Party Panic - Journal and Suggestions

[DMeville]

Topic renamed from "Roadmap to Release". I will continue to post what is happening and progress on the game in this thread! Feel free to post suggestions in this thread, or ideas for the board game mode!

For the sake of transparency, I want to explain what's going on with Party Panic and the plan for moving forward out of Early Access and into Release. I want to make Party Panic the best game I possibly can, and I'm still working as hard as I can. It's hard work and some days it feels like there's a lot of weight on my shoulders to deliver, but I have some big things prepared for the full Release, and the time leading up to it.

Currently, the live version of Party Panic is from Feb 11th, nearly 3 months have gone by without any updates to main version. This is because I shifted gears to work on a new game mode for Party Panic that got bigger and bigger as I worked on it, but in that process of creating something that (I think) is really cool, I kind of neglected the rest of the game. This new game mode is very close to being done.

May was set to be the "Pre-Release planning" month for Party Panic, where I would nail down dates, get in contact with marketing/promotional people and prepare for a big launch June 1st the best I can. I was right on track to meet that date, but as I was nailing down the details there was an issue that I (somehow) overlooked.

Everyone knows that every Summer Steam has a huge sale, and we're quickly coming up to this sale. Last year the Summer Sale was the last week in June, and went until the first week of July. There are some complications with releasing Party Panic any time in June for a few reasons.

1) Developers must wait 30 days between sale/discounts.
This is part of the problem. If I want to release Party Panic AND be included in the Summer Sale Party Panic needs to be released 37 days BEFORE the Summer Sale, or 30 days after.
37 days before would mean that I would need to release the in less than 14 days, which is absolutely impossible as that's not enough time to get release promo/marketing ready, and finalize the remaining things in the game.

30 days after the the Summer Sale brings us to the end of July.. Which means unless I do something there will have been no updates to Party Panic for 6 months. This is unacceptable.


2) There is the option to release a few days before the Summer Sale, but this seems like suicide for Party Panic's visibility, as Party Panic would get completely lost in the chaos, and can in no way complete with last years AAA GOTY on sale for 90% off or whatever other crazy deals there will be.

So all in all, there's some really unfortunate timing that I wasn't aware about that means I can't/shouldn't release Party Panic June 1st, when I had hoped.

After thinking about this problem for all of last week, I think I've come up with a solution I'm happy (mostly) with, and hopefully you guys will be happy with as well. Here's a breakdown of the roadmap as I see it, as I work towards the release of Party Panic.

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[May]
[7th-14th] [COMPLETE]
Prepare an update for Party Panic, with all the "quality of life" fixes and improvements I've made over the last few months. This will NOT include any new content, but will have things like a new server browser, matchmaking/find me a game, in game chat, UI improvements, Controller/keyboard improvements. All these things are already complete, I just need to clean up a few things.

[CHANGE OF PLANS][COMPLETE] Edited May 13th
Going to work on a progression system at some point before the Steam Summer sale. I have one minigame half done a week ahead of schedule at the point of writing this, so I might be able to squeeze this in before the end of the month.

[14th-31st] [COMPLETE]
Work on new minigames and content. There have not been any new minigames for the entirety of the time I've been working on the new game mode. I'm not happy with this, and I know a lot of people were looking forward to new minigames. During this time I'm going to come up with at least two new minigames that will be added to the game. Along with new hats, and an exclusive hat that will ONLY be UNLOCKED if you played the game while in Early Access.
This time was spent working on the progression system instead. I am going to spend the rest of this month working on more hats and costumes, and fixing bugs with the matchmaking system. I also made changes so when players disconnect mid game they are turned into AI rather than the entire game closing down for everyone.


[June]
[1st-14th] [COMPLETE]
One more minigame, and revisions to old minigames to try and improve the networked physics in the ball games and bumper cars.
EDIT: I MADE TWO NEW MINIGAMES INSTEAD OF ONE! Will be in the next update!



[End of June] [COMPLETE]
Steam Summer Sale. Party Panic will be available at a discounted price. This will be the current version of the game PLUS the Quality of Life changes mentioned earlier PLUS a few new minigames and some new hats and gauntlet things. I will also begin planning marketing/promotional things.



