Hello, again. It seems like so long since I wrote part 1 of this article. Welcome to part 2, Da Update! It has been almost a year since the base game launched, and I’ve discovered that one of my favorite pass times had been watching streamers play Aerial_Knight’s Never Yield. The first few months after launch I spent listening to players feedback, reading reviews, finding out what people understood about the game, and what I didn’t do the best job at conveying. I wanted to address all of these issues. As well as add some new features that would bring players back for another run, and hopefully seeing the game in a whole new light.
After reading so many of the reviews, it seemed like most of the feedback pointed out a lot of smaller non-gameplay related frustrations that would be a bit of work but nothing too crazy. I believed by motivating players to come back with the issues in the base game addressed and a few new surprises That would give people a new perspective of Never Yield and warrant a few updated reviews as you see with a lot of larger titles. The key items that I aimed for in this update lead to hundreds of smaller tasks add along the way. But the highlights I wanted to hit were new bonus levels, new music, endless mode, leaderboards, UI overhaul, graphical updates, new achievements, level, story, and cut-scene updates, mobile version, and Xbox Accessibility controls. Looking at this list it was a lot more then a normal update — it was a new version of the game and would take a lot longer than I wanted if, I was to do it all myself. I figure I should find some help if I was going to pull this off in a resembled amount of time.
The search for a small team that could keep up with me and be able to get up and running quickly took a bit longer than I was hoping. After a few recommendations, I came across this really cool small team based out of the UK call BetaJuster. They assisted in setting up the newer features while I went back to clean up and redesign some older features before starting all the newer assets needed. It was a wonderful team up and the reason why I was able to pull this massive update off.
I’ll spare you the boring parts of the random smaller challenges I ran into during the month’s building Da Update but for the most part it was fun and went really smoothly. The biggest factor again was time. I had been working a fancy new day job that I really enjoy during the day then clocking out and just relaxing while working on Da Update at night. That’s a bit of a contradiction as making games can be very stressful, but I found a lot of comfort in know the game was already out and everything I was doing creating now was basically adding to what players already like about the game while tweaking the things that could be better.
I’m really happy with how much more the game reflexes the vision I originally had. I’m most proud of the undated ending and all the little tweaks to the story just to make it a bit more clear while leaving room for interpretation. The theme has always been that “Things don’t change they remain the same unless you change them,” and I really hope that Never Yield and Da Update really shows how fans constructive feedback and support can help make things like this update happen. I also hope that after finishing Never Yield players are motivated to give other smaller games that they may have never heard of a chance.
As for me and what’s next, I think I’ve earned a nap. I want to take some time and help other black game developers get some spotlight while I work on my next game. I’m really into doing things that are wildly unexpected and fun. But till then… Never Yield!
Aerial_Knight's Never Yield
Headup
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