It's been two weeks since I announced that Randy & Manilla would also appear in Early Access on Steam
(you can see it at the end of the trailer):
And after several long processes for the game to be accepted on the platform, I can finally declare that Randy & Manilla is officially on Steam!
If you are interested in the project, I leave you the following link to include in your wishlists:
And the thing doesn't end here. As the launch day approaches, new details will be revealed (including the price), so the page will be updated accordingly.
Now the next thing we need to know is whether it will also arrive on GOG. It seems that no answer has yet been given as to whether it will also be included in said store, but it is very likely that it won't arrive at least in its Early Access version (especially taking into account their quality control measures). But in the meantime, it will continue to be available on itch.io, Patreon and Steam.
0 Comments
I'm glad that I finally bring back a lot of information about Randy & Manilla project. And also that it will come in early access in a couple of months. All being shown by the one who will come next: Although it may give even a little intrigue, at the same time, this raises some questions as to why I decided to opt for Early Access. The truth is that it was a very difficult decision for me. The ideal would have been to have launched it completely by these dates,but however they were unrealistic estimates due to several factors such as the lack of time available on the part of me and our freelancers team. It also took me a long time to arrange as many details as possible, along with a tight budget. All of them were factors why its development took longer than necessary, and in the end I opted for Early Access, because I didn't want to delay any longer to show what we have done with the game so far. But without a doubt, the worst part and the one that would have led the game to inevitable cancellation, it was the enormous controversy that Unity had since September of last 2023 about the fact that they would pay a fee in their runtime. However, thinking coldly, in the case of this project it is very unlikely that this is the case, specially since now it is no longer retroactive and they wouldn't charge fees until Unity Pro, a relief thanks to the enormous pressure of the community. But even with that, few confidence it has remained (at least for the long term), so I have no doubt that Randy & Manilla would be the last project made with Unity. Returning to the topic, we review some of the new features shown in the trailer for Early Access: If the minimap alone wasn't enough to orient yourself to the selectable Net-Cubes, it will be possible to enlarge it and also to be able to rotate it to obtain a full map picture. That makes for a great guide to directing the ship to the Net-Cube it needs to go to. Surely one of the most criticized and requested points of the game, is that Randy moves slowly. Although in reality it isn't that Randy is slow, but because of his animation he seems slow. That's why the sprint button has been added for Randy (and also Manilla). The giant cyan Net-Cube from the center of the colorful cumulus is Quantum City. It's a big electronic city where both E-Mailer and Blue Quantáramo reside. With the inclusion of this Net-Cube along with the rest of those already available, there is a total of more than 30 levels that will come in advance for Early Access. As a last point, and as a curiosity for those who have been more attentive when watching the end of the trailer. Why the Steam & GOG logos have loading bars? Well, that is because as of the date of this article, its pages its files are still under construction, and they also need approval from their respective store managers. If approved, you can add the game to wishlists until May 10. In any case, it can also be obtained on both the itch.io and Patreon pages. Depending on how the game receives from launch day, it could even slightly speed up the development of new content that will come through free updates. Meanwhile, you can also see a preview of the first game cutscene: We hope there are players who come wanting to try the game.
After the release of the 2nd beta and various obstacles and problems to overcome,
I can tell you that we will soon have an important announcement that will mark the next development phase for Randy & Manilla. The following new features of the game will be presented from a new trailer that will be scheduled for February 29. You can follow on YouTube in the next link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYXFc4SkPis
Days before of this news, I realized that most Pocket Platformer games doesn't work in audio (for me at least). This included the Manilla in Pocket Wonder, and I also obtained the offline version of the engine to make the necessary changes to correct it.
Instead of having the sounds output via links stored in the cloud, due to their occasional volatility, I changed them to run locally, and also, I have also taken the opportunity to make the following changes:
Firstly, the water already occupies the empty edges of the levels where they needed to be filled.
