As announced in December last year, Gem Worlds ships on January 16, 2023 (in just three days). This version matches the corresponding v1.0.1 demo, which includes a number of bug-fixes.

Unfortunately, adding gamepad (and full keyboard) support took a lot longer than anticipated. While I made major strides in updating and modernizing the main menu, I didn't fully finish the changes, and it's buggy enough that I'm going to hold off on releasing an update.

The plan for the next release, v1.1.0, still includes full gamepad, keyboard, and mouse support for the entire game. I'm quite burned out from working on the game for 18 months, but I'll see how much farther I can go with it.

Thanks for your support, and see you at release!

As I mentioned last week, Gem Worlds (the full game) will release on January 16th. Given that I have a couple of weeks, I already started on the next release - v1.1.0. Since I have a couple of users playing the demo on Steam Deck, it makes sense to include Steam Deck support with the next release. This includes:

• An option on the main menu to quit to the title screen
• Gamepad support throughout the game
• A better explanation of why gems turn black and white
• Some sort of indication that boulders are going to fall next turn

The next demo release and first full release is going out on January 16th, and whatever features are done, will ship at that time (probably partial gamepad support). Whatever isn't done, will ship in a subsequent release.

v1.0.1 of the demo ships today. This build primarily includes bug-fixes, including:

• Fixed a rare case where you spawn under a lock
• Fixed a rare case where boulders slide over a one-tile gap
• Newly-learned skills sometimes appear at level 2
• Light crystals run out of turns but light doesn't dim
• A few UI bugs related to skills

If you enjoy the game, please subscribe to my newsletter to get updates.

Finally, due to an unexpected issue with Steam, the game will ship on January 16, 2023.

Hey all, just a quick update: the game testing is progressing well. I've finished a full play-through of the game (2 hours and 23 minutes, not including dying, restarting, etc.) which is a lot longer than my previous games (20-30 minutes).

I've fixed all the bugs I know about (except one). Once that's done, if I get a clean run through the game without any bugs, the game goes out the door.

Exciting!

Meanwhile, check out this rare bug I fixed, where a Bomb Bot directly following another Bomb Bot can end up walking on top of a time bomb, if the first bot drops it.

Hey all, I’m still planning on releasing Gem Worlds this year. November ended up being bug-fixing month, and I found a couple of content things that need to be replaced (icicles and beehives).

Before launching any game, I play through it over and over, until I can go from start to finish without seeing any bugs. For Gem Worlds, that’s a little trickier, since the game takes around two hours to complete (longest game I’ve made yet). I’ve reached the fifth and final world, and tested all the skills, so things are looking pretty good.

I really hope and pray that I can still ship the game this year, but it’s looking close. In terms of gameplay, here’s a quick look (via Twitter) at some UI changes in terms of how skill selection looks (World 4):

Finally, some non-Gem-Worlds related things:

• I signed up for the GitHub Game Off 2022 jam, but our project ended up falling through (mostly design/architecture discussions)
• I am still very, very interested in making a JRPG next, albeit I definitely cannot handle the scope of it on my own
• My next project might very well be a classic dungeon crawler (roguelike), but I will know more closer to the time

Finally, if you haven’t already, please wishlist and follow the game on Steam, it helps with visibility on the Steam store.