Greetings, Magnates!
It's been a while! There is a very good reason for that. I already talked about this on twitter, but the TLDR is that I was working with an artist to make sprites for the game, and it didn't pan out as I had hoped (and I'm not blaming anyone). During that time development was halted and I spent a lot of time thinking and coming up with new ideas for the game.
Development is back on track now, with a few but important changes:
- I'm still making the art myself, but I've decided to employ a slightly different and perhaps even more retro style than before. (FYI: At the time of writing, the store page hasn't been updated with new screenshots)
- I'm changing scope on some things. Most importantly, the factory builder is getting a massive overhaul.
- I'm specifically working towards a demo. I'm trying really hard not to work on things that aren't required for a demo version.
I know noone wants to read walls of text (which I'm very good at writing!), so going forward I will try to keep it short and to the point and only dig deeper into details when I really feel it's needed.
Random screenshot from my test map, because I know you guys like pictures.
So, for now I'll let you dig through this changelog:
-
Rewrote most of the engine to accommodate for all the new things I want to do;
- Buildings (formerly known as units) can now be 1x1 or 2x2, possibly 3x3 if I want to.
- Went back to regular tile maps rather than textures.
- Rewrote map generation, specifically ore deposits are much better now, and during map generation I can guarantee that every ore will in fact generate on the map.
- Abandoned the old made-up ores in favor of real life well known resource types (coal, iron etc).
- Remade all the assets. Added new buildings:
- Mechanical and powered miner (replacing the old miner).
- Furnace (replacing the old crucible).
- Kiln.
- Blast furnace.
- Ore processor.
- Pump.
- Pipes and liquid distributor.
- Item cache. Added new items:
- Coal, copper and iron chunks. (These are raw resource chunks that have to be processed in an ore processor to yield an actual useable ore "item".)
- Coal, copper and iron items.
- Copper, iron and steel ingots.
- Sand item.
- Coal coke.
- Silicon.
- Glass. Removed:
- All old energy related units, I want to do this differently.
- All old storage related units, I also want to do this differently.
- Some other units and tiles; some of them will make a return soon enough.
- The concept of contracts and relations, at least for the time being.
- All old items and products. Other noteworthy changes:
- Renamed bridge to intersection.
- Disabled all modding for the time being. It's not compatible with all the new stuff I'm adding.
- Rewrote the save system. Save files can be hacked now 😎
- Ditched all of the UI(!), because it was tied to the old concepts and range of building options. It will have to change to support all the new stuff.
Until next time!
Fey at Rising Tail