Hey there. Gnash your teeth and weep for joy because it’s time for yet another dev diary update for both Haulin’ Oats and The Dope Game remaster. First up…
Haulin’ Oats
This week was pretty much checking some small things off my list like updates to the HUD. Mostly for spacing of objects (status effects, items, etc) and tweaking the behavior of said object changes. Tweening sprites and whatnot.
Most of this “polish” is for the Steam Game Festival demo and soon to be available alpha v0.0.2. I know, I know, it has been mentioned a few times and it is close at hand but not quite yet. And, as I mentioned, not quite with multiplayer.
The card drawing system (Encounters, Resources, and Incidents) also got some love. Mostly cosmetic but also functional. Rebuilt the deck notification system and how cards are stored by the user; which also helps with how they are used in the game.
All in all, nothing dreadfully exciting.
The Dope Game Remaster
Prepare yourself… the update will not be ready tomorrow. In fact, I am postponing the remaster release until the end of summer. Why, you ask? I’m further behind than I expected and have more polish to add. Plus I’d like to have more time for the beta testing as well as time to get The Stash DLC up to snuff too.
That being said, here is an updated version of the inventory. This new layout offers more interaction with crew, drugs, and equipment. Also note that armor is now a thing.
I spent some time overhauling the API system and the drop / find system. You can now drop armor, weapons, drugs, and cash in any quantity and everything gets stored in the database for you or others to find. Previously you could only lose one of each type and, if it wasn’t found before you lost another, it would overwrite the previous one. Now there will be a smorgasbord of things to find. Also, they are linked to the area of town they are lost. Meaning that they can only be found there instead of randomly anywhere.
That’s about it for now. Next update will be just before the Steam Game Festival so expect more Haulin’ Oats news and a bit less about The Dope Game. See you then!
Hey there, scallywags! Another week, another development diary, another trickle of information during crunch time.
Haulin’ Oats
This week was more polish and more preparation for the Steam Game Festival. The demo, thankfully, was approved and is ready to go.
Since it has a separate repository from the main game, all of the
changes I am making have to be ported over. That sucked up a lot more
time than I expected really; even though each each activity / interface is its own scene in Godot. The cards being the biggest pain in the ass, which required rewriting some underlying systems.
That being said, the next alpha should be out around the same time as the Steam Game Festival (early June). Steam keys have been procured and will be distributed that week.
The Dope Game Remaster
Tried to crank out the last remaining environment assets this week. They seem to take about a day a piece actually. By that math, I didn’t get many of them done.
In between assets, I went in to check some things off my list. Kind of a double-check before pushing things to the beta branch. If I am still going to hit my May 30th deadline (which is about a week from today), the beta branch will probably end up with a very small window.
That being said, multiplayer will probably end up being patched in after May 30th. Most of my time has been sucked up revamping the main portion of the game itself and multiplayer still requires a lot of additional testing and functionality before it is ready for prime-time.
That’s about it for now, next week will hopefully be news on the imminent release of some things!
Hey there, fellers! It is that time again, you know the one; development diaries for both Haulin’ Oats and The Dope Game remaster. I’ll keep them brief, as is tradition.
Haulin’ Oats
This week was a crunch to get the demo submitted for the Steam Game Festival and, by the skin of my ass, I made it. The demo is based on the alpha version 0.0.2 build that you early adopters will get access to soon (and on Steam, no less); more on that a little later.
The demo will be available at the start of the Steam Game Festival for the public to try. It limits you to just singleplayer, with only the basic five drivers, co-pilots, and pets. Encounter, Resource, and Incident cards are limited to the first 10. Everything else should function as normal. Oh, except you only get one lap before the demo ends; however, you can replay it over and over to get a taste of the whole board.
This demo will also be updated as alpha testing and beta testing continue. It will also turn into the game’s official demo at release.
Back to the next alpha build, I am currently doing one more big polish and bug pass before uploading it to Steam. I don’t have an exact date but I’d say very soon. Once that gets uploaded, the Steam keys for cast, crew, early adopters, and some other folks will be passed out. The bulk will be available through the Itch.io links you were given previously or in your Itch.io account. The small remainder will be e-mail individually.
