Grid Force – July Developer Recap

IT’S COMING UP, IT’S COMING UP...

Hey there!

It’s time for the Grid Force developer recap for the month of July, 2022. This one will be on the shorter side because we’ve had our heads down this month, but, there’s still a little bit of news to get stuck into, regardless.

In case you missed it last month, this will be the final developer recap that I, Staples, will write here at Playtra Games / Dreamnauts Studios. 

It’s been a truly great experience and an honour to be a part of the Dreamnauts team, and to get to interact with so many of you from our community, whether it be through our Twitter, Discord, Steam Community Hub; wherever. Even if you’ve just tweeted at us once, or popped in our server just to ask us a quick question, I appreciate all of you.

I’m definitely going to be lingering around the Grid Force space, too, and am looking forward to finally being able to play it alongside the rest of you!

But with all that being said, for the last time, I’m going to take you through the month of July at Dreamnauts.

AUGUST DELAY BRINGS SEPTEMBER DISMAY

The first and perhaps most important part of this blog post is that Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess has been delayed from the original launch date of August 11th, 2022, pushing it back to September.

Although it’s a shame that we can’t get Grid Force into your hands as soon as possible, the extra month is hugely beneficial for us when it comes to ensuring the game launches in the best possible state. When we were given the chance to polish the game for just a little bit longer, we thought it’d be for the best if we took that chance.

Thankfully, it’s not a huge delay, and we’re very much looking forward to getting Grid Force into your hands in September!  (Mark those calendars! Or, like, update those calendars, I guess.)

PAX RISES WITH GRID FORCE SURPRISES

We snagged ourselves a few spots during the wonderful PAX Rising event, wherein we tackled Advice to Aspiring Developers, Picking New Projects, and Designing Games in some roundtable discussions, as well as a post mortem for Grid Force and some let’s play stuff, too.

Thanks to everyone who took part or engaged with us over the streams and events and roundtables. We were delighted to share the space with so many other incredible talents in the gaming industry, and we hope you learned something along the way!

(Speaking of engagement, we hit a very important milestone this month…)

COUCH TO 10K - STEAM EDITION

As a marketing, community, and social media gremlin, there’s many ways in which to measure success on a project.

Keeping documents and spreadsheets fully updated with our monthly goals and then how close we came to reaching those goals, or, in many cases, how much we surpassed them, is a good way to help dictate the direction of our marketing material.

It lets me know when something isn’t working, for example, like a Steam capsule image or a series of screenshots.

It’s always a great moment, then, when a long-term goal is reached on a project, and for Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess, that came in the form of our Steam wishlists!

Wishlists are a great way for us to measure the overall interest in our game, and our goal of reaching 10,000 wishlists before release was not only met, but one we’ve blown right past as we continue to gather those sweet, sweet numbers. 

We have you to thank for that, for wishlisting the game, telling your friends to wishlist the game, sneaking onto your families’ computers whilst they’re not looking and wishlisting the game for them (don’t do that one). It all adds up.

(Here’s to the next 10k!)

BUG OF THE MONTH: NOBLE DONNA

Finally, the Temple Trials, our little survival challenge in the Grid Force demo, has been a blast. It also came with its own fair share of bugs, and members of our community managed to capture some on their way to the legendary 50th wave.

Here’s something that cropped up on our Discord, courtesy of Mechpolaris.

From my understanding, at the 30th wave of the Temple Trials, Donna defeated the boss and, well, just decided to stick around. Forever. 

This also meant that Donna could not be switched to during the next waves, either, so she’d just stand there to soak up any damage coming her way until she was, eventually, eliminated. 

If you’ve read prior posts from this developer diary series, you’d know that characters being where they shouldn’t is something we deal with every so often. Still, it’s great to know about these things, and we’re always hugely appreciative of our community who jump in our Discord or poke us on Twitter to let us know that something isn’t looking quite right. 

That way, we can focus on it, find out the cause, and get it fixed!

(I hope your Temple Trial run went well, and don’t worry, even though the prize / challenge aspect is over, the trials are going nowhere…)

IT’S DARE

TL;DR:

• Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess’ release date has been pushed from August 18th to September.
• We participated in many, many PAX Rising events.
• We hit 10k wishlists on Steam.
• The Temple Trials had a cheeky little bug again.

And with all that being said, this marks the end of this developer recap for the month of July!

As stated up top, this will be the last one of these that I write for all of you, so, if I don’t see you lurking around the Discord or wherever else, I sincerely hope you enjoy Grid Force when it launches in September, and that these posts have been somewhat informative regarding game development from the inside!

I know I’ve had a blast writing them.

Anyway, have a great August, take care of yourself, and do the work. 

• Staples (Community Manager at Dreamnauts Studios)