Greetings lab assistants!
A quick update for those who don't follow my discord or devstreams.
If the public alpha has taught me anything, Little Hellions needs online play. Like ~ good online play. From it's necessity during the height of the pandemic, to simply bringing players together, it couldn't be clearer.
But such a change is a massive undertaking, and why I have been noncommittal up until now. In order to make it happen, a complete overhaul of architecture will have to occur ~ and until recently that simply wasn't possible for a solo developer like myself. But possibilities are opening up. Currently, I'm exploring Platform Fighter Engine; a framework built for Game Maker, the engine Little Hellions already uses. PFE has built-in rollback netcode and a litany of quality of life features. It's a promising avenue since I wouldn't have to switch engines!
I am currently pursuing external funding in order to support this change, be it finding a publisher, applying for grants and so on. Normally devs don't share this sort of information, there's a lot of inside baseball to it, but I think transparency is important in this case as ~for the time being~ updates for the current version of Little Hellions will slow down as I pursue these avenues.
I apologize that Little Hellions continues to be a slow production, but I truly believe it in the best interest of the game in the long term. Couch multiplayer ~as much as I don't want it to be~ isn't really a thing anymore. Of course, all versions of the game going forward will still support it, but I want to make the game accessible to anyone who is willing to give a try, even if they don't have friends close by to play it with.
Nonetheless, thank you for supporting Little Hellions and drop a comment if you have any questions!
Until next time, Bomb Pig loves you! ❤️