Kickstarter

I (Forest) was just looking at the calendar and realized it's been way too long since the last update - sorry about that! We have been cranking away at the multiplayer feature and are almost ready to share it! Of-course, we have come up against some technical chalenges along the way. Sharing games cross-platform via hyperlinks is the best way make our relay system work, but hyperlinks act differently on different OS's, so it has forced us to get creative ;) Thankfully we've found solutions and have gotten through the roadblocks. We should have something for our beta-testers soon!

We have also been thinking about about Steam. Not only is Steam one of the largest game portals out there, it is a great place for a community driven game like Race the Sun. We also know that many of you fine-folks are Steam users and we would love to give steam keys to everyone who has the game. Greenlight represents a pretty big chalenge, but we think (with your help) it's totally doable. Here's a post I wrote about our Greenlight expereinces so far: flippfly.com/news/buried-on-greenlight

Thanks for all you've done!
- Aaron & Forest

Good Wednesday!

We have just finished an updated beta. This version fixes several bugs and adds the first implementation of high-scores! Our backend data systems are starting to get a workout and are working great so far :) Those who are part of our beta testing group can get the updated version through their Flippfly Accounts at: http://flippfly.com/my-account . Once we get to the final release there will be an in-game popup to let everyone know when a new version is available, but that system will be inactive during the beta period.

Thanks for all your ideas and bug reports! You are helping us make the game better all the time.

• Aaron & Forest

Hi Everyone,

We are tying up a few loose ends and expect to release our first beta in a few short hours! All of our backers should receive an e-mail with a temporary login to their Flippfly account. Once logged in you can choose your username and password. Those of you with beta access can download the beta for your platform, everyone else can download the early alpha.

A few important notes:

- There are bugs! We are aware of several smaller bugs and we will add them as they pop up here: http://flippfly.com/racethesun/releasenotes/

- Your progress will be lost! The objectives in this release are temporary and will probably change, so it is very likely that you will lose your progress/level when the next beta comes out. 

- This release doesn't include multiplayer or the Word Creator. We want to focus in on the main game mode and get all the kinks worked out. 

- Usernames are first-come, first-served. It's probably unlikely that two of our backers will want the same username, but…just so you know ;) 

- We are in the process of switching our forums around, so that's not the best place for discussion at the moment. The comments below would be a great place to report problems and bugs.

We are incredibly pumped about this, and can't wait to get it into your hands. Please feel free to discuss your likes/dislikes - we covet your honest opinions.

Thank you for all your support and kindness!

- Aaron & Forest

Hi Everyone!

It's a nice Spring Tuesday here in Wisconsin, and we're pumped to share what we have been working on. As we were putting together all of the tech for the leader-boards and multi-player, we realized that now was the time to make "one login to rule them all". Basically what we have built is a central "Flippfly Account" that will let you mange all of your purchases, e-mail prefs, and passwords in one place. You will also be able to access the download links to all of your past purchases. Here's what it looks like:

It took a little (lot) of work to get this all up an running, but we really feel like it will make everything much easier for everyone. Another upside to us getting this done before release is that our backers with beta access will get to claim their screen-names before everyone else!

We are on the verge of having the first beta version of the game ready, and we promise we will get very little sleep until it is done :)

Thanks for being awesome!

- Aaron & Forest

Good Friday!

A quick update on the last couple of weeks...

Aaron is working on the backend tech to allow players to login and submit their high-scores - lots of good progress there! This is also the same system that will make the portals and multi-player work, so we're pumped to see it coming together. Forest has been working on the primary game mode, which is also coming together nicely. If all goes according to plan we will getting the game out for the first round of closed beta testing within about 2 weeks!

We also went to our first convention/show ever! Thanks to some helpful indie developers in Boston we were able to show the game, and even meet some Kickstarter backers at PAX East! We'll do a more detailed report of our experiences, but in summary: it was a blast.

Also, we are almost ready to ship some rewards! We have the stickers and posters in-hand, and the patches should arrive soon. As soon as things are ready we are planning to get them shipped!

Thanks for your support and continued interest. We'll talk with you soon!

- Aaron & Forest

Side note: We should really have filmed this earlier in the day, we look very tired ;)