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[switchfox]

As for language -- I'm yet to settle on this but I'm leaning towards using a simple symbol language instead of English. So, for instance, instead of displaying "Fragment lies south of here" you might see a green circle and an arrow pointing downwards. I want to keep this game accessible to all without going through a lengthy localisation procedure, and so a simple symbol language might be the best option. Some things, like the Tombstone eulogies, would still be in English.

I like this idea... Reading text can slow down the game. Since moonman doesn't speak (right?), it seems weird to be reading a significant amount of text anyways.

[rek]

As for language -- I'm yet to settle on this but I'm leaning towards using a simple symbol language instead of English. So, for instance, instead of displaying "Fragment lies south of here" you might see a green circle and an arrow pointing downwards. I want to keep this game accessible to all without going through a lengthy localisation procedure, and so a simple symbol language might be the best option. Some things, like the Tombstone eulogies, would still be in English.

I like this idea... Reading text can slow down the game. Since moonman doesn't speak (right?), it seems weird to be reading a significant amount of text anyways.

It can slow down the game, but it can also be critical for telling the player what they should be doing, in what order they should be doing it, and so on. Nothing is more frustrating than not understanding what you're supposed to be doing, or hitting a progress gate you can't figure out how to get through.

If you're going to rely entirely on symbols, those symbols need to be completely unambiguous and encountered with enough regularity that the player can associate them with specific locations, objects, etc.

[davisdude]

Hey! I've been slowly making my way through this DevBlog (it would be easier if you guys would stop posting!  )
I just saw this tweet from the developers of Crawl, and thought everybody might want to see it

Link to tweet.
It seems even the smile was captured!

[switchfox]

As for language -- I'm yet to settle on this but I'm leaning towards using a simple symbol language instead of English. So, for instance, instead of displaying "Fragment lies south of here" you might see a green circle and an arrow pointing downwards. I want to keep this game accessible to all without going through a lengthy localisation procedure, and so a simple symbol language might be the best option. Some things, like the Tombstone eulogies, would still be in English.

I like this idea... Reading text can slow down the game. Since moonman doesn't speak (right?), it seems weird to be reading a significant amount of text anyways.

It can slow down the game, but it can also be critical for telling the player what they should be doing, in what order they should be doing it, and so on. Nothing is more frustrating than not understanding what you're supposed to be doing, or hitting a progress gate you can't figure out how to get through.

If you're going to rely entirely on symbols, those symbols need to be completely unambiguous and encountered with enough regularity that the player can associate them with specific locations, objects, etc.

Agreed. There should definitely be a balance.

[eigenbom]

If you're going to rely entirely on symbols, those symbols need to be completely unambiguous and encountered with enough regularity..

Well the thing is that they are just hints. It's not like they contain the secret key to unlocking a door, for instance. At worst you won't have any idea what they are saying and will have to manually explore the whole area, but at best the symbols will be as clear as other symbols in games (like hearts as health for example) and will be a fun mechanic. We'll see how this develops and I'm looking forward to getting feedback from you guys about the specifics.

@davisdude -- Yep it's super fun to see Moonman as deity in Powerhoof and I can't wait to check it out. I <3 Powerhoof, they are nice guys

[eigenbom]

Update: Updated website, finalising tshirt and postcard designs, and I've sorted out my humble tax form for now. Mete with an accountant and put together a basic budget. Too much non-game stuff!

Had a poll for the pig tshirt and had an overwhelming vote for a design so I'll be running that one. Also here's the basic concept for the navy one. (And the green one you've seen.)

[Noogai03]

[eigenbom]

Update: http://discuss.moonman.io/t/initial-work-on-game-launcher/977

I started to throw together a simple game launcher today. The launcher will exist only for the alpha/beta builds and will:

• check that you've got the latest version;
• report any important news;
• link you directly to the forum for bug reporting;
• show the game log; and
• offer some launch options.

Over time I'll add more functionality to help with reporting issues and getting some basic analytics (opt-in, of course).

Auto-updating is in the too-hard basket atm. If we were doing the alpha-testing just through Steam then it would have been a breeze, but afaict the humble store API isn't well documented. For the first few builds we'll just go through this indirect route and see how it goes.

These launchers are just simple throwaway things and so I'll just directly build them with the OS-specific APIs. Here's a simple one I threw together in Winforms that grabs data from a file on moonman.io and compares it to the current version etc.

[Quarry]

Subtle advertisement

[Mixer]

Huh, launcher is looking nice. Inspired from minecraft?

[eigenbom]

Thx Mixerman. Quarry -- ?

Update: Worked on the launcher and integrated crash reporting for the alpha testing in a couple of months. Boring stuff but necessary for the next stage of Moonman. Once it gets onto Steam I'll do away with this bugsplat crash reporting system, but for the non-steam alpha stage I think it'll be very useful.

[Quarry]

Talking about the Teslagrad and Beyond Earth shortcuts on the background

[eigenbom]

Oh right, haha. They are in my play queue, haven't had the time to play them yet.

[oodavid]

MOONMIN

[ZeroTec]

MOONMIN

lol, that's pure gold

[oodavid]

@ZeroTec - heh, that's why they pay me the big money...

[eigenbom]

I love it and tweeted it <3

[xier]

hey eigenboom just wanted to say congrats on your kickstarter! the game looks great !!

[eigenbom]

Thanks xier! :D

[eigenbom]

Update: Almost finished the launcher. All parts of the launcher and updater are now working and my build system now automates everything. Every time I update the game, I'll just be able to run a script which builds it, sends the update info to s3 (where the updates are stored), sends the debugging symbols so I can debug crashes, and outputs a manifest which the launcher will use to check for updates.

Details about this will be available when the alpha is released, but basically the build you get from humble will include a launcher that checks for bleeding-edge updates. These are optional, but will be updated far more often than the humble build. You'll put your alpha key into the launcher and it'll grab the latest updates. The keys will also be distributed through humble. Every now and then I might update the launcher, and in that case you'll need to re-download it from humble in order to keep updating.

I've just got to finish off the server-side key/update mechanism and then I can close this part up, and get back to work on the actual game. This work was a bit of a deviation, but it's important that we have a simple method to update, and now we do!