These were not that hard to add. Spherical crates for that little extra variation.
They pretty much speak for themselves:
I also just finished a big performance enhancing feature. Before, the game loads all main levels completely on startup. When the player switches to the custom level view in the level selection menu, all complete custom levels would be fetched.
This is a big waste of time and processing energy. Why load all levels completely when you're only going to choose 1? So I updated the system.
Now all level files are first read partially, only getting the data needed to generate a small preview and stuff like the level name.
Only when a player actually loads a specific level, will the system check if the rest of the data is still unknown. If so, only that specific level file will be read and processed.
This practically eliminated any loading times I had and prepares the game for longer level lists. Score!
Unfortunately my day job has picked up quite a bit, leaving me with less development time for Rocket Shipment. I still have the goal of releasing into Early Access this year, let's see how it goes.
I keep a Trello board that roughly displays everything needed before releasing an official demo and eventually releasing in EA. You can find it here if you're interested: https://trello.com/b/CF3jQbjL/rocketshipment.
My short term goal right now is releasing the demo to the public. It'll force me to finish the core demo and hopefully strengthen the community since I'm getting the feeling only 2 or 3 Discord members are still playing the game.
Early Access still sounds a bit scary to me. I'm having a bit of trouble getting traction on social media, and am doubting I'll be able to make a big enough splash to get my game noticed in the sea of steam games.
We'll see I guess. I'm trying not to make it a big deal because this is also meant as a learning experience.
Want to help me improve the game? Join the Discord!