2020 just sucked, didn't it? Good riddance I say.
It's no secret that Squid In A Box Ltd is in fact just one person. It isn't a studio with a half dozen full-time employees it's just Li'l ol' me trying to get as much done as I can.
2020 was just awful for that. Between starting a new job so we could pay the bills, moving cities, and everything else it left me going from working full-time on Waves 2 to working at weekends. I've been averaging maybe 6-8 hours a week this year where before I would be working 40-50.
The Winter 2020 season in-game has lasted all year rather than the 3 months a season normally lasts and it will continue until the next major update sometime in Jan of this year.
So if there haven't been any major game updates in 2020 what have there been?
A Growing Community
There are plenty of loyal fans playing the game every single day, especially on the last day of each month for those last-minute leaderboard grabs! We've been at around 200 monthly active users all year which is actually an increase over 2019 so the community has been growing which is amazing!
Plenty of bugs have been reported both on the forums and in the discord and I am addressing all of them as best I can.
Console Ports
A Nintendo Switch version of the game is in the works! It's currently playable but needs lots of UI changes and optimizations and won't be released until after PC reaches 1.0 but it is definitely going to happen!
Achievements
Steam Achievements are coming soon! Most of my 2020 has been spent working on these and I have 36 achievements* implemented that are currently undergoing testing and balancing. Some of them require changes to Items in the game so it's taken longer than expected but they will be part of the next big update.
Boring Project Management Stuff!
Finalizing the design of the game and getting all of the work needed into a task tracker (Jira for those that are curious). Not all of it is required to ship but it's good to have a definitive list of everything left to do.
2021 will hopefully be different. I'm working on the next major update and while I originally planned for it to be released in December that didn't happen due to a small case of catching Covid and being put out of action for almost 3 weeks.
There are almost 800 hours of work left to do in my backlog for the game. Was I working full-time this would be around 6 months of work (including contingency) but at my current rate of around 8 hours a week that shakes out to over 2 years.
Unless I can secure funding to allow me to work full-time again then either big features have to be cut (such as all of Dive mode and Multiplayer) or everyone is going to have to keep on waiting.
It's not the news you all wanted to hear and it's not the news I want to deliver but it's the way things are.
THIS GAME IS NOT DEAD!
I will continue with development until my last breath if I have to. I love this game and I love our community and I want to do my very best for all of us!
I hope you have a good 2021 and with any luck maybe I can get back to full-time development again.
Please follow me on Twitter for more frequent updates and don't forget to tell your friends about this great little twin-stick shooter called Waves 2.
* I also need 36 achievement icons, so if you are an artist and interested in developing a visual style for them then get in touch at rob squidinabox com