After now completing our first full 13-week development cycle, I've come to realize a few things. (1) Game dev is extremely hard appropriately forecast timelines and I suck at it, (2) iteration and rebuilding is the best way to discover new improvements, (3) life is extremely unpredictable and rarely do we find ourselves skidding by without any interruption, (4) I need to step up my communication and manage expectations better (especially my own), and (5) although it’s hard to admit but I think I need help... (more on this later)
Unfortunately, today is not the day to release scenarios (I know, I’m sorry!!!). There definitely were many variables that came into play to cause this reality, but I’m hopeful this won’t be the case in the upcoming future (fingers crossed). TLDR; game development is hard and every little piece can turn into a massive Pandora's box (although I’ve several years developing in UE, I’m still a noob and am constantly learning/improving) and cancer sucks (not me, but a close family member).
Now, as far as scenarios go, I didn’t feel it would be wise to release the scenarios that I had as they were a bit too hastily thrown together to meet the deadline, which is why they aren’t included yet. Although I’d like to give you a absolute release date on these, I’m not quite sure how much time it’ll take to get them to the place they need to be. I’m hopeful it’ll be in the next week or two.
Despite all that, the path forward is still clear for me. I’ve made some good progress on a number of new systems that will soon be implemented. One of which is new skeletal meshes and animations for the infantry, to give a lot deeper variety in their interactions with the world they live.
Along with that, new AI logic is being developed to improve how they act and react to what is going on around them.
And finally, vehicles have also been modelled and are actively being developed (substantially more difficult to get right, I have found). Still have a long way to go here, but at least a basic implementation is in place to test the current hitbox system.
As I had mentioned before, it is time to begin expanding the team to share the load. I may have some strengths, but I definitely have weaknesses and it is obviously would be better to find someone who can fill those gaps for me. I'm hopeful this will not only improve the quality of content release, but allow us to release it quicker.
I could continue to add to this wall of text, but will cut it short here. As always, I greatly appreciate your support and will continue to tirelessly work to provide the best experience possible in Project Gunship. Thanks!
-Sklor
Change log:
- Rebuilt the friendly AI in wave mode to better track and engage hostile targets.
- Added new zombie meshes and animations.
- Added new landscape materials
- Increased the camera shake for firing weapons across the board.
- Updated the menus with a more clean font
- Added music to the wave mode menu and changed the end game music
- Added a 4k resolution to the selection
- Added controller support
- Added audio options
- Updated how inputs are taken in the controls option menu
- Added the ability to invert the camera pitch
- Reworked the presentation of the options menu
- Added the ability to change the camera speed in-game
- Added the ability to adjust the central point of the aircraft’s orbit
- Added a car, pickup truck, and AAA ZU-23 to the training mode that can be spawned and tested (vehicles need substantial improvements to the AI logic and testing of the damage models. More updates to come on these)