Hello, Explorer! ⛵️

How are you doing? 🌊

On my side, I wanted to share a bit of “behind the scenes” about where RAR Islands is heading and why it’s taking so long for the new update I’m working on.

After releasing the game, I couldn’t resist adding a few extra mysteries for those of you who like to go beyond, once completing the game: things like the Silent Trader, the Shaper Ruins, ….

And then a thought kept coming back to me: something I personally love in many games:

What if starting over was part of the fun?

I really enjoy that feeling of beginning fresh, re-unlocking tiers, recipes, islands, buildings… but with the knowledge and small advantages from previous runs.

That’s exactly where the New Cycle mechanic was born.

Over the last weeks (well… months 😅) what I’ve been building is a system to make New Cycles:

  • More varied
  • Richer in content
  • A bit less long and grindy
  • And overall, more meaningful in terms of replayability

I’m not discarding adding more “regular” post-game content that doesn’t involve New Cycles, but right now I’m honestly very excited about pushing the game in this direction 🙂

There’s also another thing happening in the background:

Some months ago, I started building a small “engine” that will allow me to create my next game/s in a proper multiplatform way (Android / iOS / Desktop). I’m REALLY excited about that… but I’m forcing myself to stay focused on what RAR Islands still needs first:

  • Post-game content
  • Quality of Life improvements
  • Fixes
  • Localization
  • Import / Export save data (even if it’s just the Explorer data, inventory, etc.)

There is still a lot of work ahead…! 😅

But I’m genuinely very happy with where the game is going and the slightly crazy ideas that keep finding their way into it.

Also, a bit of personal context:

I started a new job two months ago, and it’s taking a LOT of my mental energy. I’m doing my best to find time and brainpower during the weekends to keep moving RAR Islands forward little by little.

So if updates feel a bit slower than during some previous very productive periods… that’s the reason 🙂

And as always, a HUGE thank you to Zeke (@MrDaGrover) for the incredible support, not only on Discord, but also with internal testing, feedback, and discussions around all these new changes I keep adding. Seriously, I can’t thank you enough!

More soon. RAR Islands is far from done! 🌴

Sail safe, Explorer!

Sea you soon, Luis