Friday Rambles and Game Dev Update 2025-04-18

It's the Friday Rambles.

Gamedev Stuff

I started going to the coworking space again, since my work doesn't really require much actual coding on my big computer right now (now that all the Switch port stuff is done). I've been pretty productive. I did a lot of administrative tasks, like organizing tickets in my project tracking site, writing lots of emails, and making store pages and getting approvals for the Switch release. Making an eShop page takes a lot longer than I would have thought - there's lots of manual work needed for each regional eShop I'll be selling in, and various stuff that needs approval. But now we're all ready to go!! Nintendo Switch release is officially on Thursday, ➡️ May 1 ⬅️. Mark your calendars, and if you're one of the true fans who said you wanted to pay for the Overtime chapter... here's your chance!!

Technically, I'm still waiting on approval for the Asian eshop regions, but I don't really expect those to take that much longer, considering it's been approved in America and Europe.

(A crappy photo I took to just post on social media to tease the Switch version, but it took a long time to get approval to post this and they made me put a bunch of logos and legal lines on it so it doesn't feel very off-the-cuff, but hey, it's official, baby. Working with consoles means lots of waiting for approvals for everything, I guess.)

I'll probably be spamming the eShop links everywhere once it's out in all regions, which should be everywhere by 6am Pacific on May 1. I'll have to announce that the Switch release is a thing before the Steam anniversary sale starts, though, so people aren't buying the Steam version when they would have preferred the Switch version instead. The game will cost 9.99 (same as on Steam) with a 10% launch discount (not the same as on Steam. I need to eat after all, and the Overtime update cost a lot of runway.).

New Features:

• - Content-wise, it's exactly the same as the Steam version, except you can play it on your Nintendo Switch!

• - It has the in-game achievements gallery with Switch-only achievement toasts, since Switch doesn't have an achievements implementation. On a personal note, not having achievements on my game system is honestly sort of freeing for me. Best case, the game devs will put in an optional in-game achievement system, of course, like I did >:)

• - New Switch controller glyphs (actually this is already in the Steam version too, if you're using Switch controllers to play on PC)

• - Take screenshots with the screenshot button and share it on... Facebook...?

• - You can also play it on Switch 2, probably? Wow, a "Launch Title," as they say.

Anyway, it was a big ol' learning experience, and of course, as long as things go well, this means I'll be doing a Switch release for the next game as well. Probably faster than 2 years after the Steam version, of course. I wonder if I'll have to make a separate Switch 2 version.

I also did some minor bugfixes. Nothing so critical as to delay or require a day-one patch for the Switch launch though, luckily. It'll go out soon as 1.0.1c. I also have to go through another approval process (surprised?) to release a patch for Switch, so I'm going to hold out on that till I'm sure I have everything I need in there, like in case anyone finds a bug in the Switch version.

Other Stuff

I have not felt any desire to draw anything lately since I drew so much for Overtime, but my boss (the CEO of my solo game development studio) forced me to draw more things because it's my job. I wrote scripts and drew thumbnails for 3 comics for the anniversary, and also a kawaii Blythe for no reason. She's celebrating the anniversary and Switch launch.

It was fun though, so I think I'll make it a set of drawings to include the other characters. And then maybe sell stickers.

I'm gonna post the first comic announcing the anniversary event soon, but I have to actually draw it first. Now that I'm being productive in the coworking space, I'll probably draw them pretty quickly. I'm hoping to post it early next week, to kick off the anticipation for the anniversary. I still can't really announce any concrete dates until I get all the approvals for my eshop pages, but I don't think that will take much longer. I hope.

The End

A lot of stuff happened this week. I felt like a real office worker, going to the office to work, where other people are working. Although, they blast the A/C too strongly here, so I need to bundle up, and I look like some kind of edgy hacker hunched over my laptop with a hoodie on. And drawing cute characters on my ipad. Anyway, I hope to continue the momentum next week, hopefully getting all my approvals and finalizing everything so I can purely focus on marketing. Seems it'll mostly be spent drawing comics. Okay, thank you for your support, as always! See you next week!