The last few days have been quite amazing ! Build 0.8.5.1 (.. and then .2 and .3 ... but moving on 
) were released, we ran a 50% off sale on Desura for a week which brought in many new players and.. perhaps most excitingly, we launched on Greenlight!
What matters most to any game developer is having people play and enjoy their game, Steam has and continues to be the best way of getting the attention of many potential players.. but there is more to it than that. As a developer, it feels like a big achievement to even have your game in the Greenlight queue and to be considered for release on such a recognised platform.
I held off submitting Isomer to Greenlight/Steam until now because I wanted to be further along in development. I don't like the idea of offering half baked ideas or early prototypes to get peoples' hopes up (and certainly not to take their money) because game development is rarely a straightforward process either technically or creatively. Sometimes ideas just don't work or the enthusiasm developers have clouds their judgement and leads to disappointment for everyone.
Having been first opened up to alphafunding in August/September 2013 and receiving regular updates since, Isomer is finally 'mature enough' (I'm sure I will laugh at this statement after a few more builds are out) for me to feel confident submitting it to Greenlight.
This does not mean however that Isomer is finished or moving to beta. There are many features and mechanics in the pipeline to add in the coming months. Being Greenlit (fingers crossed) will be a huge step towards accelerating this process as it will hopefully give me the funding to continue working on Isomer full time as well as pay for more art and sound work, maybe even take on another developer ... we shall see!
So, please help Isomer get on to Steam! You can help by:
- Visiting our Greenlight page and up voting the heck out of it
- Posting Let's Plays or videos with Isomer (here's our LP policy for those interested)
- Help spread the word by telling your friends
- Conserve biomass for the war effort!
Aside from all the Greenlight related excitement, I have another announcement. I was interviewed by a nice guy called Niall Gill who wrote a fantastic piece about the realities of indie development which I highly recommend you read. I go into detail about some of the original inspiration behind Isomer and what it is like working as a solo independent developer on a project as complex as Isomer.
Lastly I wanted to say a few words about what it coming in the next build. My plan is to spend some time enhancing the lighting engine to perform 3D illuminations. Currently lighting is calculated on two planes in 2D and this can lead to ugly cut offs especially where terrain changes height close to the light source. I am also going to continue enhancing combat by putting more work into line of sight calculations for units so they can shoot around each other better as well as continue with the economy and trading enhancements I talked about in previous posts. As ever if you have ideas or suggestions feel free to post them and there's a good chance they'll make it into a future build.
This is turned into a long post so if you made it this far ... have an extra 50 biomass for your trouble. 