A little bit down the road is alpha version 0.0.3 which will have multiplayer and Steam achievements. Hopefully this will also be the last alpha version before moving into beta as all the systems will be in place and just need tweaked.
Oh, and a trailer is being worked on too…
The Dope Game Remaster
Honestly, not a lot happened with The Dope Game this week as almost all the time was spent getting Haulin’ Oats’ demo ready. Nonetheless, there was some work done though it was mostly bug-hunting.
Here is a screenshot of the main menu now. You know, for shits and giggles.
I was going to upload the new store graphics and Steam assets, as well as new achievement icons but after getting everything in place it just seemed a bit confusing. You know, considering it doesn’t match the current version that’s available.
That being said, the beta branch should get some love soon. Still hoping to hit the May 30th deadline and 4-year anniversary of the game’s launch, so I should get back to it.
Hello there, my dear friend. Welcome back to another development diary for Haulin’ Oats and The Dope Game remaster. As per usual we will dig right into all the newest things.
Haulin’ Oats
With the Steam Game Festival right around the corner, much work has been put into getting the game’s demo ready. It does include, however, necessary work for the next alpha build too.
The screenshot here shows the implementation of the achievements and statistics; as well as the new menu layout which probably doesn’t look a whole hell of a lot different. It is now centered. Stats and achievements will be active in the next alpha but, obviously, not the demo.
Multiplayer may not actually be in the game until alpha v0.0.3 depending on time. Right now the focus is getting the demo and alpha v0.0.2 done by Valve’s May 15th deadline. That being said, if it doesn’t then v0.0.3 will be along much faster than v0.0.2 was / is.
The store page is ready as well but a trailer is also being put together before I make that live. Nonetheless, it’ll be ready for you to check out and wishlist by next weekend.
The Dope Game Remaster
The Dope Game also got a lot of love this week. There was a lot of polish for the remaster beta testing and an update to the warning screen that Google loves so much.
All the main menu stuff got their face-lifts finished and systems tweaked. The major difference besides graphical is the leaderboards will now show the top five players in each category instead of the top player. Also Steam backed-up statistics were removed due to long-standing issues with keeping them synced correctly. The game will rely on itself and CoaguCo servers to track everything. Now that it’s all out of the way, the last push to polish up the main game loops is on.
Most likely the holiday events will not be active in the remaster version until the each holiday happens; then it’s back to normal afterward. Also the Russian translation will be delayed for a bit as new text will require new translations to be made. However, pushing some graphical elements to text elements (based on Haulin’ Oats design) will allow localization to be easier.
That’s it for this week. There should be much more to show next week thanks to a crunch session and quarantine!
Why hello. Here again for another quick rundown of things that happened during the game development process? Surely. So let’s get to it.
Haulin’ Oats
This week was more revamping menu stuff because who doesn’t love fixing what ain’t broke, a new guest character, and more Steam Game Festival prep.
As pictured above, Maury is the new guest character; normally the guest characters have not been shown but eh. This shows his achievement icon, playing card, and character avatar. I’m sure you can guess who he is a parody of.
Some brainstorming was done on the game’s trailer, since it should probably be ready for the store page when that launches; which should also be up for the Steam Game Festival. Including a demo which will be based on the next alpha update and also updated frequently on the road to release.
The Dope Game Remaster
Credits were tinkered with and more under-the-hood stuff.
This work-in-progress shot above shows the lovely dialog avatars from the current version of the game reworked to be character / actor icons for the credits page. That title clearly isn’t going to be in the final version, nor the background.
Also coding for the city loop and Stashware were worked on but no cool pictures of that stuff. It was mostly tweaking things and making it more efficient; also cutting out all the old 32-bit INT code and making sure it still works.
Game. In development. The revolving door of backstabbing.
About
CoaguCo Industries is based in Austin, TX making video games, comics, videos, and whatnot. It is also the parent company / publisher for Tenth&Hess and Second Class Villain games.
