Week 36 Update

TL;DR refactored user interface structure; cut some fluff, consolidated bits and pieces, paid down tech debt; worked on Kickstarter stuff for November.

Build & Deployment:

Development:

• Consolidated actor, display, group, input, scene, screen, stage, and tweening components that were strewn across my code base into a handful of centralized objects that are now generally part of the "client" module. The "view" module is now a bit more clean and its classes pertain primarily to accessing, modifying, organizing, and displaying data from the game's model.

Design:

• Returned to spell & magic design for the first time since... 2017? I have been working on so many different game mechanics over the last six years that it's wild to think I haven't touched *spells* since 2017 but here we are.

Influence:

• Played a bunch of FTL: Faster Than Light. I had forgotten how punishing "Easy" mode is. I can't imagine playing it on any other difficulty setting considering how easy it is to die before leaving the first sector. SIGH.
  • My thoughts on this are that I would much rather have the focus of gameplay be on the outfitting and management of the crew & spaceship than on micro-managing energy & crew placement.
  • I really like the "my dudes" feeling of crew members in FTL but I think I want a little bit more than what is found here. Food for thought.
• Started playing Dead Cells. This game is so much fun out of the box. Good graphics, good sound, good controls. Damn it. It sets the bar too high - maybe I should go back to playing FTL.

Marketing:

• Revised reward types & tiers for the Kickstarter. This stuff is hard! I reviewed past Kickstarter projects for Darkest Dungeon, FTL, and Undertale, since I think my game falls within this "type" of indie game project, and I tried to bring my rewards in line with what I saw across these games.
• Wrote thousands of words of stuff about the game. There's a lot, really. Some of it might wind up as copy, some might just wind up as biography. You know how it is.