Dev Diary 18/2024: Scheduling Office + Communication Changes

You might have noticed we didn’t send a Dev Diary last week. There was a good reason for that, which we’ll explain below. But first, let’s catch you up on what we’ve accomplished since our last diary! 🚀

Next Time on Endless Studio…

(If you’re new here, or just need a refresher: Our next update, 2024.3, is the final step before we start creating the eagerly awaited Manage Your Own Network feature set, chosen by our biggest fans as the next significant feature.)

Since our last Dev Diary, we’ve created the brand-new Scheduling Office:

• It’s a new room where you can see programming for all networks, one at a time.
• You can easily step a week back or forward and instantly see the programming.
• You can search for specific shows.
• Your own shows will be highlighted.
• For broadcast networks, you’ll see prime time programming broken down into days and time slots, including unscheduled slots that need filling.
• For streaming networks, you’ll see how many episodes were released that week (sometimes just one, if the network follows the new one-episode-per-week airing method).
• And with the big Manage Your Own Network update, you’ll be able to manage your own network’s schedule.

We created a short video to show off the new room. Check it out on our Instagram!

We estimate update 2024.3 is now about 50% complete.

Next, we’ll develop the Schedule Detail screen for the Scheduling Office. This screen will provide additional details for each schedule, including a list of competing shows airing in the same broadcast time slot on another network, or the same week on another streaming network.

Communication Changes

Last week, we realized that our strict weekly communication schedule was hindering our development progress. Writing content, creating screenshots and screen recordings, and posting to eight channels is very time-consuming. Plus, knowing we had to do this every Friday caused significant stress, slowing down our update pace. So, we decided to make some changes to our communication approach.

While we suspect most of you enjoy our weekly Dev Diaries, we believe you value quicker updates even more. Therefore, we’re moving away from a strict weekly schedule and will write these diaries less frequently, on a non-predetermined schedule, but with more substantial progress to report. This should make each diary more exciting to read!

Additionally, we’ve adjusted some of our internal work schedules to dedicate even more time to Endless Studio’s development. We hope these changes will significantly speed up our update delivery.

Supporting Endless Studio

Endless Studio is a niche game with a dedicated but small community. This makes traditional pricing models, like a one-time purchase, impractical since they provide little income. Third-party ads don’t generate much revenue either, given our smaller player base.

To ensure ongoing development, we offer Supporter Subscriptions. This allows our dedicated fans to support our tiny, two-man game studio. While we’re still far from covering our development costs through subscriptions, we’re hopeful we’ll get there eventually. If you haven’t already, and if you can, please consider subscribing or upgrading to the Level 2 Supporter Subscription! You’ll speed up development, enjoy the game ad-free, get early access to new features, participate in Feature Voting, and be included in the Hall of Fame!

Feature Voting Status Report

Our Level 2 Supporter Subscribers greatly influence what we develop next through their monthly votes on the Feature Voting screen. We’re currently in Voting Season 3, which will conclude when the winner of the previous season, the Manage Your Own Network feature set, is released with update 2024.4. Here are the current Top 5 features:

• Planned Show Ending: 2012 votes
• Critics & Awards: 1653 votes
• Feature Movies: 631 votes
• Producing Whole Seasons: 519 votes
• More Talent Variety: 280 votes

That's all folks! 🐷 Enjoy your weekend and happy studio building! Stay tuned for more updates from Endless Studio. 📺