[July]
[Beginning of July] [COMPLETE]
Steam Summer Sale. Probably going to have to use this time for tech support/bug fixes from the (hopefully) huge influx of new players coming from the Sale.

[7th-21st] [COMPLETE]
Release Prep. New trailer, finalizing content, localization, achievements, etc.


[August 7th] [COMPLETE]
One year anniversary of Party Panic being on Steam. Launch window, and launch discount.
The game will launch with two new minigames bringing the total up to 30, and the new game mode 'Adventure Island'.

-------------------------------------- WE ARE HERE --------------------------------------

[Post Launch]
The launch out of early access is NOT the end. More content (minigames, costumes, maybe even game modes) will still be added at regular intervals!

Give me your input, what would you like to see added to Party Panic in the future? No idea is off limits! More minigames? New game modes?

That is the plan, some things may change slightly as unexpected things do come up. I want to make Party Panic the best game I can and I think this plan is the best course of action moving forward and gives me a few more weeks to add more content and polish to the current minigames, the new minigames, and the new game mode. Thanks for understanding the situation and all the support so far!

[DMeville]

[Reserved]
If anyone has any questions, comments, suggestions or ideas let me know!

[Cyberspacer18]

What's the exclusive hat?, Also could you release it later on in the future as a DLC under a different name, possibly with a bit more stuff?

[Richard Jackdaw]

Awesome. I will likely buy during the summer sale and play vigorously in anticipation for full release.

[DMeville]

@masterofinfinity479 - Not sure yet! Might make a couple exclusive 'Early Access' hats, I'm open to any ideas you might have. I don't think the 'Early Access' exclusives will ever be re-released later, that would defeat the point haha

I should mention that after 'Release' there are still more things coming in future updates, but no paid DLC, everything will be free updates!

@Richard Ehrmantraut I hope you enjoy it!

[Cyberspacer18]

ok it's just just that i'm obsessed with collecting, hats, and collecting hats, and if i didn't get the early access hats, it would drive me crazy. Also when is this coming out of early access, because buying the game, steam link, and steam controller all at once might be a bit of a problem for me.

[DMeville]

@masterofinfinity479 then you'll just have to get them when they are available! They will be unlocked automatically when you launch the game, and be available to get for at least a month after they are released.

I saw you posted on the announcement about a controller, you can absolutely play using the keyboard and mouse, Party Panic does NOT require a steam link or a steam controller, you can use them if you want though!

[Cyberspacer18]

Thnx a ton. Now, going back to "any ideas I might have", you 'bout a cow udder, and elephant ears with the trunk possibly

[Cyberspacer18]

Also will the game still be in early access on June 3rd?

[DMeville]

Originally posted by masterofinfinity479:

Also will the game still be in early access on June 3rd?

Yes, it will still be in Early Access until a month after the Steam Summer Sale ends (which is early July). Take a look at the first post, it outlines the entire plan for moving out of Early Access.

[Cyberspacer18]

I did but it was kinda unclear/foggy to me. Sorry.

[ChizBallz]

Thanks for the roadmap and being so detailed! You're a great developer and I applaud you for your hard work! This is the best party game ever for PC! Keep up the great work!

[ProHunter]

My God! Online games are not working anymore!!! I bought this game to play with my friend bcs it was working and, after updating, it just stopped working... INCREDIBLE!!!

[DMeville]

@ProHunter What exactly isn't working? Seems to work great for me and in all my tests. What exactly is happening for you?

[ProHunter]

Well, it worked for sometime. After an update, it stopped working. When I join a game now, it shows only the following screen: https://www.dropbox.com/s/igq89ds1dqe74sn/partypanic.jpg?dl=0

[DMeville]

Sorry about that, not sure exactly what would be causing that. Never seen that error before, but that should absolutely not be happening. Thanks for the image, would you be able to send an email to [e-mail] with your log file so I can take a look exactly what's going on and hopefully get this fixed for you quickly?

Check out the top of the FAQ post ( http://steamcommunity.com/app/506500/discussions/0/152393186478087628/ ) for instructions on how to find your log file.

Is this happening every time you try and join a game? Have you successfully joined any games since the new server browser was released last week?