?”
The plan now is to use the advice provided in Derek’s videos to make a game trailer that not only entices, but also explains just what makes The Chaser’s Voyage the fun and unique experience we’ve aimed for since the beginning. Some feedback we’ve gotten is also helping shape this trailer. Perhaps it’s because I’m too close to the project or a game like The Chaser’s Voyage is one that I’ve always wanted to play, but it seems like it was too hard for me to notice the extent at which potential players weren’t understanding the core idea of The Chaser’s Voyage and why it’s fun. That being the tactile, on-the-fly, power management system and the Han Solo-esque ace pilot maneuvers one might pull off.
So, we’re just going to have to explain it people. As mentioned in this Derek Lieu video, sometimes just explaining how to play a game is necessary if it uses a lot of abstract symbols or whose basic mechanics cannot be fully understood until someone plays. Based on the feedback we’ve received, once people understand what our game is about, something clicks and the mechanics all start making sense and are very fun. I think right now, what we’re battling against is people’s assumptions that our power management system is more akin to a power health bar system (which to be fair, we technically have something like that).
Me getting ready to show our trailer once it’s done.
Fortunately, we devised a way to deliver information about the game while keeping that Star Wars inspired cinematic feel of daring space flights and intense chases. This will require some new voice work but luckily, that’s easy enough to obtain since Cameron also provides the wonderful voice of Edwin. A draft of the trailer has already been made that also utilizes some new video editing techniques I learned how to do (such as split screen) and so I’m very excited to show you guys it when it’s done.
For more updates on The Chaser’s Voyage, be sure to check back on our blog, follow us on Twitter, or join our Discord! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
Hello everyone! We’re back from a very nice break and hope you all had some great holidays! We’re hitting the ground running this year with a small update to The Chaser’s Voyage before we dive headfirst into our performance update. Other than crushing some cutscene related bugs, we made two cool visual changes with this update.
1) We added button press effects to the System UI buttons when the player is using the gamepad. This is a subtle change, but it goes well with the highlight effect we added last update!
2) We changed Lady Styx’s sprites for the Day 100 cutscene. Now she is hidden mostly in shadow with some ominous glow thrown in. We really wanted to make it so that her reveal was upon the player beating the game and paying off their debt, not when the player failed to pay it within 100 days. This not only adds some cool suspense and spookiness to getting the Day 100 cutscene, but also better matches how we handle her appearance in the Credits, where she’s in shadow until you’ve beaten the game.
We’re excited for what this year holds for The Chaser’s Voyage and we hope you are too! You can read the full patch notes here!
You can also follow us on Twitter and join our Discord for more news and to give feedback! If you wish to play The Chaser’s Voyage, you can buy it while we’re in Early Access on Steam:
