Going Gold
All systems are go! Achievements are loaded up, shop mechanics are wired up, and every last meta system is in place and working as intended.
This doesn’t just mean the features are implemented, but that they have been tested and tuned to support the pacing and progression across the entire game. Whether players are gunning for 100% completion or trying to survive a few challenges without exploding, they will always feel they are making progress in the game.
As for the core content, every challenge has been tested and retested multiple times for balance. Difficulty spikes have been smoothed, and late-game mechanics now build naturally off earlier skills.
Coming Home
The public demo, which has been live since May, will be taken down in mid-August as focus is shifted towards launch prep and port certification.
This will be the last chance to try the game early, smash through the early challenges, and enjoy the minigames with a friend. All feedback is still welcome, and you can leave that here on or on Discord. The demo has already helped shape the final version of the game in countless ways, from hazard timing and respawn logic to better readability in the chaotic multiplayer game modes.
If you haven’t yet, grab the demo, break the demo, and let me know what you think.
Summary
Now that content is locked, the remainder of development is focused on performance optimization, platform ports, and final QA passes.
The focus areas for performance optimization is going to look into GPU-heavy post-processing effects that make the game look as beautiful as it is. I will also be culling bottlenecks in CPU-heavy areas where there are lots of complex hazard zones or rapid object pooling causing the game to slow down.
The game will be ported first for Nintendo Switch before the final Steam build. This is to make sure that the Steam build enjoys all the optimizations that will have been done to run the game smoothly on the Nintendo Switch. Other things that will be focused on during porting is the UI scaling for smaller screens, validating save and load states, and minimizing build sizes for platform requirements.
This will be the last major dev log before the launch announcement. Thanks again to everyone who played, tested, and sent feedback. no brake no gain is nearly at the finish line!
Until next time, happy gaming!