Hello all you wonderful Rubicon backers and people of the future who may read this:

First off: Links.

I am officially kicking Rubicon out of beta. Here are the links for the public release:

PC: Dropbox, .torrent, HeroShare

MacOSX: Dropbox, .torrent, HeroShare

Linux: Dropbox, .torrent, HeroShare

Second off: Philosophy, wrap-up.

I think that it's important for projects to have ends. To be able to say, "it's done, dammit!" can a hard step to take, but it keeps you focused on what absolutely needs to happen for it to be complete. I think the biggest lesson I've learned in design over the course of this thing was one of minimalism; to be able to find the fundamental functions of a thing (anything!) and streamline and emphasize those specific functions. If something doesn't support the core purpose, no matter how nifty or shiny it is on its own, it gets cut.

The one thing I wish I had more time to do was to make some sort of progressive set of levels, instead of starting out on the same one every time. This was, by far, the feature most requested in the feedback. I've tried to manufacture a sense of progression with a new unlocking system- you now choose to unlock new ships and components by spending points you get in gameplay- but having that sort of concrete spatial progress provides really excellent overarching goals. I think it's OK, though. I chose to focus on very fine gameplay over a muddling takes-more-resources-than-I-have campaign mode.

Anyway, I'm calling this project a wrap. It's possible that I might put a patch together if something terrible comes up, but by this point everything has been pretty thoroughly tested (a super-special thanks to Daniel Ball, who once broke a build by clicking a button over two hundred times). I'm proud to have seen this Kickstarter successfully funded and, with the continual support of you backers and beta-testers, get a finished product out the door.

Thank you again for backing the project, telling people about the game, playing the game, giving feedback, talking with me about the campaign, arguing with me about mechanics, and really just making it so a crazy college kid could do something that he absolutely loved to do.

Pew pew ~

Wick

(P.S. Posters are the last to-be-fulfilled reward [well, apart from the bobcats], and I'm going to be printing and mailing them in December [the posters, not the felines]. Future You is going to be so happy!)