Beta 0.9.11
I posted a devlog for beta 0.9.11 over on itch.io if you're interested. It's likely to be one of the last beta versions of the game since I think I'm getting pretty close. There are still a couple of beta keys left as well.Getting great, detailed feedback from even a small amount of people was incredibly helpful and (hopefully) helped the game get over the final hump before release. I feel like a lot of polish has been added in the last couple of weeks that makes it feel a lot friendlier to use while still maintaining the difficulty I wanted.
I'm not entirely happy with the balance of some things, but overall I think the game is about as complete as I can make it. I considered rethinking some of the core systems (particularly bombs) but it seems too late in the life of the game to scrap or rework something so fundamental. For future games I'll likely solicit feedback much earlier on if possible and iterate that way. This isn't new advice; plenty of devs have recommended it forever, it's just the first time I've obviously experienced it.
At any rate, if I release the game in the next month or two it won't quite make it to four years of development (March 2018), but it will still be damned close. It's been a fun ride, and now that I have a better idea of how this all works I'll likely not wait ridiculously long next time before actually getting word out about it and getting help. The more you know!