Beta release

Burning Out is here! Sort of. Well, a little bit of it. (Get it, a little “Bit” of it? …Don’t worry if you don’t get the joke, because it isn’t a very good one.)

So I don’t normally do early access, in no small part because the games I make aren’t usually of significant enough size (and thus development time) to warrant any sort of beta-access.

Burning Out is an exception to this.

My previous largest game, Snowset, was 161 passages (including the Captain’s Edition expansion that was not part of the original game), and was created mostly in a span of around 24 straight hours of work.

Burning Out is, at the time of this writing, 131 passages, and uses substantially more complex programming in several sections, including some that affects the entire game. (Namely that fancy new typewriter effect I found in the Twine manual, which is cool, but has created some substantial issues with other aspects of the game that needed to be worked around.) Thus, it’s taken much more time to develop, and still isn’t close to complete.

So far, the introduction to the game is done, and shouldn’t see too many changes. Given that the beginning is playable but much of the content is yet to come, I figured I’d release what there currently is as something of a teaser for the full game. While I’m not explicitly looking for feedback on the beta, I am open to it, and I’ll at least consider any suggestions that you leave for the game.

…There is also, I must admit, one other reason for the open beta. Votes. As the description says, this game has been submitted to the Game Development World Championship 2022.

Given that its full release is likely going to be around the time the championship ends, I wanted to get it out to the public a little earlier so I could get some eyes on the game before the championship was basically already over. Given that, I’d appreciate it if you could head over to that link, and, if you think it deserves a vote, give it one.

Or maybe you don’t feel like giving it a vote until it’s actually complete- that’s totally fair. If that’s the case, It’d be really cool if came back to the game around January and checked it out then- it should be about done by that time, and hopefully in state where you can reasonably judge if it’s earned a vote or not.

…Or maybe you don’t want to consider giving it a vote at all. Also fair. It’s cool. Don’t mind me, a poor little independent game developer, just doing the best I can to entertain you, and seeing nothing from all my hard work. Totally cool, no hard feelings. sniffle sniffle

…Seriously though, if you wanna give it a vote, please do, if not, maybe you could tell me why in the comments? Maybe you just don’t like Twines in general- That’s useful information to me, it helps me know my audience. Or maybe you have a more specific issue with the game- I’d be happy to know what that is for future projects! Also, if you’re coming from the GDWC, please let me know in your comment! Once again, it helps me figure out what sort of audience might be interested in my stuff- and who isn’t. All good stuff to know.

If you’ve actually read all this, thanks- and I sincerely hope you enjoy the game!

-BoN