Ran a pre-beta test for about 45 minutes on Friday and so far everything is looking good.  Players had an opportunity to quick-jump into games and play 3 levels.  From there I could gather crucial information:  What did players do in the game?  Where did they go?  How did they react to changes and lobby features?

Overall the reaction was fairly good.  While there were some bugs overall the system held up.

Here’s a few heatmaps to show player involvement and where people were dying on levels:

Beta is approaching.

I know a lot of people are waiting but I wanted to give you a quick update:

Currently I’m fleshing out Multiplayer features.  This is one of the biggest components of Exit Path so I want to make sure I get it right.  So far I’ve included way too many features and I am currently pruning the ones that are causing me problems or seem like they’ll hurt more than help the game.

Here is the menu as of today, I cut the top off because I haven’t quite finished the very top portion of the screen.  But below you’ll see a new interface, complete with new Chat, Next Up, And Kudos areas to help you keep track of your stats.  Also note that more stats (including your Win Ratio) is now displayed to all users.

Also, if you are logged in it will show your nation’s flag.

Overall progress is good, if not slow.  I’ve been trying my best to get this thing to beta but it seems like each time I get closer I end up running into 10 more issues.  So while I’m not *quite* to beta yet, we will be soon!  I keep saying that but I honestly am getting closer.

On July 4th we celebrate with fireworks and such, but here we also celebrate Roo Day!   Roo day is a day for best friend Roo, my Best Man in my wedding, the namesake of the Roo Bat in one of my oldest games (Tage Rampage) and official unofficial tester of my iPhone games.  And we celebrate by honouring some of his achievements:

1)  Finding non-existent grocery stores in large cities

2)  Serving me a beer before I even knew I wanted one

3)  Taking pictures at 45 degree angles

4)  Hitting lower Baritone notes than me while saying “SUNRIVER”

And for all that and more, we say Happy Roo Day, now the sixth time we’ve celebrated!  Even if you don’t know what that means.