Hey everyone!
It’s been 3 weeks since Find Matt’s Cats launched, so here’s an update about future plans.
The launch went about as well as it could have. Sales are fairly strong and there hasn’t been a lot of serious problems to address. Most of the bugs are quite minor, or were already known about from the demo. We’ve recovered about 58% of the development costs so far – if you assume an average UK salary for me and Ronja. That’s not bad.
I also pushed out a quick update that added many quality-of-life features that players asked for, including more options, Windows touchscreen support, and some level design improvements.
The main issues that need to be fixed are:
• Steam cloud was supposed to transfer save data from the demo to the full version of the game, but this doesn’t work. I’m not sure what I did wrong, but I’ll need to look into it. Players can still move the “saves” folder manually though.
• There’s a memory leak and the framerate will get choppier in very long sessions, even on fast computers. This is tricky and I really need to go through all of my code carefully to solve this, or at least make it less bad.
• Mascots can have two faces in some levels! I think the cats with non-standard faces don’t display correctly when hats and accessories are involved. It’s harmless and looks funny.
• The desktop version of the game requires more modern hardware than the web version we published on Newgrounds. We’ll try to make an offline version of that web version at some point, so it can be a backup option for players who otherwise can’t run the game. Maybe it can be a beta-branch on Steam.
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Since the launch went well, I can start teasing some leftover ideas that I will consider adding to the game. Please tell me which of these you like the sound of, so I can plan accordingly:
• A level editor! I think this would be viable and quite fun, even if it doesn’t include all of the features the official levels have.
• More levels! I want to add an 8th level to every world, which uses mostly existing art assets in ways that currently don’t appear in the game, or expands on ideas that weren’t fully explored. For example: more underwater levels! (Which type of levels did you enjoy the most?)
• A new final world! I want to finish off the game with a more memorable final world. I don’t want to spoil what it might be, but it’s gonna be visually different from everything in the game so far.
• More art assets? I’m still drawing more items whenever I’m in the mood, and sneaking in a few with every update. I’m improving some sprites I’m not happy with, but I think what will be the most impactful is adding more references to other games.
• More customisation options? Is there enough, or would you be interested in more? I certainly enjoyed creating rare cats. I think I might struggle to come up with more special effects for cursors though.
• More dialogue? Is there enough lore in the game? I know most people skim through the dialogue quite quickly, but some players were really into it. I could write more if there’s a demand for it. But it’s a hassle since it also needs to be translated into every language.
• A fourth difficulty option? I have an idea for a “Simple” difficulty option that requires less brain power. The goals would be a large number of the same item, like “5 turkeys, 7 pigeons, and 10 bees”. Required interactivity would be low – you could see most of the goals without clicking on stuff. I’ve heard from some parents that this would be a fun way to play the game together with a young child. Maybe this is what “Easy” mode should have been.
Anyway, let me know what you think!
I’d love a level editor!
Also more content is always appreciated 😀
Levels with a lot of the same item is not a difficulty setting, it is something to vary up the experience.
More dialogue! I loved the banter between everyone in EBF and this game is no exception!
All of these ideas sound enticing, but i think the final world being crazier than all the others would be a perfect way to end off the game, so if i had to choose one, it’d be that.
And as others are pointing out, a level editor is a great idea too!
I’d be interested in more dialogue options. There’ve been a few times where I’d experiment with different parameters to see how the characters would respond (customizations, messing around in game levels, etc.) and was surprised that they didn’t have much to say. Ex. using a cursor that can’t hurt animals not proccing Lance being confused or Natz being happy about it. Or the one with extra hints having Matt come up and ask if the player needs the extra hints.
That said as a Starcraft kid I’m 100% down for a level editor. I don’t expect anything that complex. Probably closer to the one in Bloons Tower Defense 6 or the scene builder gizmos that pop up on Newgrounds now and again. Just give the player a bunch of the art assets and let them do whatever.
What about EBF6? But in 3D and made in unreal engine?
no
I’d be down for a level editor. I always enjoyed creative features like this in any game, especially flash games.
As for customization options, I just have on silly idea. Let me turn my mascot cat into an elephant/mammoth, and I’ll be a happy man!
My wife and I would absolutely love to see a level editor! It could add a lot of replayability to the game after completing all of the official levels. Maybe even a way to share levels through codes? (Though I’m unsure how much work that would be)
I think the features I’d be most interested in seeing come to the game would be the leditor, new final world, and more dialogue!
This wasn’t mentioned, but I’d love a way to see dialogue again and change the player’s name without having to reset game data…
You don’t need to reset any data to change your name! When you use the Data Settings in the main menu you get to choose very specifically which bits to reset, your name being one of them 🙂
What I’d like to see more than anything is more levels. The longer I can play the game, the better!
I always like to hear from the characters in between levels but that would just be a bonus.
I don’t need more customization, there’s plenty good options already. And I don’t need more difficulty levels.
A level editor with sharable levels would be beautiful. If they could be shared online, that could mean a huge number of player-made levels to try, and I could play the game for a very long time indeed. But that would be the hardest of all to implement, so I’ll assume it’s a little too much to ask for.
Loving the game so far and any new stuff on top of what we have would be awesome, but level editor in particular would be incredible.
Cool I haven’t played the full game yet so I can’t say much about it yet sorry 😮💨
-A Level Editor would be pretty awesome :O
-While I havent reached the end of the game,A level thats so vastly distinct would make a bigger impression as a final world
-More art assets that are references to other games would be fun,simple additions that you can sprinkle in updates so I think thats a nice system already.
-I like the customization as it currently is,though it would be nice to have a few more options, fixating on something that you’ll have a rough time on wouldnt be the best
-The 4th difficulty mode would be interesting.I recently interacted with a fan of the series who didn’t really prefer “finding the item” games so it would be a simple gateway for newer players who are new to this type of game.
I like the sound of more levels, the new world, and dialogue if you want to do that one. Those all sound rad!