Well, my friends – I think we’re done.
URR works on at least seven different Windows 10 systems without crashing and without triggering virus warnings upon download; the memory leakage issue and the saving/loading issues you’ll remember from a few weeks ago are all fixed; and more bugs have been dealt with in the interim.
So: unless some heinous issue(s) arise, my plan is to release next weekend (26th / 27th). I’m now working on the release notes, the release information here on the blog, finding all my logins for the various forums I used to post URR updates on (!), and so forth. I’m going to continue getting people testing the game on various Win 10 installs to make sure it seems to work for everyone, and hopefully no more significant bugs will arise.
Now I’m just working on packaging the executable with the appropriate required files, updating the readme, and continuing to scour the game for any remaining serious bugs (again, things like minor typos in speech generation I’m ignoring for now – only serious bugs are consequential enough to spend time on right now). I’m sure there are a handful of bugs left, but that’s inevitable with a world on this scale of complexity; but if none of my playtesters can find anything no matter what they do, and I can’t find anything no matter what I do – anything left must be a truly obscure edge case, and that means it’s time to go.
Unless something goes seriously amiss – some crippling new major crash bug, or my health takes a catastrophic turn – I hope to release next Saturday or Sunday! Thank you all, as ever, for sticking with me on the journey and for not losing hope during that 18 months when nothing happened (although you can be forgiven if you did!). It’s scary and nerve-wracking releasing something of this size after this much time has passed; but it appears that the moment has come. I’ll see you all in a week…
Incredible news! Best Christmas gift I could have asked for, even if it will be a little late ?
Haha, thanks Victor!
Let me know if you need any more playtesters; as you have probably guessed from my past comments, I’m a developer and one of my languages of choice is Python.
Thanks greendogo! I think I’m good at this point but I will absolutely keep it in mind :).
I‘m looking foreward to the release and wish you the best, but I am a bit sceptical about this: „ if none of my playtesters can find anything no matter what they do, and I can’t find anything no matter what I do – anything left must be a truly obscure edge case“.
Considering the posts on the Steam forums after any game launch, there are often weird new bugs once the game gets in the hands of thousands of new people.
Well that’s just what I’m saying Nille! I’m sure once it’s out people *will* find a couple of weird new bugs. Just hopefully not too many, and not too quickly…!
always exciting to check this page and see an update – and what an update! sounds great, hope you have a nice and well-deserved holiday break Dr. Mark
Thanks Carlo! Hope you have a good holiday too 🙂
Amazing news! Congrats on getting to this point. I’m looking forward to seeing the results for myself. Hope all goes well for you!
Thanks DL – me too!
The only thing more interesting than the premise of this game so far has been it’s history and waiting for the next great post. Congrats on all the work so far and can’t wait to try it out myself. Happy Holidays!
Aw, thanks MDent! That’s very kind of you :). Happy holidays to you too!
I’ve never commented here before, but I read every blog post. I’d like to congratulate you on getting this done and everything you’ve overcome to get there. I highly anticipate the release.
Thank you so much for commenting Merijn! I really appreciate it :).
Merry upcoming Christmas, Doc! Great news, can’t wait for the release!
Thanks Sergei! (You too!)
I enjoyed following the development of URR, very exciting to see it finished!
Thanks Thomas!
Awesome news! I’m looking forward to playing it. And I hope you have a very merry Christmas down there in Oz.
Thanks crowbar! 🙂
Can’t wait any longer!
Just a day or two Emil!
I apologize in advance for my emotions and big words.
It’s like seeing your homeland after years of wandering. For nine years (!) many of us have followed the development. I don’t have the words to convey our hopes and aspirations. Many remember the development plan of 2012. Hope for the release glowed, faded and glowed again. We made it! In spite of everything, we survived for this moment.
Thank you so much for not giving up. It wasn’t easy to wait, but all the titanic work was on you. Even after reading all your posts, we can’t get a sense of the hardships you’ve been through. Regardless of how popular the game will be, you have earned your place in gamedev history. This is fantastic!
Fan, thank you so much for this message! Seriously: I so appreciate you taking the time to write this out. And I do hope 0.8 at least somewhat delivers on the promise; I’ve been staring at the thing for so long now that I can hardly tell, but I’m quietly hopeful it’ll be something interesting and different at the very least :).
Yess!!!!!!!
Agreed!!!!!
Wow I can’t believe we are here, after all this time !
The excitement is real. Reading the last 10 or so entries on your has been an incredible emotional rollercoaster !
( as an aside, I should really put some kind of notification alert on this blog…)
I hope this release will go well because this game deserves a warm reception, and you need good feedback I’m sure.
I’m proud T_T is this the Christmas magic I heard so much about?
Congrats for the upcoming release 🙂
Thanks Kasaris! It’s great to have you here :). I do hope so too, but so long as it’s pretty stable (I’m going to be on standby for the next week to put out some rapid bug-fix versions if needed) I’ll be extremely happy!
combat when? also game crashing upon greeting foreigners
Thanks for the bug report! Can you be more specific? Greetings work fine for me; are they feudal, nomadic or hunter-gatherer civs? Can you tell me anything about their civ’s policies? What class of NPC were you greeting? Blunt, neutral or polite?