It’s difficult to say how much I appreciate all of my experiences in 2019 that made me a better person. I really pushed my own boundaries in learning how to socialize better and it made me better as a person. It also prepared me for my current transition. For those of you that don’t know I’m transitioning out of the military and doing a job hunt while I finish this game. I’m also dealing with a move soon, and I’ve spent some time dating as well. I’m just so very grateful for the things I was able to experience this past year.
I’m not sure I can put a finger on how I feel about the major changes that I’ll be going through soon. I guess I’ll be sad to see parts my old life go, but happy to have made the choices that I made. I’m very excited to start the next chapter of my life, for myself as well as my family. A concept that I’ve been repeating a lot is how that in experiences and relationships it’s so very important not to look at something as a waste of time. That’s something that people that are always looking to take from others do. I can say that because I was the type of person that was always looking for what I could get without giving before I started really working on myself. It’s very important to be on the “same team” with people giving a lot of value and being free from outcomes in which you don’t get a lot back. No matter what when you give positive energy you get it back in my experience.
The game is clicking along now as I polish and find little things to fix here and there. There is still a leveling issue with enemies in game. I’m going to add a “level” column on the spreadsheet to help with this problem a bit. I’m looking at building a beta page and a press page on the website this weekend. I added a feature which allows me to set enemies as “boss” types which means they cannot be moved off of their base even when defeated. A big part of the game is winning combats to push back squads, but this is the right move as the old way would make battles play out in an unsatisfying way at the end.
Still working on some nuances to the text system. The big issue is that it triggers if the enemy controls the town, so we’ll be changing that soon as well. I almost have the town buff notification working. The issue is that the roll happens after the text gets launched which means that the message hasn’t changes yet. Also you shouldn’t get the buff on the town if the enemy still owns it.
I need to start building out the enemy and player types as well as the spells used. I’m a little worried about how much time that will take. I will get some time back over the spring break week I’ll have less obligations to eat up my time.
I’m writing the story and it’s mostly going well. I had a trusted friend look at my writing and he said it was passable. It’s a good thing this game is more about game play than narrative! Some of the ideas are that your main character will give some memories of their life, and unfold things before the mission starts. I’m doing my best to not make this voice in your leaders head ambiguous as a male or female but it’s tough. I’m sure the overall tone will come across as male, because I’m writing it and I’m male.
I’m leaning toward making the game “early access” with the hopes that people will be more forgiving for the complete vision not being fully implemented yet. The game might ship without sound controls and some other bells and whistles initially. It’s only going to have 12 of the 30 stages I want to include, and I’m not sure how many character classes I’ll be able to ship with. Things will likely change after launch. Classes will need to be balanced, dialogue will likely change. I want to integrate steam into it with achievements and cards. I need more feedback and right now my beta testers haven’t given me enough, but I get it everyone is busy.
I’m committed to pushing out a stable product that will be mostly fair and as bug free as I can make it.