The swiftly approaching deadline of the expo has been a great motivator, and I’ve had to consider both physical and digital presence. On the physical side…

Jon Peck posing in front of a Null Band Games banner

I’ve continued my work on Steam Deck compatibility, but I’m not confident I’ll be able to get it to the level of polish that I think it should be. I will bring two mice, keyboards, and monitors, along with my two Steam Decks (original LED and a white OLED). This will guarantee that everyone will be able to play and avoids obvious feedback about controller support.

I need to order stickers for the game and evergreen business cards for myself, and I need to do that sooner rather than later.

Digitally, I’ve been putting together the Steam Store Page. I had gotten advice from… someone, I’m sorry, I don’t remember who, who recommended doing the Steam Capsule art within the game engine. It’s a great suggestion. I still needed to do some scaling and cropping, but having the assets right there was clutch. I’ve got most of the metadata together:

Steam Store Page Beta for an unannounced roguelike deckbuilder

It’s also forced me to work on the art, which I’ve been pretty intentionally ignoring. I had previously experimented with the player’s avatar using procedural generation, but put it aside. I revisited it, with some of the same ideas but a new implementation approach with an eye towards persistence and serialization. The square became a cigar, but then with some other parameters has evolved into something more shiplike, with “greeblies” as the random little decorators are referred to by Industrial Light and Magic.

A procedurally generated space ship

There’s definitely more to go and it’s a bit noisy right now. The colors are consistent with the theme, but I need to do some work to make it a bit more distinctive; some outlines (shaders?) will help.

The art and polish has been not only for the static page, but for a teaser trailer. After some effort, I have a rough cut, but there are a few things that I need to do in order to make it ready:

  • Recapture cut scenes without mouse cursor
  • Extend from 60 seconds to 90 seconds to improve pacing
  • Add animations to key mechanics to make it clear that Something Is Happening, rather than the result just appearing
  • Clean up replayability language so procedural generation is infinite, but scripted encounters aren’t
  • Add colors and shapes to placeholder enemy art (everyone is just red squares right now) for variety

I know I want the trailer ready for the expo, which means I’ve got some work ahead of me. I’m trying not to crunch, but I can’t let it sit either.