Happy New Year everyone!
To kick off 2018 we thought we'd share a retrospective of the past few years of this project, with events stretching back to before Super Plexis even had its name. Feel free to skim to the end for what we have planned for the end of the month!
2015
- January to May- Sporadic, casual conversations about making games turns to serious consideration
- June - Andrew moves to FL, planning begins for a “Puzzle Action RPG” for iOS, concept art/story writing begins
- July - Research and experimenting with Apple frameworks in Xcode, along with a custom SDK.
- August - Pixel art, tilesheets, and animation of assets. Alpha engine builds with basic character movement. Weekly vlog begins.
- September to October - a “proof of concept” demo is completed mixed RPG and puzzle elements
- November to December - the game gets a name, finally. A long break from the grind is taken for the holidays.
2016
- January - through much consideration, the RPG concept is shelved in favor of a streamlined multiplayer experience
- February to March - the base game is rebuilt in Objective-C (instead of Swift), the shared office is dissolved as Gabe moves next door
- April to May - youtube channel launches, new menus designed, special abilities are added to gameplay.
- June - characters implemented, online multiplayer testing, SFX & music are added
- July - rush to have a playable build at Metrocon, host a panel/tournament, and get the word out for our closed beta.
- August to September - iOS beta announced for October, multiplayer menus (profile, leaderboards, shop, etc), account data, etc.
- October - Closed beta launches on Testflight
- November to December - iteration based on feedback, break for the holidays
2017
- January to February - Introduction of single-player “Adventure Mode” map and levels, Super Plexis goes live on the iOS App Store
- March - Promotion and game maintenance, planning begins on how to tackle porting to Android
- April - The Kickstarter is launched to support the next phase of development. More promotion ensues!
- May - Kickstarter success! Connections formed with the community. Preliminary planning of new engine and account system
- June to July - Post-kickstarter cool off period, with work on servers/accounts (Medley IDs) underway.
- August - New website designed, to be used with Medley IDs. Trip out of state to view total solar eclipse.
- September - Hurricane Irma strikes! Forced to move in with friends for 2-3 weeks until power returns at home.
- October - Work on servers/accounts resumes normal pace, complete UI design overhaul begins.
- November to December - Medley IDs are completed, website goes live, and sign-ups for the beta open.
2018 ...?
...which brings us to today! At our current pace we’re on track to have our first playable multi-platform build before the end of the month. It will feature very early gameplay (so no character abilities yet), the ability to log in with your ID, and possibly our first test of cross-platform multiplayer. This will be a major milestone for us, as all the planning and foundations we've laid will be put to the test!
We'll have more news about this first build very soon!
2017 was a huge year for us: we established ourselves as an official company, published our first app ever, ran a successful campaign, and met so many amazing people with so much support along the way. It was truly a year of grounding ourselves for the long haul, and now that we're firmly rooted, we look forward to blooming in 2018!
- The Medley Studio Team