14/01/2019 Progress Report

What's Working/Changed:

• Fixed a bug with the new up/down movement when using a gamepad.
• Various bug fixes.
• Added a new item that forces the player to move up or down.
• More waves added.

What I Need To Work On:

• Alternate control methods.
• XInput pad support.
• Continued 3D modelling including animations.
• Visual feedback from the HUD on various things.
• Making more levels.
• New enemy types and encounters.
• More boss fights.
• Additional visual effects.
• Animation work.
• Endless mode.

Other Things I'm Doing:

• HUD design.
• More finalised sound and music.
• Fonts.
• General art and design for menus.

On-Hold:

• Loading enemy, weapon, and boss types into the content creator.
• Saving and loading for the content creation system.
• In-game Graphics and Input options
• Easier generation of campaigns.
• Story mode.

Future Things:

• Saving/Loading.
• Difficulty levels.
• Bonus stuff.

A Few Other Words:

After taking a considerable break from development, I am looking at this project from a fresh new perspective. And frankly, it's a mess. Things aren't going well and progress is brutally slow. Everytime I make a new wave, I have to go through the laborious process of testing it and fixing it. But as I mentioned before, all my wave data is being stored in a very large nested array. Which means any changes becomes a nightmare of having to sift through large blocks of text to change one small thing.

So with that in mind, I am going to put the "story" mode on hiatus for a little while. When I originally started this project, I had in mind a simple arcade-style game where the player simply tried to get the highest score possible. When I started to get feedback, I decided to add more elements to it to make it more puzzle-like in parts. After that, I got the bright idea that I should add some semblance of a story in there to give the game more context. But it has just ended up becoming a mess of ideas without any actual thought.

So here's what I'm doing; As I mentioned, the "story" mode is going to be put on hold. I'm going to scale back development and focus on my original idea of an endless mode. Once I have something up and running, I'm going to re-do all the art and sounds for the game. After that, I will likely release a very different style of demo to get feedback on how the game is. If people like the new style, I may skip the idea of having a story mode, in favour of a purer arcade-like experience.

Furthermore, I apologise for not making any posts for the past two months. I meant to do one in December, but unforeseen circumstances put it to the back of my mind. However, things are back to normal. So a semi-consistent schedule of posting once a month should hopefully resume.

Lastly, I acquired a new graphics card. It's not really all that important to development considering my previous graphics card was more than adequate for the game, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

Hopefully the game can come out this year. Hopefully.