Closing in on New Early Access Release Date

Last week I finished all of the enemy troop replacements over the 12 stages to release. It’s good to have this done as I move forward. I also removed all the tutorial text from every stage after the first one. With a heavy heart I hid all the settling options from the final screen, but I’m hoping they will make a return with the full release of the game. Last week I talked about adding a random relic system to change the way the game unfolds and add replayability to the game. I feel like it meshes best with the settling system I built.

With all that said I need to work on spell effects for all the spells in the game before I can start looking at a new Early Access date. There are 50 different attacks on the spreadsheet however it’s likely that not all of them will get used. Additionally, I will likely have to come up with entirely new attacks. I think this is when I might want to look at building a system to automate building these. I remember the GDC talk where the Darkest Dungeon developers talk about how they built their system. They created a system that runs a check for names and then creates a list in software based on that. From there whenever a lookup or match has to be done it always matches as long as all the assets have unique names.

It’s a six step process to add a new spell effect/skill to the game right now. I have to create it in a spreadsheet and then I have to implement it on another spreadsheet. After I’ve done that I have to go into the script and make sure it matches up. Then I need to create the particle effect and make sure it’s being triggered from a matching name on the 3D Model in game. Occasionally I have to worry about something happening with the target which makes things a bit more complex in the case of the fireball that spawns an explosion on the enemy after the fireball hits them. Finally once everything is working I have to add a sound to the spell and at that point I have my spell effect.

It feels like it will be ambitious to complete 3 of these in one day if I’m not distracted, but maybe I’ll get into some sort of groove and flow state and be able to do it more quickly. After I get all this done I’ll focus on fulfilling the Steam requirements and set a new Early Access Release date. It’s exciting to be this far in development!

On a social note I managed to get out for a drink with a friend this past weekend. It’s so crazy to think about how much of an “abnormal” thing that is right now. I can’t wait to have some more direction on where things will be but a lot of us are in limbo lately. Some of the jobs came back with interest, but I still feel like people aren’t really hiring even if the hiring manager say they are. I’m probably just spinning my wheels there. I’m just hoping that I’ll be able to move on to the next challenge this summer, but who knows where I’ll be when the dust settles.

Let’s get these skills built out so I can get this beast to market!