A new version is now available!
Here is a list of the most important updates in it:
Farming
There is now a simple farming system in the game: planting, watering, gathering. As well as related mechanics: inventory management and a simple store where you can sell your plants and purchase seeds. For now there are only two types of plants, but there will be more!
Visuals
The story mode's city has become more alive. Now there are some wandering NPCs, as well as improved visuals. Speaking of the visuals, they have been improved across the whole game, with better shadows and colors.
Modding tools
The game now fully supports modding (Steam Workshop is supported as well). You're now able to create your own mods by using HackerScript capabilities. You can also explore the API and its implementation through the game's current content (as it's fully written in HackerScript). Furthermore, an LSP and a standalone interpreter are distributed with the base game. So you can set up your IDE to work with HackerScript or test simple code snippets from the terminal.
Tutorial
The new tutorial will introduce you to the world of HackeRPG as well as teach you some basics of the game and programming.
Optimizations and Bug Fixes
Last but not least. The most important one is scene loading times. There is a new API begin_bulk_load() / end_bulk_load() which allows you to speed up scene loading, as well as optimizing the game logic to be handled more properly on the HackeRPG engine side.
A few notes:
Pacing
First of all, about the release schedule I'd tried to keep. Regardless of crunching, I've missed the deadline (only by 1 day, but anyway). I think it is not worth it in the long term to try to deliver content ASAP. I just wouldn't maintain such a pace.
Direction
Speaking of the game itself, I'm pretty proud of this update. Finally, there is room for modding! I think it might be overwhelming at first to understand how it works, so I want to build a few example mods just as a showcase of what's doable via HackerScript, as well as some tutorials for that.
For now the direction of the game is finally clear to me: there will be only story mode, where you'll be able to move through the story via fighting/mining or farming. Thus, each player will find the pace he likes without being forced to always play in action mode. Thus, the engine can show itself off to its full advantage.
Approach
For now I'm moving towards a state of the game where all the in-game content is added via HackerScript files only. But for now there is some useful stuff the engine lacks, so the API is being developed alongside the game. When I face something the engine can't provide, I try to add a generic API which can be reused, but backward compatibility has the highest priority here for sure.
Thanks for reading and sticking with the game. Happy coding! See ya!