2023 has been 50% completed, so it’s time for the Q2 2023 Courier Tale Dev Blog…
Since the last blog the new in-game menu has been finished. There was various iterations, but the one I settled on both feels stable and also matches the visual style of Courier Tale. The new menu looks like a mobile phone which seems suitable for a game about a gig economy courier. This new menu has also introduced a new sub-menu which shows what collector cards you’ve collected. I’ve had people say the demo doesn’t feature any collectables, but the demo does have one collector card in it.
Once the new UI was finished, it was onto graphics polishing. This maybe unsurprisingly has been a slow process. I’m hoping the work I’m doing right now is the final versions of things. While the demo is pretty representative of the final graphics, when the full game went alpha last year, there was actually quite a bit of placeholder graphics in it that I knew I was going to have to update later on. The graphics as of writing is not finished yet, but I’m hoping I’m not too far off finishing the visuals.
Speaking of visuals, if you follow @couriertale on social media, you may have noticed the pixel art tribute series I’ve been doing roughly monthly over the past year. These have been tributes to things that have influenced Courier Tale, or are similar, or just things I like. They’ve been done up in Courier Tale art style. The last one was in May, and that will likely be the last one as I focus on finishing the game. The good news though is you can now purchase Netflix approved merch of my Stranger Things design from Redbubble https://www.redbubble.com/shop/ap/140088776 . You can of course also purchase Courier Tale merch from the merch tab on this website.
Earlier this year I said it was unlikely I’d be showcasing Courier Tale at any more events before launch, but things change and Q3 could possibly see Courier Tale part of a few events, both physical and digital events. Once confirmed these events will be announced here on this website, on social media, email list and the Steam page, so keep an eye out. In the lead-up to the next upcoming event, the demo on Steam will likely be updated with the latest UI and graphics updates. This won’t radically change how the demo plays, so if you’ve already played the demo, there’s no need to again.
So why will Courier Tale be at events prior to launch? I started off today’s blog talking about percentages and there’s an old saying that the last 10% of the work takes 90% of the time. Well that’s certainly seeming somewhat true. Earlier in the year I was aiming for an unannounced August release date, but that won’t be happening. So now Courier Tale is targeting a Q4 2023 release. Hopefully by the time of the next blog in October, I might have a release date to announce.
Until then, I have a bunch more graphics, sound and testing to do, so while I do that, don’t forget to follow @couriertale on your favourite social media spamming network and if ya haven’t already, make sure to wishlist Courier Tale on Steam…