Greetings everyone! It has been almost 2 weeks since my last devlog. Initially, I thought I would write here every week. I might do in the future but currently, since reception is low, I will try to focus my time in development instead. In my first log we spoke about UI and my struggle in finding a suitable font for numbers. Well, I found it! After a real struggle! You can see it below in the Contracts Negotiation UI:
The whole game will have 3-4 fonts in total. The three are already in this UI. One will be used in most places (like the one you see in the message). The other one is pretty similar and it is used in the Estimated Annual Cost label for example. Let me know if you like the fonts. Moving on, besides UI intensive work and balancing, I also struggled with the map. It is currently empty since my procedural script is not placing any props or sidewalks or pavements yet. There is also a lot of work to be done on the buildings itself. My main issue was questioning myself whether or not this set of building detail is enough. The problem is that at a distance and in the night, details are lost for the most part. You really need to zoom in to see their details and in the top down camera, details are barely visible. With this thought process I ended up leaving them as they are and I will be focusing more in the gameplay, at least for now. This is a Tycoon Management Game after all. I am not saying this to tell that graphics are not important - I am saying this to back my decision on prioritization. Here is an up close screenshot, what do you think? Are the building details enough? Another thing I have worked on, is the Campaign Story. The game will feature the following on launch: -A Campaign
A 7 episode streak where you will start small, with basic enabled features. You will unlock the game features in each episode while playing in a main story. This will also act as the tutorial. In the final 2 episodes, you will have all features unlocked. -A sandbox mode
All the game features will be available here. You will get to customize the map, difficulties, number of opponents here. -Scenarios
I will try for at least one in Early Access launch but this is mainly post early-access task. Ideally, I want scenarios to be player-submitted. This week I am working mostly in the early game, Campaign: Episode 1 features. This is a struggle because I have to ensure that the game is enoyable even with the basic features that will be available early on. I even play to release a Demo where you will be able to play Episode 1 of the campaign. Here is a part of the map movement (although this gif is already like 3 weeks old, still featuring the old numbers font for example).
That's all for now!
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Still alone in there ;) Cheers!
See you again in 1 or 2 weeks time!