On June 14, I got the steam approval to put a playtest build out online for the first time. Twenty two people have opted in to tracking since, and 50+ people have installed according to Steam. That is not a big number, and I am not going to pretend it is, but it is more than were playing it in May, and that's pretty cool. Since that first build there have been sixteen releases, from big adds to small patches. Here is what actually came out of it. June 14. The rink floats in a black void and the crowd is basic and glowing. The same camera today.
My last devlog put the feedback up on a public page with a status pill on each theme, and I said the pill flips when I ship it. Update on some of those:
"It's too fast to follow." The most common note by a mile, six people said it. There is a GAME SPEED setting now, and the default is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than what I originally had. I also added reaction time to the AI decision making. They no longer pass the puck around like crazy and instantly. They "take time" to think and also make mistakes.
"The defense is relentless." Defenders play real zone coverage instead of all 5 players chasing the puck, and they run actual systems now - breakouts, forechecks, a power-play overload. I tried my best to implement some real hockey plays and I'll continue adding in more.
"I can't keep the puck on quick passes." This one was open for a long time. A pass now gets caught in a cone in front of you instead of snapping to your stick from any angle, and a puck you win off a battle sweeps in rather than teleporting. Looks more natural to me. Also the overall speed of the game helps this a lot.
"The skaters don't feel like they're on ice." Still in progress. I've changed how turning works while boosting and how stamina affects turn radius. Will love to see how the current changes affect this. I don't want the game to feel as floaty as the current EA games, so its a fine balance.
"The tutorial needs clearer prompts." FIRST SHIFT got rebuilt, it pauses on each instruction, and the button prompts match the controller you are actually holding.
A goal today: the scorer and both assists on the scoring chip, confetti, better replays, and more.
Fights got torn out and rebuilt as an actual fighting game, with combo strings and a knockout finisher. There is a Training Camp with drills (but not included in the demo). There is a replay theater and a photo mode, with them recently getting combined into one vs separate. There is couch multiplayer that actually works (when I first put it in, I didn't test and it would crash the game), two players against the CPU or four pads for 2v2. The game UI supports ten languages (thanks google translate). The graphics settings calibrate themselves off a real match on first boot instead of guessing, hopefully alleviating some of the framerate issues I can see on my end. Fights now. The whole UI got swapped out too. It started as a pixel, 8-bit kind of look, which I liked for about a month, but it made the game read as a retro throwback instead of what I feel the game is more leaning towards. It is a bit more early 00's in my opinion, also just easier to read. You can see it in the two shots at the top. The skater models have gotten a huge repass as well, even if they still look bad. Their skates FINALLY plant on the ice instead of sliding through it, their bottom hand actually grips the stick instead of hovering near it (but still is a bit rough), and the stick blade grounds on the real geometry of the ice. I keep on redoing animations all over the place, trying my best to make things look a bit more natural. None of these are features but all of it is the difference between looking totally janky and unfinished, and only partially janky. And there is a commentator now that will ship in the demo build, calling the game in a real voice. I'm excited for that to go out with the demo and see what people think. I personally play with it off, but that's because it's me, and its really weird to listen to myself.
A boatload. Pucks stuck to an invisible shelf above the net when I swapped net models and didn't update the collision. A goalie could get announced for scoring a goal that was deflected in off him while he was the one getting scored on. The crossbar sound played when you hit the post. Two centers showed up for the same overtime faceoff. A sixth skater would wander on after a fight and never leave. Sometimes that'd happen multiple times and a team would have like 8 players on the ice. Every one of those was found by somebody playing, usually somebody who just said "the puck got stuck" and left it at that. That is genuinely all I need. I have the telemetry and the replays to find the rest. The demo lands Monday, August 3rd. Six weeks ago this was twenty-two people. If it goes badly this time it will go badly in front of considerably more, which is the whole point of doing it in the open. I'll probably be ending the playtest after the demo is out and restarting it for a smaller group as I work on the rest of the features. The past 3-4 weeks have solely been on polishing gameplay and what is included in the demo, so the rest of the game really needs some love.