Bienvenido a Creo!
Hey there Creostriders! It's so exciting to finally be able to reach out to all of you and let you know about our exciting new version of Creo - V.0.5.2! I've been hard at work for the last several months developing a myriad of improvements and changes to our beloved game, and with all the hard work being done, the time has come to release the update.
That's all great news, but where have you been for the last few months?
That's an excellent question, random stranger! If you all haven't noticed, I've been somewhat quiet about Creo's development for the last few months - this hasn't been out of laziness or me not caring about the game, I've actually been fortunate enough to co-found a tech startup in my hometown, and with this new startup, a massive new set of responsibilities and work were added to my plate. For the last few months, I was working a full-time development job, afterward, I would do a variety of work for our startup, and then I would make time to work on Creo.
I can't tell y'all just how cathartic it has been to work on Creo. With life being as crazy as it is, making time to work on Creo feels like coming home - it's my warm space where I can let my imagination run wild, and work on making an awesome gaming experience for all of you. So I would set aside time late in the night to work on the game - after my son was put to bed and all was quiet.
I recently left my other full-time job to focus on our startup, which has also opened up quite a bit of time for me to work on Creo! With this increased free time, I was able to wrap up a variety of improvements and updates for the game, in addition to squashing a variety of bugs! I'm excited about what's in the works for Creo, but enough about me, let's talk about this update!
What the update contains
A large part of my time was spent working on two massive undertakings for Creo - adding language localization support, and a huge refactoring of my code architecture. Adding language localization support has been something I've always wanted to add to Creo, but I knew that it would take me a large amount of time to update all of the code to support this (this was due to a terrible game dev decision made when I just started working on Creo - all you beginning game devs out there, make sure to add language support right at the beginning!)
I finally decided to bite the bullet, and after dozens of hours of refactoring, I've got Creo and my workflow updated to allow for various languages! I've currently added Spanish support since that's my native language, but I'm hoping on adding a variety of other languages as time goes on, so let me know which ones you would like to see!
I also drastically improved Creo's core programming structure, which will allow me to add buildings and new game features much more simply and quickly than before. The changelog for this update is very long, so I will post it below, but I will highlight the ones which I think you will be most excited to hear about:
- Updated tree models to match the building's voxel style
- Made a variety of UI improvements, including asking if "you're you want to delete your save" - no more accidentally deleted saves!
- Improved the water animation quality (intersection foam, waves, transparency
- The game now saves your camera's position, rotation, and zoom - no more having to load a game with the camera in a weird position
- Dozens of other improvements and bug fixes
The future
What does the future hold for Creo God Simulator? Well, in the short term, I'm thinking about adding in a variety of new buildings, such as the trading guild and the tribute altar. I've also built about 75% of the new prophet spawn event - beware, though they might increase your believer's faith in you, they might also overzealously trigger disasters! I'm also going to be adding in a reward/loot drop system where when you successfully defeat/survive certain events, resources are dropped. This is being done to help prevent you from running out of wood/stone/etc. I've also got several new events in the work (we're needing many more positive events, to help balance out disasters).
I'm wanting to keep things a bit wacky at times, so please make sure to join our Discord server and let me know what randomized events you would like to see!
As a final word, I just want to thank you all for being so patient with my little game - I'm trying my best to make time to grow this game, and I know that we'll keep adding improvements and making it better as time goes on, just as we have been up to now! Hope you all continue to have an awesome summer - stay safe out there, and don't go casting lightning bolts too often!
- Esteban
Big Changes:
Small Changes:
Bug Fixes: