Playtesting is dopamine

Hi all,

And that is January done, I missed my 1st of the month dev log, my apologies. I've set a reminder in my to-do app instead of just trying to remember. My youngest child (7 months) is in hospital for the 7th time in her life. I've managed to not let it affect my dev work but it finally must have gotten to me (this dev log being written from the hospital room). I will persevere as I would hate to stop after all my progress.

Lots of good things were done in January.

Things I got done in January

• "Synchronous" multiplayer moves foundations are in. Now I just need to implement all the moves, but that shouldn't take too long as the hard work and design have been done
• Using art asset icons instead of the placeholders as I would like the trailer to be done soon
• I did a playtest! This was a huge step for me as it was such a mental block. The feedback was very motivating, even though it left me with a massive to-do list.
• I've implemented the majority of changes from the playtest, apart from a few big-ticket items.
• Made all my social media marketing accounts
  
• I started working on a tool to make marketing slightly more efficient. This tool actually took up a good 20 hours of dev time, but 1. it will be worth it time-saving-wise, and 2. It is fun. I was scared this was a classic case of starting a new project but so far so good

I missed a few other goals, but I am still waiting on the art for the steam page. Once the art is in I will be able to publish it finally! I'll need a trailer too so lot's to do.

Things I want to get done in February

• Still wanting the steam art to be done as I need the steam page published. It is currently taking up a lot of my cognitive capacity
• I want a Linux job ready in my build server. This is an important marketing concept as it will support the Linux community
• I want to incorporate Steam in my build server (i.e. upload Alphas to Steam).
• I want to add a secondary color scheme to the game assets. It has a red version and I believe a second environment will sell the game more strongly.
• I want to start exploring the concept of a tutorial as that was part of the feedback I have received