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As has been discussed in our monthly reports, we've been investigating for sometime now about whether or not to remain with Tyrano as our engine of choice. The community has been wonderful and there was a lot of hope that Strikeworks would improve or fix many issues that needed to be worked out.Unfortunately, communications with Strikeworks have been abysmal. We've tried numerous times to connect with their Japan developer and been met with silence. His focus is on releasing art packs and DLC for Tyrano, not on addressing the community.

Our two choices, after much investigation, has fallen upon Renpy and Naninovel (Unity). At this point, Strikeworks would have to really wow us to court us back to their engine and given how poorly they treat the western developers, we are pivoting to Naninovel and Unity. Renpy is robust but we like the benefits of working with Unity. Naninovel also makes porting in scripts a lot easier which is important for us going forward.

What does this mean for Dust and Air? Well, we're right now using our Project 2 to figure out more of the kinks with using Unity. Currently, it is looking very positive at the moment. Unity meets every need we've wanted for Dust and Air that Tyrano promised for years but never delivered properly.

Currently, we're looking into developing some tools to bring Dust and Air over from Tyrano to Unity. We'll also be looking at possible options for game saves. Project 2 development is greatly helping this and we're getting very hopeful for the future story expansions.

We apologize for the delay and time taken as we put forth every effort we could to exhaust all options. Fellow developers have also been doing similar.

We do intend to continue to support our KS Converter tool and will be looking to adding support for Naninovel as well but unless Strikeworks performs a miracle, we view their engine as end of life and we encourage other Tyrano devs to make the switch before their projects get any further into development.

We'll continue to update as we go via our monthly reports. Thank you.

More than welcome. We know the pain of the drought of Mac titles as our founder grew up on Macs in the 90s. While we still have issues with Apple's app store system, itch provides us with an option to bypass it. It always was our goal from the early days of this project to provide a Mac OS port and we'll continue that commitment going forward.

We've opened up the mobile version for Apple Silicon Mac owners to download for their Macs. This does not have the same UI as the PC/Mac port but, it does work just the same. Can find here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/in-dust-and-air-mobile/id1632190866

Dust and Air Mobile is now available on iOS via the App Store! 

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/in-dust-and-air-mobile/id1632190866

With the App Store release we've done a rework on the UI designed to remove some bug related issues. We've also tested a new compression technique to bring the app size down to it's smallest ever at under 500MB. As such, we've lowered the price on the port to better reflect the changes.

Eventually the changes we've done on App Store will migrate over to the Play Store port as well. The version on itch here is still the closest to the PC version and will remain active until we finish our Play Store rework.

Mac Port has been tested via the iOS app on an M1 Mac and it's working great. We'll be rolling out a dedicated Mac version in the days ahead. It will be more in line with the PC version but will likely have some optimizations from iOS. 

Thanks!

*Edit* As of 4/23 we've unlocked the Mobile version for Apple Silicon Macs on the App Store. It's roughly the same game except for UI changes.

We took down the APK for a time as we got our PlayStore release finished. Now we're reopening access to the APK on itch after we reviewed interest in it.

The difference between PlayStore and itch Android versions is in the quality. To get the release to work on Playstore, our programmer had to compress the game a bit. The file size is about 1GB smaller.  Some images did get affected, especially ones with transparent backgrounds. We tried to fix and correct every image we could find that had issues.

The itch APK is not compressed and more a direct port of the PC version.

We've lowered the price on the PlayStore version because of this. The APK will continue to be priced alongside the PC release.

Here is a link to the Playstore for those that want it via Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.brokenhammer.in_dust_and_air_m...

Not that different from us. Tyrano is really the best software for ease of use and rapid development. We've got an APK on here but not on the app stores yet. Android, the requirements changed and now require a bit of coding to compartmentalize it into a 150MB starting app with up to 2GB limit game files that download later. You simply cannot just upload an APK anymore. iOS, is worse due to requiring a Framework that Tyrano hasn't updated to modern Xcode.

Thankfully, for us, there are some programmer contacts that are looking at the issues. It's just, they have to figure it out from scratch as well. If we get some breakthroughs, would be glad to share them with you and other Tyrano devs for free. 2.0 Tyrano was a huge update. It made our development possible in many ways. But, our patience is also wearing thin since we've started dealing with these export issues. Especially the Mac OS ones which are years behind.

