September 2023 Studio Update #1
Hey, Look, A New Website!
While I’ve been working on the Steam release of Idle Space Navy as well as getting ready to start development on version 0.08 of the same thing, I decided to go ahead and make a new version of the Phoenix Aura website. Why? Simple. The first version of the website was thrown together in about 15 minutes and I just never really wanted to update it. It used a website builder by the name of BoldGrid which, to me, was very hard to work with and very hard to get to do what I wanted to do.
Fortunately, I’ve discovered a new site builder by the name of Elementor, and that’s allowed me to create a website version that is not only easier to make changes and add features to, but also allows me to make much better designed update posts much more quickly. As such, the primary location for update posts will be here, though links will also be posted in the Phoenix Aura Discord server and updates will also be pushed out to Patreon.
What’s the future of the website? Well, for one, we’ll have new pages coming for projects as they are developed. Right now, the only project with its own page is Idle Space Navy, but as new series and games are produced, they’ll receive web pages of their own so you can learn more about them and have quick access to the specific projects you want to see. There may also be a game or two that gets deployed to the website itself…
Anyway, enough about the website, here’s what else is going on.
Development on Idle Space Navy 0.08 is going to start this week, with the Kicking Off 0.08 devnote coming out in the next three days. Steam prefers that we don’t have major updates before the release, and 0.08 is going to be a significant update, so the current release target is early October. I know this is a long time to go without a release, but there will be other things going on both in game development and new recording and stream projects.
The Steam release is currently slated for 25 September 2023, but that release date is still subject to change depending on how long it takes Steam to review the game once it is up. I’m still learning how to publish things to Steam, so it may take a couple of attempts before I get it right and we get a valid upload of ISN 0.07.3 to Steam for review.
I’m not sure if anyone who still pays attention to these updates remembers Existential Tailspin, my first attempt at a podcast with Gamester4/Sovreignry/Nick Wilcox (yay, names). Either way, we’ve been having a rethink about what we want to do, and we’re coming up with a new idea. The new podcast is going to be a 30-45 minute panel show in three segments – a topic segment, a news discussion, and either an open floor or discussing the burning questions you the viewers send to us. The panel’s planned to be 3 or 4 regular panelists plus a guest, and we’re planning a transmission every two weeks. There’s still discussion taking place on this, so expect more news in an update later this month!
Yeah, you heard me right. I’ve been slowly boosting my stream schedule back up, and while I’ve been having to deal with various issues in my life that sometimes keep me from streaming on the current 5 days, I think it would actually be helped by moving to a 7 day stream schedule. With that in mind, we’re going to be streaming as close to every day as possible, every day at 7:30pm Pacific (10:30pm Eastern) for 90 minutes. That being said, I’m going to actively plan content for six of the days – Thursdays will be an “Anything Goes” stream which will either make up for missed scheduled streams or have new and different things that aren’t in the regular rotation. With that being said, here’s the current stream schedule:
Modpack Mondays | Every Monday, we’ll play a Minecraft modpack that isn’t planned for either a stream or video series. This could be one I’ve decided to review, or it could be one you want to see – leave your feedback on the Discord!
Take Flight Tuesday | Tuesday’s streams will be various flight-based games, whether it’s Kerbal Space Program (1 or 2), air traffic control in Microsoft Flight Simulator, or something new and unexpected.
War Games Wednesday | People seem to enjoy my World of Warships streams, so we’ll get some more of those – as well as the return of World of Tanks and War Thunder… plus perhaps some new military-themed games in the rotation!
Weekend Stream Series | Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays are dedicated to our regular stream series. The current series is GT New Horizons, but new series are already in the planning!
So, I’ve mentioned that I had someone working with me on videos… the only problem is we’ve never really been able to meet! Both of our schedules ended up in a large amount of flux right after we decided to start working together. We’re hoping to get back together and start working on things soon, but if not, I’ll start working on videos as I’m able to free up time. Supporting Phoenix Aura would be a huge help in this regard (more money coming into Aura means less time I have to go drive Uber to make sure we’re funded), so please visit the Contribute page to give me a hand!