Twas The Day Before Launch...

And not a creature stirred. Actually, many creatures stirred. Namely, the three developers on our game Ultimate Chicken Horse. We're stirring quite a bit to have as smooth a launch as possible, and it's a pretty intense experience.

The local game is playable, fun, and ready to rock, but the online multiplayer is still in a bit of a beta state. I know this is a disappointment to some, but on the bright side it will be functional and we'll have it up and perfect in no time. Our estimation in how long it would take to code was simply too low... but on the bright side, the main game on Steam is still the awesome thing you were expecting. We're finishing up the online stuff but you can access it in the beta branch on Steam by following these instructions.

Spoiler: it's not too easy!

We'll be the first ones to admit that we're not as ready as we would like to be, and that when we delayed the launch, we probably should have delayed it further. We made a mistake in picking this date without the estimation experience to know that it would bite us, but in life we need to make mistakes to learn. At the end of the day we think our game is super fun, and plan to let this mark the beginning of our relationship with players who will receive new content after launch. We don't think players will be disappointed with the game they're getting when they buy Ultimate Chicken Horse, and we think they'll be impressed when they see what we have coming.

Why aren't we delaying the launch again? Good question. First of all, we want to get the game in the hands of the people who have been waiting for it, even without a fully bug-free online branch. Second, press and YouTubers and streamers are already playing the game and are ready to launch their info / reviews / videos on March 4th. We don't want to miss the opportunity by having videos made and have the game not be available for purchase. As long as the world knows that the online is there and that a better version is coming, we should be fine. 

In more positive news though, our new launch trailer is ready to roll, but you'll have to be patient and wait until tomorrow to see it! Hence the name "launch trailer"!

We hope that the community will be with us in the continued development of the game; there are certain features that we'd like to include and we plan to do so as soon as we launch. The online multiplayer is almost ready, and the next step is the Sandbox mode which we promised during Kickstarter, where players can free build and (ideally) share their levels that they've created. 

Ultimate Chicken Horse Launches in Two Weeks!

Greetings!

It’s starting to heat up in the world of Clever Endeavour as we prepare for the launch of Ultimate Chicken Horse on March 4th! That’s right, we actually have a release date! Please leave comments on Steam when we launch… we’ll love you forever :)

We’ve been super, super busy trying to get everything in order for launch and trying to make sure that our game is as awesome as it can possibly be for launch. So what does this mean?

Setting Up the Unlock System

One of the things we hadn’t worked on at all, but always planned for, was an unlock system so that when the game starts, not all of the characters and levels are available to you. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, we want to introduce new players to the levels slowly, so they don’t get overwhelmed and feel like the game is too hard. Some of the later levels are quite challenging… Second, we like the idea of being rewarded for doing well, and the excitement of unlocking a new outfit, level or character makes it worth it!

New Level: Metal Plant

Kyler’s been finishing up the art on our newest level, Metal Plant. The level is going to be quite difficult, with components constantly in motion. You’ll also notice there’s glue on each of the moving pieces (see gif below) and that means you can attach all sorts of stuff to it to make it more dangerous. Or more helpful, but who wants that??

UI Overhaul

One of the most important steps in polishing our game (or most games, for that matter) is going over the UI (user interface) and making sure everything is intuitive. Players sometimes had issues understanding certain game details at shows, and we needed to give press extra instructions when sending them a build of the game. We also had some camera issues where the camera would block off certain things or the UI would be layered in strange ways, so we fixed that up. A simple example is that in Creative mode, when one player is selecting, the other player (the one that’s placing) isn’t covered by the booklet that opens up:

Online Multiplayer?

Working on it! We wanted to finish up our build for the press (see below) so that we had something polished to put out for reviews. We’re still working on the online multiplayer though and it’s going fairly well, we’re going to do our best to make it happen!

Making a Trailer

We’ve been working on a new launch trailer which we hope will take over the internet! Alright maybe not quite, but we’d like to at least make a little dent. Our first trailer was nice, but we wanted to show off all of the new features while still making a video that explains the game well. The trailer isn’t done yet but it should be ready by next week.

Emailing Press

It’s time! Or, it was time I guess. Today we emailed the press to tell them of our launch date, give them review copies of the game, and give them all the information they need to write reviews or articles about Ultimate Chicken Horse. The only thing that’s missing from this build is the online multiplayer, and surely there are some minor bugs we’ll discover along the way. We met a lot of great press throughout our adventures: GDC, Kickstarter, PAX Prime, Montreal ComicCon, PAX South… and I think they’re looking forward to this.

Plans for Console?

Yes, we plan to come to console if everything goes according to plan, but we haven’t yet decided in what order or what kind of timeline we’re looking at. Hang tight!

Again, we want to thank you for your continued support throughout our development, we can see the finish line! :

How much does it cost to go to PAX South?

Hey there world,

Today's blog is a breakdown of what we spent to go to PAX South, and is meant to help other game developers to budget themselves when going to trade shows. We'll also talk about what we think we got from the show, and what we could have done better. Worth it? Totally... read on.

So first off, how much does it cost to go to one of these shows? We were two people coming from Montreal, Canada, and here were our costs.

The flights we got had one layover of about an hour on the way there, and the same on the way back. In reality Richard missed his first flight because of customs issues and took 19h to get there, and the flight home was delayed so we missed our connecting flight and stayed overnight in Dallas..... but the idea was one layover. 

We stayed at the Red Roof Plus in downtown San Antonio, about a ten minute walk from the convention center. It had everything we needed, and it was really well located.Transport refers to taxis and Ubers going to the hotel from the airport and back, and we had underestimated because we thought there would be a shuttle downtown from the airport. Travel insurance was super cheap, we got from Manulife here in Canada. The only other show cost we had was buying batteries for our controllers which ran out of batteries super quickly. 

What did we get out of going to PAX? Well if you saw our Pictures from PAX South post, you would see that our booth was super busy, which was great for testing and to see how much people were enjoying the game. We got some great press coverage as well at the booth, like this PC Gamer video, and we had some mega YouTubers and Twitch streamers come by and play the game.

We also had a presence on the Twitch stage, which had panels and games on rotation throughout the show. The event was being livestreamed on the Twitch channel, which is pretty massive, but we also had a lot of people come by the booth after saying they saw the gameplay live from the Twitch stage. The stage was also a great place to hang around and try to meet streamers... Rich met some big Twitch personalities just hanging out in the area. 

The way we did PAX was pretty efficient, in our opinion. Richard wandered a bunch doing the business development stuff he does, and Alex manned the booth most of the time. You'd be surprised how easy it is for one person to man a booth constantly full of 20 people, depending on how easy the game is to understand.

Anyway all in all, great show and great experience.

TL;DR
 PAX isn't cheap, look at the cost table!
Got great feedback on the game at the bustling booth
Got good press because of show presence
Met some big YouTubers and streamers who will help the game sell when it's out

See you next week! We're getting close to launch! Stresstimes!