Hey everyone! Steve here. First of all, I know it's been quite a while since I last posted. As I alluded to in my last post, I've been working through a lot this year after being dropped by HH, and while I've made a lot of positive progress, it's still hard sometimes to reach out, but I think I'm finally in a place where I can go back to regular updates and interacting with the community. I actually love this part of game dev - old-timers to Alliance/Imperia will remember that I used to be super-responsive and chatty, probably to a fault, but obviously the penduluum has swung way too far the other way, and I'm sorry about that.
So first thing first - I've been busy the last several months working on a smaller passion project called Boss Slayer: Zero. Game description below:
It's a tactical strategy/RPG game set in the near future where you are an inmate with a life sentence, but you are given a chance to be pardoned if you participate in an experimental VR construct called JANUS. You signed up, but 92 years later, you realize you're much worse off then before.... can you escape JANUS, outwit a malevolent Warden AI known as simply The Judge, and possibly even save humanity from extermination?
And the big news - As of today, I've released the initial public build for BS:0!
Currently, BS:0 is in a late-stage prototype. Most of the core game loop is in, and the UI has been upgraded significantly from the early prototype stage, but a lot of 'gamey' elements are not yet present, like animated fighters, upgraded graphics, full SFX, and full UI motion. I wanted to add enough of the UI/camera work to show what I'm aiming for with the design and the 'feel' of the game.
Anyway, I know many of you are 4x fans, and I know this is not a 4x game. It is a strategy game however, and it combines several genres of strategy (tactical, RPG, asset management, roguelike) into what I believe is a neat recipe.
If you're interested in checking BS:0 out, you can always get the latest version on itch.io here: https://texashawk76.itch.io/boss-slayer-zero It's free for now (you can donate if you're so inclined, and that would certainly help with Alliance, but not necessary!) Once BS:0 gets to a sufficient development stage, I'll create a Steam page for it and make that the focus.
Also, here is a gameplay video that showcases the combat side of the game: View game pageThere's also an overworld/development aspect that I will also create a video for later today and update this post with, but this will at least give people an idea of what gameplay is like, even in this prototype version!
UPDATE: Here is the second video - it's the first video in a series that shows the career mode:
"Great, Steve. That's just great. What the hell is going on with the game I signed up for, though?"
Valid question. So here's the deal. Right now, I am doing some limited work on Alliance, mainly optimizing and organization stuff like culling old assets, scripts, prefabs, art, etc. I'm also working on inline documenting many of the functions so when I go back to working on it full-time I won't have to relearn my code structure.
Without going too much into psychoanalysis, I needed to release BS:0. I needed to prove to myself that I could code and bring to a reasonably solid state a game, even a much smaller game, into the public eye. And I needed most of all to prove that I could handle all aspects of game development myself, including coding, writing, UI, and debugging. I'm happy with where I'm at with these skills, so that bodes well for restarting active work on Alliance.
So what that means from a practical perspective is that while my focus right now is on Boss Slayer: Zero, I am about to restart development - at least on a *very* part-time basis - on Alliance.
My first overriding goal is to hammer the current dev build into a state as stable and documented as I can make it - tooltipping everything, cleaning up some interim UI elements, documenting internally and creating good comments, updating some LUA scripts, etc. Basically, I want to take what we have so far and make that as solid and stable as possible, and then go from there.
At that point, I will more than likely start reaching out again to publishers. I have been in contact with several over the last 9 months, and there is still significant interest in the game and concept, but I wasn't yet ready to come back to New Terra. As of today, I haven't landed planetside yet, but I'm at least in orbit of the planet. :-)
Finally, a word about timelines/release dates/promises in general: I've come to learn, especially for a small/solo studio, to be very careful about committing to things that I can't for certain complete/do. I'm well aware that I've burned a lot of trust in this community with that behavior, and all I can do going forward is to be here. Be consistent, be responsive, and be realistic. That much, I can promise this community. I don't take you for granted, and I'll be answering a lot of the tougher comments/posts today, and going forward I'm devoting an hour a day or so solely for social media/marketing/community interaction - I've neglected this part of the job, and I'm sorry.
I will be posting a development diary shortly on BS:0 if you're interested in that project, along with an actual roadmap, albeit one without firm dates ;-)
And as always, you can follow both projects on our Discord: https://discord.gg/fqHr82WeHY That's generally the best place to get the latest on both games.
Long live the Celestial Empire,
Steve Hawkins
Owner, KatHawk Studios