May Developer Update
So it's about that time where we are feeling antsy about getting an update out to all of you fine folks. We know we have been busting our butts here, but it's not so apparent when we don't update you with the inner workings of GameGlass development! So here it is, a nice long developer update with all the greasy tidbits of information you were hoping for!
Current State of GameGlass
We are relatively happy with the current state of GameGlass. We know there are a few bugs that need ironing out but most of the bugs that exist currently aren't show stopping, so for the sake of progress we are planning on ironing them out a bit later.
We will be updating our roadmap soon to include the exciting new beta 1.1 features that I'll be covering in this update.
So what have you been up to?
First, after our massive Beta push, many of our team members took some much needed time off after the post-beta launch bugs were resolved. The team has been putting in an incredible amount of hours on top of their day jobs, and that can get pretty stressful at times.
Since we have been back, we have been focused on a few key priorities for launch.
Gib new shards!
This is by far the most common criticism we are receiving right now... People just want MORE GG! Trust us, we totally get it! That being said, we have been hard at work on the Social shard. There are a bunch of little intricacies we are bringing to the table with this one that we haven't experienced before.
Emotes - This section is relatively straightforward. The emotes section has come together nicely and works as expected. The only issue right now is that some of the emotes bound by default in SC (forward, back, etc) don't work. This isn't the fault of GG, it's a matter of them not working properly in the game, so like other functions that don't work properly, they will be disabled once the social shard is released.
Camera Panel - Another straightforward section to the social shard. We have made some modifications to it though.
We have removed the zoom slider. The slider makes sense in theory, but not application. Without an API, we don't know the current level of zoom, which means we don't know where to start the slider out at, and it may restrict either your zoom in or out functionality. Instead, we have replaced it with simple buttons.
The thumbnail icon under selfie will now show the last picture you have taken, and display it in full screen mode. More on that later.
We have also moved the selfie button to this camera panel, because we wanted that functionality closer to where you would use it most.
Director Mode - This panel is staying close to the original concept. For now, we have removed the ability to save and load profiles. We want to do something great here, and we don't have the capacity to implement it in the version 1 release of the social shard.
We have been running into issues with keybinds on this one though. We don't like the idea of modifying default SC keybinds that are bound out of the box, because it gives the player the ability to continue to use their keyboard like normal if they want to, even when using GG.
This may have to change a bit for this shard, until we come up with a better solution. The problem is that the arrow keys, page up, page down, home, end, insert and delete all don't work properly with the current method we are using to send keybind commands on your PC. This is strictly due to a bug (that will most likely never be fixed) in the library we are using. A fix to this on our end could potentially take a LONG time to develop, so for now we will modify the GG keybinds to something other than the SC default. Trust us, it wasn't an easy decision and we still aren't huge fans of it, but it's the only option currently.
Gallery Mode - The gallery has got a bit of a face lift!
The main change here is how the pagination is handled. The main thing to talk about though is the next point on what happens when you click an image...
Image Viewer - It was always our goal to have awesome image viewing and sharing options available directly in GameGlass, and this is the start of that. Check out the video Sam put together showing off some of the functionality! (still a WIP)
Eventually, this is the screen from which you will be able to share your screenshots to different social platforms to in a single tap. Very exciting!
The removal of FOIP controls - FOIP controls on the social shard have proven to be a hassle when it comes to designing these shards to work on a wide range of devices. Thus, we have removed them and relocated them somewhere else. They will reside where "Coolers" is currently located in the bottom middle section of GameGlass. This way you will have access to these controls no matter what shard your on. This will be valuable for Push-to-talk especially.
OK, that's it for social, we hope to get it in your hands soon!
Another look at the settings
The settings menu has gone through a few iterations already, but as we add more features we see the need to modify this part of GG to support more functionality. Behold, the new settings menu!
Volume controls, and additional sound control has been something requested by quite a few people, and it was always something we wanted to provide more granular control over, so we have done just that! You can now control the volume of GameGlass sounds, turn off all the sound effects, and change the Quantum sound to the same sound as a button tap, instead of the current sound effect.
Where is the Windows Store app?
Coming soon. It's finished... but Microsoft hasn't been the easiest to deal with... surprise surprise!
So what about that mining shard?
Ron has been tasked with working on the Mining shard and is making great progress. We have decided to hold off on the data tables for mining and release the base functionality, and there is a good reason for this; we are still working out how we want to deal with data collection and storage.
The data table is still coming, but the technology that drives it will be a core part of the platform and used in many other Shards so we want to get it right.
Payment Options
We have been working for a long time now on getting our own payment platform finished and up on our website. Getting off of Indiegogo has been a priority for us and we are VERY close to being finished. We are in the final testing phases of this.
This means that you will be able to use more payment options such as PayPal and Apple Pay. Both of these payment options require a little more testing, but they'll be available very soon after the new checkout system goes live.
Moving to our own system is a huge step in the right direction for our business, and we are very excited for it. We also are introducing a referral program to those who request it, more details will be given on that later.
GGU happy happy fun times!
On May 25th at 3PM PST we will be holding a GGU event. For those of you who aren't aware, GameGlass has its own community Org that is open for everyone to join! You can apply here:
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/GGU
If you are a member of our Org and want to join the devs in some friendly fun you can sign up here:
https://forms.gle/SBBJnUjrbTxc8ksdA
Make sure you join us in discord before the event to get organized.
Finito!
Thanks again for all the incredible support you've shown towards this project. We feel blessed every day we get to work on such a cool project for you all.
The GameGlass Team