I've got to figure out how to write these things without having to find a picture to go along with it. Thankfully the team has a folder with screenshots, so I have some options.
I was on contract for a while with a crypto firm and they changed direction and ended the contract. So I'm looking for my next gig, but also not wasting any time and going full time on MP while also interviewing. Of course if we sell over 100k copies, then I'll do this full time, but we're pretty far away from that :) No worries, it's always been a labor of love for the team.
I've discovered a few things in the past few years, I'm not a huge fan of the new versions of C++. Maybe if I spent more time using it then things would be different. I've never been one to create template, although I use them all the time. But there is a point where the code is very hard to read and I've always been someone to read the code rather than the docs. I've also spent a few years now learning cloud backend services coding in Go. It's so EASY. After decades of C++, writing micro-services let's you focus so much more on the architecture rather than the code. It's been nice to add a new skill to my portfolio.
Not much of an MP update so far. I have the lobby working. Right now that will be the way, the only way, to launch MP games. I had to take the Steam version and backfit it into our older PowerLobby feature. But it's going well and it connects much better. By doing it this way, the Steam Client acts as the intermediary for MP. Now I am working hard to get the kinks out of the game launch.
I have a couple of routers at home, a vpn as well. Using the lobby connection method works everytime in launching a game between my machines when they are not on the same lan. The host list will pick up the lan games, but when I use the different routers, they can never see each other. But they can create a room and play a game together through there.
I knew there was going to be a way to do this through Steam. It's a big reason we went all in on Steam. When we were with Matrix, they had to run the lobby server. It was a horrible solution, but when power lobbies went down, we did not have any other choice. It was awesome that they did that for us, but I'd rather not be dependent on a publisher for that service. Yes, I know we are now dependent on Steam, but it's different.
Thank you everyone for being patient while we work through these issues. It's this community that convinced us to give it another go and move the games to x64.
I appreciate all the great feedback and we all attempt to answer the questions on the discussion group here and our new discord channel.