Horace Hagfish ( A color mixing and matching Sokoban-like) Coming Soon on Steam.

We shall see. I might eat my words when the public clamors for a rewind feature!

Do you think some of the frustration with the controls in your game go back to the origin? Was it Solomon's Key? I remember having some difficulty with the original lining up the shot toward the floor vs just walking off the ledge. I think because the range is so short. I'm not sure what the solution is...maybe have the tile the shot would hit automatically highlight as you move the player around?

If it's the movement controls I'd say just remove all inertia from the player.

Do you think some of the frustration with the controls in your game go back to the origin? Was it Solomon's Key?

It was solomons key 2 in some regions and fire n' ice in some others. I don't think it has anything to do with the original game, just that the way I programmed it turned out to be terrible with a whole range of knock-on effects on the movement. The main problem was exactly what you described as players often failed to stop where they intended to. I tried a bunch of methods but most were just kind of slapping a bandaid on an open fracture.

If it's the movement controls I'd say just remove all inertia from the player.

That's part of what I did for version 2. Funny enough, this would have not properly worked in version 1, it is really bad lmao. But the movement in this version is now very much linear and I think I also have a better buffering system.

Getting down to the wire now. I've been tinkering with the Steam store page a bit and seeing if I can unearth any catastrophic bugs in the current build.

Meanwhile I'm doing mental gymnastics to figure out how I'm going to reach 10 reviews. I don't even know 10 gamers! I did notice an uptick in traffic yesterday, probably due to the imminent release. Wishlist rate also went up a bit.

Horace Hagfish is now available on Steam!

I would like to thank everyone for being so helpful in the Construct forums.

So far the launch is going smoothly. I am being inundated with spam emails asking for free steam keys.

Congrats, a lot of people don't even get this far in the first place.

I am being inundated with spam emails asking for free steam keys.

Lmao yeah, those are pretty much all key resellers trying to nab a free key. Most of them might look legit at first glance but they don't pass a closer look. Thankfully this dies off somewhat after a while.

Horace Hagfish is now available on Steam!

I would like to thank everyone for being so helpful in the Construct forums.

So far the launch is going smoothly. I am being inundated with spam emails asking for free steam keys.

Yay! Congrats!

How's the launch going so far?

I just bought the game. I'll play it later tonight and leave a review for you!

Thank you! I definitely need reviews haha.

Underwhelming so far. Twelve copies sold as of right now. But no catastrophic bugs reported or returns so that's good.

Hey, just checking in – how are things going with the game? Has the situation improved a bit since the launch?

Sales on my game basically stopped. I'm assuming most people are waiting for the Christmas discounts at this point, but then it will probably be it.

I'm still happy with how it went overall, but I sure need to do better next time if I ever hope to make games for a living one day.

Is there anything you learned from this experience you don't mind sharing?

Same thing on my end. I get a random sale every few days but I agree everyone is probably holding off until the Winter Sale. I'm getting more wishlists post release for some reason. I'm hoping (fingers crossed) that I can pickup some sales every time the game goes on sale. But as you said, it certainly isn't paying the bills...or any bills for that matter haha.

I'm still mulling over what to work on next. I have a few ideas and obviously it would be inadvisable to try working on all of them all at once.

A big part of me just wants to dive into making a retro dungeon crawler. I know I'd never get tired of it but I don't yet have confidence in my ability to create inventory, character leveling, and turn based combat systems.

On the other hand I've been sitting on a single player card game design that would be fun and less monumental. I've also got an action-arcade game idea that I'm confident I can make well but feel it isn't really pushing me to learn more.

Have you zeroed in on what you're going to work on next?

As for what I've learned...

Whatever the project it needs to be something you'll passionately work on for twice as long as you think it will take. That last 20% is dangerous territory!

The other big think is to get that game out and playable in some form as early as possible. Not just for testing but also to start marketing. The only pitfall I can't get around here is that some genres just aren't built for an extended lifespan! I don't want that to drive my choice of genre though. I'm getting really tired of everything being a roguelite or loaded with crafting busy work.

Thanks for the purchase! The current build is using NW and not Webview2. There are some issues with certain versions of Greenworks not working with the steam deck. Some clever individuals have figured out which old versions of Greenworks still work on the deck. So I have a new build that does "work" on the deck but I haven't uploaded it to Steam as there are still issues. Basically the game will not stay in full screen and keeps reverting to windows mode. This makes it very difficult to play. I have a few folks testing out various builds so hopefully I'll find a solution soon although I'm not optimistic.

I had issues exporting to Mac as well. None of my Mac testers could get the game running. This combined with the issues with the Steam Deck have made me nervous about releasing the game for platforms I don't personally have access to since I don't have a good way to troubleshoot the problems.

Whatever the project it needs to be something you'll passionately work on for twice as long as you think it will take. That last 20% is dangerous territory!

Yes, the final strech is extremely daunting. For some reason it haunts you with doubts and it feels like there's no light ahead. I'm there currently but I think I handle it quite well for now. But it's a grind regardless.

releasing the game for platforms I don't personally have access to since I don't have a good way to troubleshoot the problems.

You can set up a virtual box with a linux and a mac install. It's fairly straightforward with a tutorial, just finding a mac iso is not that easy. Doesn't help with steamdeck though.

IMHO this should be the most important thing in your roadmap, but it is just my opinion it's up to you.

From what I gathered a very important part is apparently translation. So covering the big languages English, French, Italian, German, Spanish followed by Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean followed by Brazilian-Portugese, Russian and Turkish. I'd argue most linux users are savvy enough to run wine anyway, and doesn't the steam deck do that too anyway?

Thank you both for the tips. I'll look into setting up a virtual box.

As for Steam Deck I'm still having the issue of the game switching to windowed mode constantly. It is a very odd problem!

How has compatibility been on the Steam Deck for you? I'm somewhat interested in getting one but I mostly play old PC games using dosbox. I'm curious how it handles historical relics.