Announcing [i]Tensor 1[/i], a new action-adventure video game, expected to release for PC on Steam on November 19, 2024. [h3]About [i]Tensor 1[/i][/h3] [i]Tensor 1[/i] is a first-person action-adventure video game. It is not a Boomer shooter, it is a genre hybrid seeking to merge the elegance and technical simplicity of the Greatest Generation shooter and Silent Generation shooter with the narrative, lore, and world-building of the Generation X shooter. Core features include: [list] [*] [b]Campaign[/b]: Explore a mysterious facility in the story focused single player campaigns. Arm yourself against the hostile robots standing (or hovering) in your way, and follow (or ignore) the advice of friendly (?) robots (?) trying to help (?) you. [*] [b]Survival[/b]: Hone your skills in the replay value focused single player score attack mode. See how far you can go as you collect tokens to buy supplies and upgrades in an endless gauntlet of enemies. [*] [b]Extras[/b]: Use the built-in tile editor to create your own levels for truly endless replay. [/list] More information is available at the official [url=playtensor.github.io][i]Tensor 1[/i] website[/url]. [h3]Going Gold Then and Now[/h3] Can we take a moment to appreciate just how fast deployment has become in our modern age thanks to digital distribution? Back in the old days, software often had to be distributed physically via discs, because the networks of old were too slow and unreliable to send "large" amounts of data, where "large" could mean something like an extravagant 1 MB. (For reference, at time of writing, the FCC currently defines broadband Internet connection as one that provides at least 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload). A consequence of that was that software would have to "go gold" and "ship" weeks before release. A final version of the software would be declared the "gold master" copy and physically tamped onto a disc, the gold master then physically "shipped" to a factory to make copies, and those copies then physically "shipped" to retail stores. So developers would have to be "done" weeks before they got to see their work on store shelves. [i]Tensor 1[/i] would have needed to have already gone gold today in order to make its release date. Another consequence was that patching software was a slow and expensive process that required making even more physical discs in a factory and sending them to retail stores, where they were often offered to existing customers for free despite the costs of manufacturing and distribution. Even then, developers would still have to just hope that customers would put in the effort to go get the disc to patch their software. For this reason, the final push to finish the gold master version often meant grueling around the clock marathons of finding and fixing as many bugs as physically possible, because once the software was stamped on a physical disc and shipped to a customer, there was very little chance of ever fixing it. Thanks to digital distribution, we can now work basically right up to the bell: we will be collecting feedback from the open Steam playtest and using it to improve the game in the final weeks right up to the official release. And, while we will still be doing the grueling around the clock marathon of finding and fixing as many bugs as possible until release, digital distribution means that we won't have to go through crippling depression if any happen to slip through. Fixes can continue to release to customers even after launch. And not just fixes either. In the old days, expansion packs often needed to be sold as retail products in order to cover the costs of manufacturing and distribution of discs. Thanks to digital distribution, if [i]Tensor 1[/i] should ever happen to get any major content expansion updates, it can be delivered digitally to existing customers for free.