Space Food Truck is complete. We have a lot of features, expansions and gametype ideas we could still add to it (maybe we’ll post some of that later), but there was another project being tossed around that we’ve really been itching to green light.

In 2012 we made our first strategy game called Outwitters, and ever since moving on from that game we’ve had a pet obsession. When I looked through our “Outwitters 2: Think Again” folder just now (that was a working title), I counted 9 hex-based, PvP strategy prototypes we’ve tinkered with. Some were a lot like Outwitters, and some were barely recognizable. Finally, after 4+ years on and off experimenting, we’ve got it. A worthy successor. And that’s what we’re working on full time, starting next week.

In about a year, we hope to have it ready for launch. There will be a Kickstarter, and we will need your help! If you haven’t signed up for the mailing list yet, definitely do to keep up with our progress. And you can also check back here weekly to peek over our shoulders while we work.

Our cooperative card adventure Space Food Truck arrives on iOS and Android tablets today! Now you can scour the galaxy for exotic ingredients on the go, asynchronously, or pass your device around the room. The game even has cross platform support, so any iOS, Android, or PC user can join your crew if you meet up in the same lobby.

With the smaller screen comes a smaller price of just $9.99.

PC Version is 50% Off!

And for a limited time at SpaceFoodTruck.com, we’re matching that tablet price for the PC version to celebrate the launch! The 50% discount also extends to our 4-pack, which already saves you 25%. We heard you liked discounts, so we put discounts on our discount.

No matter what platform you’re on, it’s a great day to grab Space Food Truck.

Space Food Truck is 33% off for the Humble Store Summer Sale, now through September 16th at 10am Pacific. That goes for single copies of the game, and the already-discounted four pack! We’ve just recently added asynchronous support to the game, so this is fantastic time to find a crew online and whip up something spacious. And don’t forget to check out our quick tutorial series to learn the ins and outs of Space Food Truckery.

It’s been a long time coming, but Space Food Truck‘s asynchronous update has just been soft launched! I guess it’s only medium-soft; I don’t know if you’re supposed to tell people you’ve soft launched something. Anyway, the Online Games section now supports hopping into a live game lobby to play the whole thing now, or joining an asynchronous (your turn/my turn) game to play at your leisure.

So what’s the difference between our live play and asynchronous? If you happen to have a few players bite immediately on your async lobby, you can play exactly like a live game as long as the current turn’s player is online. The difference is how we deal with players that leave.

In a live game, a dropped player has 60 seconds to rejoin before their slot is forfeited to one of the other players. In asynchronous, when a player leaves the game pauses until they return. Once your turn comes back around, you’ll get a Steam notification. We really want to add a 48 hour time limit to boot inactive players, but we’ve hit some technical snags on that front that we’re trying to work through.

There are a few minor visual bugs in the game list that we’ll be dealing with before we call asynchronous “official”, but otherwise it’s been performing really well for us in testing. This update should make it WAY easier for you lonely hearts to find a crew online. If you encounter any weirdness, let us know at bugs@spacefoodtruck.com. Happy trucking!

Testing how malleable Blender animation and rigs can be. Blank Man is now Lizard Man! pic.twitter.com/7nESZ6pLCY

— One Man Left Studios (@OneManLeft) July 14, 2016

Testing how malleable Blender animation and rigs can be. Blank Man has become Lizard Man!

After a little more than a month of 3d re-education, I’ve finally got a decent animation to show for it. With some more experience, maybe I’ll be good enough for us to make a decent-looking 3d game.

Making progress in my 3d education. Rigged and finally animated! pic.twitter.com/3PKJBMXQ0T

— One Man Left Studios (@OneManLeft) July 11, 2016

I’d hoped to have more cool stuff to show off from my 3d training tangent, but I’ve spent the past week refining that same old Blank Man model and rig. The past two days have been devoted to this one flippin’ shoulder, which is apparently a very tricky part of the anatomy to get right. This model went from “I’ll make a formless blob in the shape of a man and move on” to “I’ll make a person with good edgeflow I can base all my people-shaped models on”. I’ve deleted his hands and shoulders 3 or 4 times each, but I’ve learned a ton buckling down and trying to get it all right.

I believe asynchronous play is coming to Space Food Truck this month, after which I think we’ll do some game design again. I think I remember how to do that.

After a month or so of major overhaul to Space Food Truck‘s networking functionality, we’ve just released a convenient rejoin feature for online games! Now if a player is disconnected mid-turn, they’ll have a full 60 seconds to pick up exactly where they left off. There’s no longer a need for anyone to exit and rehost, or to retake the beginning of your turn to catch up. A popup will appear on the main menu after you’ve disconnected, or you can click “rejoin” in the “Find Online Game” screen.

Of course, this feature is just the first big hurdle we needed to clear on our way toward full asynchronous support. Soon it’ll be much easier to find a crew for a pick-up game of SFT online, and you’ll have the option of taking your turns whenever it’s convenient for you.

It’s been a bit of a slog in 3d learning land the past week or so. My plan was to make a super simple mesh, rig it up, and try a little animation. But there was some ambition creep, my simple mesh got fingers and articulations, I experimented and improved my tutorial rig a little, and I spent all yesterday trying to figure out what the best low poly topology for fingers would look like. I have absolutely nothing cool to show for all that, but I learned a lot!

Next I’ll finally have something to animate with, and I might try scrapping this mesh to see if I can refit this rig to a character with different proportions.

I wasn’t at all excited about learning Blender at the start of all this, but it really does do everything Maya did for me. Some things worse, but a lot of things better.

Our migration to Unity 5 is done! There were a few bugs that snuck past in the migration over the weekend that we tidied up, and we’ll be sure to fix any more that might spring up later. This build is now on the live branch, so for those that were being super helpful and giving it a go on the beta branch over the weekend, feel free to switch over to the normal build. Thanks so much to those that give the beta a spin this weekend!

Fixes

• Fixed audio clipping bug that would cause some background elements to go mute.
• Fixed a crashing bug in the event UI if the player tried to take the damage in some scenarios.
• Fixed a crashing bug involving crises expiring that would hang up online games.