A new game update is still many weeks away, but I wanted to give a report on the status of the game. I've been jumping between a few different areas of work, with the biggest two being figuring out the campaign mission plan and adding new biomes. I've done other work, like a bit of optimization and improving the streak particle drawing, and I'll talk a little more about the main two tasks. But first a small caveat:
If you want to fully enjoy the game and aren't really into building vehicles, I'd wait to play the game until 1.0 is finished. You can still safely buy the game now since it's on sale, and the price won't this low again until next summer, but the campaign will be *way* better in a few months.
CAMPAIGN MISSION PLAN
Before figuring out the full campaign mission plan, I had to narrow down what Instruments of Destruction is really about, what makes it unique. And it comes down to 3 things: Vehicles, Destruction, and Physics. Those are quite obvious, but focusing on those 3 aspects as the pillars has really helped me figure out how to create a cohesive plan for the missions. This game has too many potential directions to go in, and I needed something to help me get past the decision paralysis that I had been feeling.
Then I used a spreadsheet and just wrote down every mission idea, vehicle, scenario, physics highlight, or other element that I might want to highlight in a mission. I started a second sheet and started copying and organizing these ideas into groups of missions. I'm trying to make each mission semi-unique and fun/satisfying, and trying to emphasize at least 2 of the 3 pillars, if not all 3. Some secondary ideas and previous missions/vehicles will be used as challenges instead of a primary mission.
A third sheet was added so I could make to focus on Build & Destroy campaign missions. Not everything is planned out precisely, but I have a plan for how everything fits together, and I'm nearly ready to start working on missions.
NEW BIOMES
Recently I've been really enjoying working on adding more atmosphere-enhancing elements to the game, such as the new ambient animals, improved skyboxes, rain/thunder. These things don't directly impact the 3 pillars, but they help make the game more immersive and satisfying (to me at least). When I was working on the mission plan, one thing that bothered me was not having enough biomes for all the different groups of missions (each 4-5 missions has a general theme/focus).
So I started adding some new particle settings, and new tree types, and new rocks, and friction for the ground, and a couple other things, and before I knew it I have a bunch of new biomes. I'm not going to reveal them all, and I have to think about if I want to hide a few of them in the map editor (until version 1.0's campaign is beaten).
The ice biome above shows off some of the new stuff, including low-friction ground, snow-pebbles instead of grass, falling snow, and some new trees/rocks. And because of the low friction in particular, it plays a bit different as well.
HOLIDAY BREAK
I'm taking a week or two off for the holiday break, but after that I'm looking forward to making lots of progress on the game and pushing towards 1.0 in the first half of 2024. If I had to guess on a date for 1.0 on Steam, I'd say March or April is the most likely. I'm not great at estimating times, so we'll see how accurate that is.