[b]Hello everyone! [/b] [i]I'm still here, but this year has been pretty tough for me both personally and professionally. My team and I managed to release AirBorne Sea in early access, which I'm very happy and grateful to everyone who helped me with this. This includes translators, who allow the game to be touched by more people in their native language, as well as the art and design team. For me, 2023 has become a year of change, and I hope 2024 will bring even more pleasant changes. We don't have a lot of money to rely on, and we don't have investors financing our work. We just make the games that we want to show the whole world, which is why we didn't abandon AirBorne Sea and won't plan to, even though there has been no news from us since around September. On a personal level, I'm developing a game by myself, but I say "we" because it's a collective contribution to this game, and I don't forget about everyone who helps me.[/i] [b]Happy New Year 2024![/b] [h2]What will 2024 be like?[/h2] [h3]High Priority:[/h3] - [b]Transition to Unreal Engine 5[/b] The game is currently built on Unreal Engine 4, and to achieve even more graphical changes, I need Unreal Engine 5. - [b]Optimization[/b] Unreal Engine 5 is not smooth on every PC with different configurations. We need to make everything as convenient as possible so that updates can be uploaded more frequently and work well on minimum system requirements. - [b]Bugs[/b] There are bugs and unpleasant moments when using the controller (I don't use it very often myself, so I'm not quite familiar with how it should work). I will do my best to fix this issue. This also includes changing the progression system and integrating with Steam. Not all achievements are working for players at the moment. [h3]Mid-Priority:[/h3] - [b]Immersiveness[/b] This is a bit of a sore spot for me, after collecting statistics and feedback from those who played in early access, only a small percentage of players were satisfied with the overall game experience. We need to put maximum effort into making you truly immerse yourself in the role of the ship's gunner. So that each shot feels significant, the sounds are clear and spatial, and each damage to the ship feels painful. - [b]Graphic improvements[/b] At the moment, the change of day and night is not causing such a strong excitement. We need to completely rewrite this system and introduce something truly new and diverse: spotlights illuminating the sky, a variety of explosion and effects, especially when the plane falls into the water, as this is a very important immersion element in the game. - [b]Game Mode[/b] We've had this idea of creating a free mode for a long time, where the player can independently set up the game and try to win. It's already in the game, in fact, but no one has found it. So, we need to finish this mode and publish it for everyone. - [b]Skills[/b] Currently, there's not much of a sense of progress in the game. I think we need to work on skills so they are more understandable and make players want to study them. [h3]Low Priority:[/h3] - [b]Effects[/b] There are effects that may not significantly affect the gameplay and should not be ignored. This includes various concussion effects, shooting by bots from other ships, understanding what damage the enemy caused. - [b]Interface[/b] Initially, I wanted to provide the player with minimal information about the game to create an immersion effect. However, after conducting several tests, it became clear that additional menus with remaining opponents, additional buttons to help navigate the menu, and some interesting facts or plot details would be beneficial. Also, I might want to redesign the interface a bit and make it more modern, understandable, and just prettier. - [b]Aircraft[/b] We plan to do a global overhaul of aircraft design and flight mechanics. [i]Please join the official WerFEST Software channel if you are interested in participating in any play tests or talk with us. ([/i]https://discord.gg/mtf7JuB7tp[i])[/i]