Game Review and Stuff To Do

TLDR

• Since last update, I got bit upset with the project (I want to take a pause, and also learn some more...), doing some external stuff, and focusing on drawing.
• I had several ideas for gameplay, but my mistake was not to dedicate efforts to any of them.
• Visuals also lack direction; so I study doing characters and environments.
• I waned to do a playable game ASAP, some tech debt accumulated, please let me clean it up, it is suffocating!
• This project will stay as is, but I'll continue with successor, or other games.

Hello good sir (or good lady), it is rather a post-mortem for this project, but I have plans for successor.

I think it is valuable to be transparent about successes and failings, and how stuff is made, aye? Perhaps you can learn something from it, if you are a dev of similar game?

THANKS to early twi support, and comments on itch. SORRY for not answering on them. Ask ANYTHING i'll try to answer more often.

What I Been Doing Since

I got sad for few months after this project, this devlog was written 2 weeks ago and originally had more somber tone too, and was much longer. I been drawing requests and recovering, but i did few gamedev-related things too:

• GDExtensions (extending Godot engine with high performance C++. Besides, I love C++)
• Tiny multiplayer PvP shooter
• Some experiments in VR
• Considered writing game in C++ (as opposed to existing game engine)
• A prototype of exploration game
• Light experiments
• Level layout blocking

Gameplay Design

Little intent was put into how this project will be played. Barrels were a quick fix of this issue. I can try to fix it, but I really want to redo...

Direction

I had 3 main ideas:

• Sandbox: I make you toys and you build scenes and play with them however you want. I used to love sandbox games. I played lot of Sizebox, but I believe I can improve few of its things.
• Witch overtaking a region (a peninsula) with use of size magic. You are witch that folk scare kids with. Originally planned this game as 2D, but I thought the stomping game and be adjusted to a 3D version of it...
• Stomping your friends: add more iterations perhaps, like grabs; add hit reactions, girl to girl interactions? Something of this sort, a game about characters more than environment.

I like them all still, just had to pick. Many issues stem from indecisiveness. I have sketches for more cohesive game, but I'll hold to them for now, cause I may make something with it soon, so *secret* for now.

Good Bits

Destruction turned out mostly fine, but it would benefit from more impact effects. I find concept of breaking trees and rocks very cool. I also want hold on to multiplayer.

Semi-Ready Systems

Here are some systems that were partially or fully made, but could not be reliably used for various reasons in current version of the game:

• Large scale (>150m) movement and destruction with decent performance (reason: tricky to make it work in coop).
• Customization of clothes and body parts (reason: cloths I made don't look good).
• Toggling of control scheme from quick responsive one, to more precise one, e.g. feet always step correctly (reason: i have not made enough animation for alternative control scheme).
• Body proportion adjustments (reason: poor asset workflow makes it really ass to tweak).

Visuals

"Better character model please" is probably most feedback I got. 3D is tough for me, but it's important for character-focused game such as this so it's high priority. I think on drawing modeling reference, and trying iteratively work from simpler to more complex models over the span of few updates or games.

Good things:

• Chara body mostly bends fine, and silhouette is nice.
• Glad for animations, they are passable while I'm new to it.
• Most assets are custom made, so all you see, I can do more of that.

Bad bits:

• Body is made to wear cloths, but has no clothes.
• Face shading creates awkward shapes at many angles.
• Shadows get lowres on large scales.
• Environment has many holes and serves more like a testing ground than a *place* or a level.

Visual Identity

I value visuals that are not only pretty but are also distinct (non-generic). More fun and less boring, aye? I'm learning how 3D girls and environments can be made, so I can reconstruct them.

Tech

I do prototypes to test my skills (is game i make really fun?) and to try stuff nobody done before (to my knowledge). This means I make lot of small projects QUICK, and make lot of mistakes. This project accumulated quite a few of them:

• Hole in character's neck caused by incomplete character customization system. My chara model import workflow is ass, so it's ass to fix.
• Another consequence of poor asset workflow is many textures getting messed up after engine updates. Not terrible problem, but it takes effort to fix.

PLEASE LET ME REWRITE IT IT"S SUFFOCATING uh ouh

Good bits

• I'm pretty proud of performance. I plan to continue supporting low-end and low-energy devices. I consider option of android release, though it will for sure require a decently modern device. It is really hard to make it run well on old or low-end devices...
• Much of game is done with small components that connect into other components. Many components can be transferred between projects.

To improve

• Should have used Git and perish parts that are bad.
• Either with Git branches, or with separate projects, it is probably better to experiment quickly in separate place, when working on a larger project.

Mod support is an important to me — poor tech base would make mod creators have to suffer through that too.  

What will happen to this project then

I will probably leave it as is. But if there's demand for that, I can update it to new version of engine and make few quick adjustments so you can use it as playground (e.g. spawning destructible stuff, or remove size limit, though mind it is really janky, there is reason why cap exists!), or I can make it open source, if there are Godot lads or lasses who'd like to tinker with it?

I do rather want to experiment with new stuff.