Synthetica 0.7.0 is live!

Hi there, long time no see! :D

So, Synthetica version 0.7.0 is live. Yay! But let's start from the beginning.

Version 0.6.0 was published at the end of February, followed by some minor updates in March. The game was okay, still too many features were incomplete, and the overall experience was, well, not very inspiring. We also started to have a lot of internal conflicts in our small team, because of the differences in the game vision (which, from my side, hasn't changed since the start of the project). And then The Crunch Time at my workplace slowed everything even more.

So, by the end of March, I was a solo indie developer again with an increased workload and a list of over 100 things and features to design, implement, balance, and so on. It was a massive overscope for a single person. I had a lot of mixed feelings about the situation and considered various options. But after thorough consideration and a few dives into "let's cancel everything, it's impossible to make in an adequate amount of time", I found a kind of compromise solution.

I opened my Google sheet with plans and began cutting everything. It's cool to have Boosters, which will give your workers time-based bonuses. And the News system with world events sounds nice. And the Perk Modules, which you can buy or craft and insert into your androids to give them the permanent unique abilities - sure, why not now.

But if you have a few free hours per week, even being quite an experienced developer and designer, it still would take months (more than 12) to finish everything in a decent state. And the game won't be fully playable until everything is implemented - that was the suspicious part.

So, I made everything simpler, both for the implementation and for UX. The core is still here - you craft android workers, match them with clients, earn money and rating, upgrade your club, research stuff, and help your clients through the dialogue events. But a lot of things became more distilled, if I can use that word.

Some secondary resources were combined to simplify everything. No more separate Research Points, for example - now you can use your money to buy the new technologies and upgrades. Sure, it's a simplification, but at the same time, it solves a lot of issues with progression and economics.

Another example is the Android Deconstruction System. Sure, it was great on paper - you can deconstruct your androids, get some random, leveled-up part from it, and some scrap parts, and craft the new, improved android from them. And there was a strict request for an AI Module that controlled the number of androids. And some hardware and software upgrade modules which can be inserted, or which you could get from the disassembly.

You already see where this is going. It's a lot of things. And when you think about it one more time, you can leave the Scrap Parts as a secondary resource and allow the player to craft "random" parts from it. Sure, the whole decomposition system became much simpler. Still, in the end it solves the same problems with much more transparent and understandable approaches, which are easier to explain to the new player.

So, many intricate features were either cut or simplified while keeping the main pillars of the game intact. And though I was sceptical at first, it gave me a boost in performance and motivation to move on. And the result of everything is the current version 0.7.0, which is - I still can't believe it - feature-complete.

Many features are in the "prototype" state, but that was intentional. You can still play the game and feel every central gameplay system. It's impossible to win at the moment, and I need to address that next. But except for that, everything is, well, playable.

What is next? Polishing and content. Sure, everything "works", but it's still raw. Animations, effects, sound, UI and UX, variations, and so on - now it's time to start working on "everything else". My current plan is to get through the list of features again, but do a polishing iteration for everything to improve the overall experience. And after that - playtests, finally. I have a few internal playtesters, but I hope that soon will be the moment to show you the actual game and get your feedback.

So, thank you for staying with me and stay tuned for more updates!

I posted a few of the in-game screenshots in this article. You can notice that the visual style and the overall environment are also changed, but that's a story for another update. I think after everything is more polished, I'll provide both an updated trailer and the detailed change \\ feature list.