Hello : )
First, I hope all who read this have had the best 2020 possible, it's been a strange year for sure.
I'm sorry for the complete lack of updates. I have been working on Grim Earth full time, the whole year, it's just that I'm maybe too focused on the development side of things and don't take enough time to talk about the game.
Four Years ...
... is a long time. I've written 15 games as an indie, several of which took a year. Grim Earth is now four years old (what!?), it wasn't supposed to take this long!
I guess the problem is I'm thinking of Grim Earth as a series of games. This means the game engine has to be spot on. I can't be working on the third game and need to change something that breaks multiple games. So, a lot of this year has been spent on the engine and its multiple editors.
For example, I've used the same particle effects code for fifteen years. A month ago, I decided to rewrite it, making it more flexible, giving it a visual editor, it's going to be great going forwards and will speed up future development. Problem is, it's can of worms time and you end up rewriting everything that depends on that code. Then you have to reimplement every, single, effect in the game. Argh!
Progress ...
The game is going well however and I'm really happy with it. It's possible to play all the way through now and it's polished up to the 75% mark. Here's some screens from the third section, although I'm looking at the game as a whole now since writing the overview editor (which took weeks!)
Release Date
I used to think I was months away and it turned out to be years. Now I think it's weeks away, so I'm going to assume I need at least a couple more months. I wish it was sooner.
All the best,
George