TinyGenerals
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February Update: Summary of January and plans for February

New month, new update but before I go through what I plan to achieve this month, let’s quickly see what I wanted to achieve last month:

  • 🟢 Single sign-on with Discord and Google accounts

    Achieved! Single Sign-on is now fully operational, with sessions managed entirely by the app. This not only allowed me to implement single sign-on with popular providers like Steam, Discord, and Google, but it also lets me accelerate work on dedicated desktop and mobile apps.

  • 🟡 Improved battle setup Unfortunately, I was only able to address a few minor issues here and did not make any fundamental improvements.

  • 🔴 Improved map editor I have not finished this yet, but I feel good about the progress so far. I have dedicated a lot of time to creating wireframes and evaluating map generation, UI/UX, and feature requirements.

  • 🔴 More graphics I began working on this, but ironically ended up taking a step back — I decided to change the tile size yet again and am currently reassessing what the new dimensions should be. I initially settled on 64x64, but after more consideration, I started to question that choice once more. Since I’m working at the pixel level, I do not feel motivated to draw new graphics until I finalize the tile size.

  • 🔴 New home page/landing page I am still unsure how I want to design the homepage for the game. I know it’s needed and would help with onboarding, but I am currently experiencing a creative block. I hope to find inspiration once I have more graphics completed.

Plans for February

  • Improved Map Editor: Work on the map editor will continue this month. I aim to deliver a new version that fits into the unified design system used across the entire web app and also gains several new features.

  • Chat and notifications: In January, I introduced the first version of the game chat. There are now two channels: in-battle, which allows players to communicate during matches, and General, where messages are shared with everyone. The game also has Inbox and Notifications sections, which are currently placeholders. My goal is to unify these and make them fully functional.

  • Revisiting emails and player profiles: I will improve both the content and design of the emails sent to players, as well as enhance player profile functionality.

  • Further mobile optimisations: I will carefully review all screens to ensure they work well on mobile devices.

  • Homepage, onboarding help, and promotion: One of the current challenges is that new players are dropped straight into the game without any guidance or support. I plan to address this by improving onboarding and help resources. Additionally, I intend to ramp up efforts to promote the game more actively in various channels.

Ask for feedback

As a 43-year-old product manager by day and a coder by night, I’ve poured countless late hours into building TinyGenerals. Whether you enjoy the game or not, I genuinely value your feedback—it helps me make things better. If you give it a try, please consider sharing your thoughts. And just a heads-up: if you don’t log back in after a few days, you’ll receive a friendly automated email asking for your feedback.