Have had many conversations with JayRab, the Tyrano rep, through Steam. How we know about the VN Maker scam issue. His activity within the Tyrano community has visibly plummeted the last year. Some of the updates they did for Tyrano, were part caused by needs we bugged them with.  This was due to our project being the biggest one they've ever seen on Tyrano. Now, I can message and I won't get a reply. His Steam account is active because he plays games on it but ,he doesn't answer anymore.

To me, considering how further the Japanese Tyrano is, that reeks of potential publisher squabbling with the Japan dev team. Something is going on behind the scenes that is just not getting talked about. The 2.0 update was huge but, possibly not enough. That or it didn't stop VN Maker from stealing the backend. Which could be a situation that would lead a publisher to rethink still putting money into development. They need to eventually tell the public. Perhaps we devs need to report them to Steam for false advertising? It's true that the engine simply doesn't do what it advertised anymore.

Broken Hammer operates in a small team independent contractor environment. This allows us to recruit from a global talent pool and to keep operating costs down. When we hire out for remote jobs, we bring you into the team environment. You are an independent contractor but we don't just issue work orders and complain when you can't pull the vision out of our heads. You work directly with us on work orders and are provided with as much creative freedom as we can give. Why? Because  your input and ideas are welcomed and encouraged. Sometimes you'll see something we miss or have an idea that is simply better. 

Current Needs:

-Background Artist (Dust n Air + Project 2)

-Mobile Framework Programmer

Building games is one thing, getting them onto mobile devices often requires a framework to run the game. Getting both to work together, is where experience matters. Must have experience making mobile apps or games and dealing with frameworks. Tyranobuilder experience beneficial but not necessary.

Future Long Term Projected Needs:

We wouldn't mind recruiting now but, there might not be much work to do yet.

-Musicians/composers (Dust n Air, Project 2)

-More artists. Character + BG artists (Dust n Air, Project 2)

You are welcome to apply or chat with us about any work via our Discord: https://discord.gg/rmyz8fq

Or contact feedback@brokenhammergames.com

As one who has talked with Tyrano's devs and worked with them a lot, the only scam is VN Maker which steals Tyrano's backend and repackages it for a $60 price. Why they always update after Tyrano does. Tyrano's biggest problem is they haven't updated their exporting ability all the way. PC is all that really works decently. Mac OS doesn't work because they haven't updated the software to 64bit outside of the Japanese side. Subsequently iOS builds don't work because the Framework Tyrano made for it is Swift 3 and incompatible with modern Xcode. Android support is there but dated and hasn't updated to produce a build that works without lots of coding to figure out the Play Store's new rules on Apps.

We're putting up an Android APK on itch here in advance of the future release via the Google Play Store. To be honest, we still have some quirks to resolve with the Play Store. And brutally honest, it's a big messy train wreak of a developer console that is requiring us to delay a little until we can resolve the mess that it is.  As our programmer says: This is why you don't open source stuff...

The APK you can obtain on here has been tested on Android phones and Tablets and it does work just like the PC build. Aside from some Android specific fixes, mobile branding, and an updated "How To Play" page in game, this is the same as the v1.2 build on PC. 

Requirements for the device are questionable at this time as we have no way to test every phone on the market. On a Galaxy S8 it functions well with some minor delay loading the save and load menus. The cheapest device tested on has been a Lenovo Tablet that definitely was just as playable. We welcome feedback until we get the Play Store all figured out! Thanks!

Builds will be full paid games. No free to play versions or other ad driven versions. We'll revisit other ad based versions later.

Progress is coming along...

Testing there on a Galaxy S8. 

Since itch does offer an option to post APK, we will consider making that available through here as well as via the Google Play Store.  We welcome feedback. Thanks!

Dust and Air is an ongoing project despite our exit from Early Access on Steam. For keeping tabs on our development on the heroine story arcs and all other Broken Hammer Games related content, be sure to check out our monthly blog/vlog report: https://www.brokenhammergames.com/blog-1

If you are an artist or musician, or anyone simply interested in joining project or just looking for some independent contractor work, feel free to shoot us an e-mail to feedback@brokenhammergames.com . We're always looking for more hammer breakers! You don't have to be the best talent in the universe to join. We have intern programs where you can help our development team while you grow your abilities.