Virtualord, the virtual conqueror News

Welcome to the second update on the development of “Virtueror: The Virtual Conqueror”, a Real Time Strategy game with 4x and RPG elements I am developing as a solo indie developer.

This month the development has been slowed down a by several events in my private and professional life that drastically reduced my spare time, but I managed to achieve some progress nonetheless.

These are the main changes for this month:

[h2]Damage particles[/h2]
Now, when an element (unit, structure, etc...) is hit by any weapon, there are particles coming out at every hit and also a bigger explosion when the element is destroyed.



Unfortunately the GIF compression reduces the video quality and frame rate a lot, but I can assure you that this looks much better in game!

[h2]Working defensive towers[/h2]
Now defensive towers can shoot enemies when in range.



My work on defensive towers is far from finished as they can't be selected or upgraded yet, but that's something that I am going to implement soon.

[h2]In game UI improvements[/h2]
Action buttons used to control units are now toggle buttons, which means they stay selected until the action is completed or cancelled.



They are also disabled while an action is in progress and the cancel button now works with all actions.

[h2]Improved faction selection screen[/h2]
The new faction selection screen highlights a faction when selected.



Probably a minor change, but it makes the screen more polished and interesting, especially when you see the effect in real time.

[h2]Bug of the month[/h2]
When I started working on the defensive tower I created a little monster...
The first version was shooting at everything in range and it was destroying everything with 1 hit.



Things were even weirder because there were no particles yet, so all you could see was objects disappearing. It was almost like a black hole!

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
The main goal for the month of August is to implement a basic AI that will allow the first testers to experience some kind of gameplay.

Another important thing on my TODO list is finishing the defensive tower. In particular I want to make it possible to select and to upgrade it.

I also have other things in my mind, but it looks like August will be another busy month for me, so I don't want to over-promise for now.

[h2]Support this game, wishlist and follow![/h2]
If you enjoyed this update and if you want to support Virtueror make sure to wishlist and follow it. Thanks and see you next month with a new update!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607580/Virtueror_The_Virtual_Conqueror/

Welcome to the first monthly update on the development of “Virtueror: The Virtual Conqueror”, a Real Time Strategy game with 4x and RPG elements I am developing as a solo indie developer.

This month I had to spend a good amount of work on the new Steam page of the game (which went live on the 9th), but I tried not to neglect development and these are the main news.

[h2]Radar station[/h2]
I introduced a new building, a radar station. Its main purpose is to make a big area of the map constantly visible.



It's not possible to build one yet, for now you can only conquer an existing one.
Then, as for the other structures, you have to connect it to your base to get it to work.

In the future it will also be possible to upgrade it and it will give you access to a mini-map.

[h2]Factions and new faction selection screen[/h2]
I designed and implemented a first version of the screen to choose your faction when starting a new game.



That also allowed me to define and to reveal a few details about the 3 playable factions. You can find out more about them in the "about this game" section of the game page.

[h2]New main menu[/h2]
I have been using a black screen with 2 gray buttons as main menu for the last 6 months. It was time to introduce something different.



As for everything else, this is a first version and things might change in the future.
I believe this is already not bad, but let me know what you think about it in comments.

[h2]Video dev log[/h2]
If you want to see the latest changes in action check out the dev log video of this month:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Bug of the month[/h2]
This month I don't have any special bug from the development, but I have one from my Steam page launch.



I did a live stream on Steam when I launched the game page of Virtueror, but for some obscure reason OBS decided to not capture my audio when I started. Because of that I spoke to myself for about 25 minutes before realizing what was going on.

People tried to warn me of what was happening, but (obviously) my Steam chat crashed and I closed Discord to not get disturbed during the stream, so I didn't realize what was going on until I stopped to try to get the chat working again.

Murphy's law, right?

[h2]What's next?[/h2]
During the month of July I will focus on getting everything ready for the closed alpha testing.
That's mostly going to be fixing bugs and improving existing features.

If you want to get access to it you will need to join the official Discord server of Virtueror. There you will also take part in the open development, which means you'll be able to vote for features, to influence the development roadmap and to suggest ideas and improvements.

In the next few days I will also need to decide if it's better to give people access to the current version of the game as soon as possible or if instead I should take the whole month to develop some new features and some kind of basic AI before starting with the alpha testing.

Let me know what you would prefer in comments or join the Discord server to vote in the poll that I will post there.

[h2]Support this game, wishlist and follow![/h2]
If you enjoyed this update and if you want to support Virtueror I would really appreciate if you could spread the word, but also wishlist and follow it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607580/Virtueror_The_Virtual_Conqueror/

Hi, my name is Davide and I am the solo indie developer who's working on Virtueror.

To celebrate this new page I wanted to introduce myself and my game to the Steam community.

I will do that with a live stream where I will show you the game in action, but also something from behind the scenes. Then I will talk about my future plans for this project and I will answer any question people might have.

If you want to find out more about this game and if you want to follow the development closer, make sure to join the Discord server where you will also get access to the first pre-alpha builds.

Also make sure to wishlist and follow:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1607580/Virtueror__The_Virtual_Conqueror/