Last Sunday I posted a patch for a few issues in the new opt-in Icarus build. Overall Icarus seems solid so I plan to make it the default build later this weekend and post an announcement at that time. Again, anyone starting a new game now is recommended to switch to Icarus now.
This week I've started working on implementing the localization logic. This is fairly straight-forward but tedious work: 95% of the text in the game is in a format the makes export/import of symbols easy, but the remaining 5% is various hard-coded strings that need to be identified and moved into look-up tables.
This is a good task for the period immediately surrounding a new default build when I am collecting feedback from new players that may influence the next milestones. I probably won't finish localization before I switch back to the more fun aspects of content development, but it is something that needs to be done and I'll be glad to have chipped some of it away before we're closer to 1.0.
Incidentally, I have not determined yet which languages will get professional translation at this point, but I hope to have quality translations for any language with over 1000 wishlists, and the files will be easily accessible for anyone who wants to create their own translations.
Finally, I will be having eye surgery in a little under two weeks. It should hopefully be a minor procedure but I will probably be unable to work for several days to a week, so there may be a pause in regular updates.
- Kevin