2. A slight change to the layout of level 7 to make it a little less frustrating to get through the corrupt bricks line. 3. A secret level was included. Regarding audio & SFX, it comes with the following: 1. New sound added in Pause menu, switch blocks & corrupt bricks (stompers). 2. Second track added on ending screen. (Unfortunately I couldn't correctly apply the main track loop, and instead it's the same one but extended 7 times) I hope such revisions work well for the game. Many thanks Isaisdiaz for helping and collaborating with the basic changes of editing the engine sound.
Play online on itch.io:
Or indiexpo:
Or download the Webpack on IndieDB:
Randy & Manilla wish you a happy year 2024.
However, for this year it can be a very decisive point for the project, so an important announcement will come at any time. Randy & Manilla appears as a mods for an old prototype of Minecraft/Terraria clone called "Build Infinity". Made with Game Maker 8.1 y published until the 4th engine test on December 2013 since the deceased Sandbox Yoyogames.
It was made by the user WreckingPrograms. Download Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20141016110904/http://sandbox.yoyogames.com/games/223821-build-infinity-enginetest-4 Sprite pack link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LQDjF4IUC44BtKm90CfVGF0PmDn4Flup/view Starting October 7 (from 2023), will be shown an exclusive version of Randy & Manilla for a local event called "Gata Fira al Carrer", an annual fair that takes place in Gata de Gorgos.
Great news! Randy & Manilla won't longer have the risk of paying installation fees (at least not reaching 200,000), so the project will remain active (until further notice).
If the issue of Unity merging with IronSource seemed exaggerated, Well, I wasn't entirely wrong for Unity's next movement.
Since September 12, 2023, it was announced that by when 2024 begins, the new payment system would be implemented once the minimum thresold of $200,000 or 200,000 installations was reached. (Link to the cited source: gamefromscratch.com/unity-announce-new-pricing-and-plan-changes/) It may seem very generous of it to leave free use before reaching that new minimum thresould, but the problem is that afterward to reach the limit (Which fortunately we haven't gotten to yet, like most projects), it starts charging $0.20 per installation monthy (if you use Unity Personal), and to delay such taxes, it must subscribe to Pro, since the limit is 1,000.000, and the taxes are lower. But it's even squeaky that the Enterprise tier has exactly the same limits as the Pro (No longer unlimited nor yet to reach 5 million), but only with small differences in fee prices. That means that if once the game reaches 200,000 installations plus 10,000 additional downloads in the first month, I have to pay them $2,000 for extra game downloads, and so on each month, although it will affect free-to-play games with constant updates more than single-sale games (which stop selling as much as the months go by). Even so, it is still one more reason for not wanting to make a successful commercial game based on said engine. Another thing that can be quite annoying, and that arrives earlier in November, is that you must always be connected to the Internet to use Unity. If I lose my connection, and it lasts more than 3 days, I can't longer use Unity offline, which is another reason to cancel a project (Let's see if it is only for modern versions of Unity or the Hub after v3.0). With everything already explained, I think I'm starting to understand why I'm no longer enjoying the Randy & Manilla development, with a very slow rhythm and low performance. If it isn't my own mistakes that entail failure, then it's the engine itself that betrays. With under these new measures, the game is "definitely" not viable for commercial use and popularization (specially due to its nature). In the best case scenario, maybe I continue with the model of publishing almost annual updates for free (Given what I learned from the failures on Kickstarter and Indiegogo). For now I will leave the project on hold until the situation changes. In the meantime I will do tests with Flax and Godot to see if it is viable to port or reboot the game under such engines. But there is no doubt that the head behind the engine, will continue without problems with these practices regardless of the strikes and mass protests that could arise (Something that politics has proven to be an expert in completely ignoring the protests of millions by wanting to approve bad laws). In the worst case scenario, if even worse changes are coming for the engine, or if moving the project to other engines is too complicated, we will have no choice but to cancel Randy & Manilla permanently (But not before with a last free update as farewell). Anyway, many thanks for all the support you have given in the project, if the situation improves a little, maybe continue more calmly. Very soon I'll be on vacation, by 4th time. Therefore, the Randy & Manilla development will go on pause again until shortly after mid-August. Anyway, have a good summer ;).
|
Game NewsNews page about Randy & Manilla project. Archives
March 2024
Categories |