[RELEASED] Shardpunk: Verminfall (xcom/darkest dungeon/steampunk)

Indie Game

[RELEASED] Shardpunk: Verminfall (xcom/darkest dungeon/steampunk)

Amazoniangames

November 25, 2023

[RELEASED] Shardpunk: Verminfall (xcom/darkest dungeon/steampunk)

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bryku

OK everyone, this is it. My game has a release date.

I’m releasing Shardpunk into the wild on Thursday, April 13th. And I’ve never been more excited in my whole game development journey. With less than three weeks remaining until the release, I am finalizing all the pre-launch stuff.

I’ve been playing Shardpunk a lot and having a great time, despite the many hours spent on bug-fixing and fine-tuning. What I love most about the game are the stories that emerge during gameplay, the tough choices that need to be made to save fellow companions, and the exhilarating mad dashes to safety – just to name a few.

I’m optimistic that others will share my enthusiasm for the game. All will become clear in the upcoming weeks.

I’ll provide an update in my last pre-release devlog entry in two weeks. Take care!


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Busy working on xcom-like, steampunk/vermintide pixel art strategy game called “Shardpunk”.

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bryku

The release date is so close I can taste it.

And I know that at this point one should not be making any major changes. So I haven’t. I mean I did, but they’re not major.

One of the key mechanics in Shardpunk is the weapon reload process, where energy cells overheat and players must cool them down to keep the weapon functioning. Previously, this action was simply referred to as “reloading.”

After receiving some feedback and consulting with my Discord community (do join the Discord channel, by the way!), the action has been renamed to “vent”:

This made the whole weapon overheating concept a little more readable. Also, some changes in character texts followed:

Other than that, I’m keeping the build stable and focusing on preparing for the release. My mental state may be a bit shaky with all the anticipation, but I’m confident that Shardpunk Verminfall will be a game that you will enjoy!

Thanks for your support, and see you on launch day!


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Busy working on xcom-like, steampunk/vermintide pixel art strategy game called “Shardpunk”.

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bryku

The moment has finally arrived – I’m thrilled to announce that Shardpunk: Verminfall is officially released! I’m eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Whether you have suggestions for balancing or difficulty, requests for future updates, or just want to share your experiences playing the game, I’m all ears.

Also, please consider leaving a Steam review – it will help me tremendously.

I want to take a moment to express my gratitude to all the amazing people who have helped me reach this point. First and foremost, a big thank you to my family and friends for their unwavering support throughout this journey. I also owe a debt of gratitude to the talented individuals I’ve had the pleasure of working with, as well as the dedicated publisher team, playtesters, and the fantastic Discord community.

Without each and every one of you, I would not be where I am today. Your encouragement, feedback, and contributions have made a world of difference in shaping my game and getting it to this point.

Thank you again for your support and enthusiasm throughout this process. I hope you enjoy playing Shardpunk: Verminfall as much as I enjoyed creating it!

And a message to all fellow game developers: keep on grinding! This stuff is achievable!


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fall_ark

Played a bit and found it quite engaging!
A few things and QoL issues:
– We should be able to view the stats of enemy units more easily.
– Maybe some general hint of enemy reinforcement whereabouts would be useful.
– Either we should have some sort of ability range preview when moving (like Grenade etc.), or we should be able to cancel a movement, Into the Breach style.
– Extra Force cannot be selected when a character has already exhausted their AP, which is quite frustrating.


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Chinese localizer and influencer. Translated Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, The Count Lucanor, Katana Zero, Dicey Dungeons, and involved in the localization of Reigns, The Curious Expedition, Desktop Dungeons, etc.
If you have questions about Chinese loc and publishing etc., find me at Twitter @SoM_lo

bryku

It’s nearly a month after the release, so it’s time for a quick wrap-up of what is going on so far.

In general, the release went very well, the game reached the 10 reviews threshold pretty fast. Due to good momentum, it stayed in the “New and Trending” list on Steam for 7 days, with a high number of positive reviews. The fact that ChristoperOdd found out about the game and decided to do a let’s play surely helped tremendously (same with

).

Also, the game’s first-ever negative review surely helped with promoting the game as well

Sales-wise, I am busy right now doing projections to see how the potential long-term sales will go, but all seems to be looking good so far.

Right after the release Steam forums were flooded with a large number of messages and I’ve spent most of my time going through the feedback. I’ve taken lots of notes and there’s a bunch of new ideas that have been suggested by the community that I would like to implement.

One thing is for sure: after you release a game, it’s longer *your* game. The players own it (well, even literally, as they’ve paid for it) and you hope that their vision/experience with the game is aligned with yours. Luckily for Shardpunk, it seems that my and the player’s visions are aligned: it’s a roguelike take on XCOM/Darkest Dungeon game, having unforgivable moments, but being fair in general.

Stability-wise, the game did not have any game-breaking issues at launch – except an issue that only happened for PCs running Windows with the Turkish language 0_o. Apparently, there’s a Turkish ‘I’ issue that is haunting some of the unlucky developers. A quick fix was… making sure that I do not use a capital “I” in any file paths placed in configuration files that I load manually in the game’s code 😐

There were a few issues with some of the players not able to load a game or proceed to the next mission. I was not able to reproduce any of them, but I did contact a few of the players who reported them and hopefully they’re fixed.

After the initial post-release dust has settled, I’ve set up an initial “road map” – or more of a list of priorities – that I am planning to stick to, which includes putting more emphasis on the stuff that the players like. One of the things that need adjusting is the difficulty level. Some players report that the game is too easy, others – that it’s too hard. There are difficulty levels in the game, but this does not help. I want to introduce more customization to the game’s difficulty.

Anyway, that’s how things are going so far. It’s been an awesome (yet nerve-wracking sometimes) ride so far. And it seems it’s just the beginning.

Take care, everyone! Good luck in your game dev journeys! If I managed to do it, you will too!


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bryku

OK, it’s been more than seven months since the release, so it’s about time that I post some kind of summary here.

Shardpunk did very well on its first days – it was present on the “New and Trending” list on Steam for seven days – and as getting good exposure is extremely important in selling a game, this translated to some nice initial sales.

I spent the next few months adding extra content to the game and balancing it. The feedback from the community was great.

The sale numbers obviously dropped dramatically after the first weeks, and there were a few peaks along the way when we introduced some discounts (related to a fest, sale, or a daily deal that we managed to get from Steam).

Does it all make Shardpunk a nice source of passive income for (hopefully) the few next years? Yes.

Does it mean that I can focus on working on another game? Not really.

Shardpunk did break even recently. However, I assume the amount of money that I will be getting from it won’t be enough for me to start working on another game full-time – so it is time to start over. I will be slowly working on the next game in my free time while having a steady source of income from a day job. Maybe in the future, I will be able to find a publisher/investor who will be willing to work with me on my second game – or I will release it myself, even if it takes a long time.

A tip for indie devs that rely on external funding when creating your game: remember that it will probably take months until the game costs get recouped and you will see some money, and build your plans with that in mind. Surely, it might be that you will hit the jackpot and your game will earn you lots of $$$ in the first month, but that does not happen very often.

If I could do one thing differently, I would consider going back to a day job/finding another source of income faster than I did – even if the development time of the post-launch content would take longer. A man has a family to feed and a mortgage to pay, so yeah; do not hope that you will strike the next publishing deal immediately after you release your game.

All that being said, working on Shardpunk was a blast. I can see that I can create a game that the players enjoy, and I do want to keep doing it.

Take care everyone! Good luck in your gamedev journey!


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Busy working on xcom-like, steampunk/vermintide pixel art strategy game called “Shardpunk”.

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