Game Update
This week I spent some time on the legal side of the game. I spoke to a lawyer about some of the steps I can take to protect certain parts of the game. They will also be reviewing contracts with distributors for me to make sure that everything is on the up and up. It’s possible that I’m spending money on things I can’t afford, but I think it’s valuable to go through the processes even if the game is a flop. It will be important to have the knowledge of walking through the process. Just like they say in self development, “your brain wants proof not promises.” This simply means that you can explain a concept to someone and tell them what to do until you are blue in the face, but until they take steps to actually do it they won’t truly believe it deep down in their core.
We are shoring up some of the problems with the leader system and it seems like we’ve punched through so that won’t be an issue for our players. One of the big problems was setting a leader for a squad which when removed would still be assigned. This created a problem where levels could be started with leaderless squads causing havoc on the systems.
I still need to go back and clean up the starting squads for the players as well as looking to balance some of the abilities of the troops. I’m doing a lot of experience gain tweaking right now. It’s important to get down just how the numbers “should feel” for a good game.
I’m still thinking about a hard mode for the game and it might be interesting to rev up some of the bonuses for troops/spells being used when they match up with their terrain in hard mode. It might also be interesting to give troops a large negative like -50% damage when they are in opposing areas.
Personal Update
The next 2 weeks are going to be very busy filled with a lot of driving for me. I will be taking my children to be with my ex-wife as well as transitioning to my new job in Florida. I’m excited, but I know there will be a lot of work ahead. It’s been a long road to get to a place where I will feel like I can settle for a while. I expect that I won’t have a lot of time to work on the game as I tear down my setup. I should move some files over to my laptop to keep working on some simple things. I still need to re-name all the stages on the map as all the names that are there right now are silly place holder names.
I did my best to take in the time I spent in my home town to appreciate where I came from so long ago. This is the longest I’ve lived at home since I left 20 years ago. Staying with my parents again has opened my eyes to some things as well that I wasn’t completely aware of before I did all the self development. I might even be leaving here with some really good news! Fingers crossed!