Localisation, screenshots and playtest progress

I wanted to share a quick progress update, along with a few new screenshots from the current build.

The main headline is that I am still on track to submit the first playtest build to Steam by the end of next week. When it actually goes live will depend on the feedback received, and whether any changes are requested before the playtest is approved. There is still plenty of testing, fixing and polishing to do, but the core plan has not changed.

A large part of this week has been spent on localisation. Music Manager was originally built in English, but French, German, Italian, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Vietnamese are now at an advanced stage of introduction.Steam post imageSteam post imageSteam post imageSteam post image

There are still some UI sizing issues to work through, particularly where translated text takes up much more space than the original English, but the underlying localisation system is now in much better shape. That should make it far easier to add more languages over time.

The current plan is to add support for Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Ukrainian over the next 4–6 weeks.

That is a lot of languages for a game being developed by one person, so I expect there will be mistakes, rough edges and awkward bits of phrasing at first. Even so, I would much rather start building proper support now than leave non-English speakers waiting until much later.

Music Manager is a text-heavy game, so language support matters. The aim is for as many people as possible to be able to understand the systems, read the events and enjoy managing their acts without fighting the interface.

I also want the game to be as playable as possible for people with accessibility challenges. This is an area where I have less direct experience, so I would really value help from anyone affected by accessibility issues who would be willing to test features or point out problems. If that is something you would like to help with, please contact me via the Steam discussion forum.

Once the playtest is up, the developer diaries will start in earnest. Each post will take a closer look at one part of the game, rather than trying to explain everything at once.

Thanks again for following the project. The game is continuing to move forward strongly, and I am looking forward to getting the playtest into players’ hands.