It's way past time for another game update, now that my internet issues have finally been resolved! Old ISP has been kicked to the kerb as they declared their intent to not lift a finger to improve my service. New ISP is owned by a wanker, but there's literally no other alternative, and at least it works. For the first time since I came here I can stream video above 360p and finish simple downloads in less than a day.
On to the update.
There's a few nice new features even though the day job has been consuming the vast majority my energy lately. More importantly, there's been quite a bit of movement on the art front so I'm going to talk mainly about that.
For one, our original artist Haoning Wu from back in the old days has recently rejoined the project to do some more backgrounds for us.
(I am excited about this!)
I'm commissioning a whole slew of new and replacement BGs, especially battle scenes, and I'm really looking forward to getting them into the game.
We've also been spending time (and budget) on new environments to explore...
...And new monsters to battle.
It's not all been a bed of roses, of course. I've had at least one recently-hired "artist/animator" take the money and run, which is a real hit to a tiny indie like me funded with my own money. This is the reason why I don't have nice new running & death animations to show you, even though they were all planned and coded in for this update.
Another reminder that the internet is full of bad actors who can and will screw you no matter how careful you are. It's exhausting, but I plan to do another round of hiring people in October/November to find at least one person who can actually get the job done.
In any case, I'm still here, and Zone continues to develop. Indie dev's a long road of challenge and heartbreak, but you gotta walk it to the end.
I'll see you in the next update!
v0.8.1 Changelog:
New isometric version of Power Plant exterior
New enemies
Engine update to Godot 3.6.3
Proper tweening on HP & Shield bars
Juice animation on HP bar
Some status effect-related fixes
Preparations for an overhaul of the status effect system