Hello again!
It's been a few years, but work has resumed on the game.
The current state of the game prototype!
I'm currently changing the name and branding of the game to "Peasant Simulator". Don't be concerned though, the essence of the game hasn't changed, I just prefer the name and imagery.
New Discord!
If you want to follow along with the games progress and/or gain access the CICD branch, feel free to Join the Discord!.
Chickens!
New Development Process
Going forward, I'm going to change how the development on this game is structured, and how updates are delivered to the player. I don't want this game to sit in the dark forever. I want players to gain access to the game as it's being created. This is Early Access after all!
Going forward, players will be able to immediately access all updates to the game as they happen. Want to know more? Read on.
CICD
For anyone not in the know, CICD means "Continuous Integration, Continuous Deployment". What does that mean? It means that going forward, builds will regularly, and automatically, uploaded to steam showcasing the games progress, and will be made immediately playable to anyone that has access to the game and has opted into the branch.
The process looks like this:
- 1. I modify the game, and upload those changes to source control.
- 2. Periodically, a build computer checks if the game has changed.
- 3. If it has, it rebuilds, and repackages the game
- 4. If this succeeds, the game is uploaded to Steam.
- 5. Discord is notified, showing the community a description of the changes.
CAUTION!
This means that as the game is being created, you can play it - if you opt in. Every change made to the game is uploaded to this special CICD branch. Meaning every bug, every glitch, and every exploit. If you simply cannot wait for updates, the CICD branch is the place for you.
Prototyping and Rapid Iteration
The original mission statement of this game project was to iterate rapidly, and deliver features to players, experiment with gameplay, and make changes as needed - to find the games fun. In this original goal, I completely failed. This is being changed going forward. Game prototyping will be a central tenant of the game, with the CICD above being utilized to get these tweaks and changes into the hands of fans immediately.
This shot of fishing for example:
This is example of the kind of content that will be prototyped and available onto the CICD branch. It isn't pretty by any means, but it is playable. Iterating quickly like this and keeping features low in scope allows me to make tweaks and changes, responding to player feedback.
Thats all for now!
Thank you for reading. It's good to be back to the project, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops. There have been a LOT of changes going on in the background and I'll be talking about some of them in the coming weeks.
If you want to follow along with the games progress and/or gain access the CICD branch, feel free to Join the Discord!.