Happy 2018! Here's what's been happening...
My last update hoped to get ionAXXIA out before December. Ha. Ha ha. Ha ha haaaaa. Suffice to say, more life got in the way, including Christmas. That is the problem being a part-time dev; it's not just a lack of hours, but a lack of momentum so even when I had time to work on ionAXXIA, it was hard to focus and find clear goals. Booo.
However, post-Christmas with a lot of thinking and pacing, I have a clearer sense of direction now. The AI is improved and the game plays better. Procedural star systems are in. And yesterday was spent solid, implementing a components upgrade system.
This'll form a significant part of the game's progression. I'm thinking of a galactic map that gets harder as you move towards the centre, so you'll have to work on designing and building your ships to become stronger to conquer it. Very Diablo 3 rifts!
Today I'll hopefully finish the back-end to that front-end and have the upgrades active. One area of work is 'pricing' these upgrades. I want to be confident the balance is right.
And finally, a new year and a new communication strategy. My idea of daily updates failed, because I was leaving them to the end of the day when I was busy coding or with something real-life related. So now my plan is to do a morning report on what I achieved yesterday, which I can write in the morning when my dev skills are at their lamest. I'll be posting these every morning on the Software Geezers blog...
Not going to offer any ETA. I've never managed to hit one of those yet! Suffice to say it's coming along. Much of the core elements are in and they just need tidying up.
Wishing you all a great and entertaining 2018!
David