Hello Cosmorists!
This is the month where the map was finally implemented into the game! There were a few bugs that I caught with it, such as the map UI unexpectedly crashing the game in rare instances.
Uploading the game's OST
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Although this isn't as related to the game itself, I've decided to upload the game's soundtrack to my YouTube channel after a long time without any videos, with one track being uploaded per day with the goal of eventually uploading all tracks currently available in the game! It's likely that the month of June will have at one video uploaded every day on the YouTube channel in the form of the game's soundtrack given that there are 38 tracks currently in use, as well as 11 more that are now either unused or only accessible in old saves.
Progress made so far
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This was mostly the month of implementing maps into the game alongside other changes. Those other changes weren't nearly tracked as well as prior updates, hence, a fairly small changelog for 0.1.4.
Potential future plans
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Now that the map is mostly out of the way, I'm finally able to add some much needed content to the game!
Some content I will most likely prioritize are gadgets from certain biomes that provide a boost to a certain stat that doesn't have much of a boost yet, or provide special abilities, with the more advanced ones requiring electricity to function, which will most likely be found in treasure chests throughout various chests in differing biomes.
For late game content, I've considered utilizing the player's electricity beyond just gadgets providing certain abilities, where certain weapons consume the player's electricity from the fuel chamber to function, similar to the mana bar in other games like it, but is technology themed instead of magic themed.
In terms of Steam Deck support, that has also been highly, but it's likely going to be one of those major challenges to overcome and mainly be on the backburner. Its like how implementing a map into the game took a while, and it's very likely for this to also take a while, but will be worthwhile in the long run!
Due to the relatively slow pace of content in the past few months compared to most of 2024, and a simultaneous desire to add content to areas that lack it, I'm now likely to change my update plans. Updates in the 0.x or 0.x.y category are now less likely to be purely focused on one area. A main theme will still take hold, but it's now likely to add or make changes to other parts of the game that don't relate to the main theme.
I won't make any promises, as June still has the potential to be a slow month apart from uploading the game's soundtrack one video at a time every day, but with this new plan, there might just be a higher chance for content to come more densely than in the past few months. I may not get everything done, but possibly more than in past months!
That's mostly what it was like for this month. Again, these future plans aren't a guarantee, but the less enjoyable part of game development, which was implementing a map, is now mostly out of the way. Steam Deck support is still considered, but is likely to be another less enjoyable aspect of game development that'll take longer to implement. For the most part, I'm eager to add content soon, even if it doesn't focus a specific theme as sharply as before!