Status Update: Unknown

[p]This is a bit of a different one from usual. I spent a lot of time updating and improving this game over the first half of the year, and we were entering the content phase of production. As many of you are aware, Unity had a critical engine flaw discovered that affected nearly all versions of the engine that aren't the newest (convenient for the contract you sign, but that's another story). This includes the version we have been building Push & Plunder on for some time now. This version was already outdated, to make things just a little worse.[/p][p]What this means, in effect, is that Push & Plunder needs yet another core overhaul. This would be the third core overhaul of the project. This project has suffered far too many setbacks as it is. The cost of overhauling this project would cause the cost of the development to rise ever higher.[/p][p]Estimated value of time invested in the development of P&P: $28,000[/p][p]Estimated time & value required to overhaul: 160hrs-320hrs | $5,600-$11,200[/p][h3]I have invested over 800 hours into this project. That is 100 work days, or 8h every Saturday for two years straight.[/h3][p]And it looks like the game needs another month, maybe two, of core engine improvement and reimagining.[/p][p]Here is a breakdown of my projected workload for this cost prediction.[/p][h3]Unity Engine 2022.3.8F1 -> 6000.2.10F1[/h3][p]Push & Plunder is built on an extremely old version of Unity. There are many, many problems this causes. And a lot of strange quirks of P&P are due to engine bugs that I cannot solve, and have been solved since. This includes many security upgrades. It also comes with some negatives that I won't get into here, in regards to data privacy and the contract I sign when I use it.[/p][h3]Custom Save System -> EasySave3[/h3][p]Two years ago, I was determined to make everything myself. I built a custom serializer, and a custom save system. It was efficient, and worked for my needs. As the game grew, the save system became quite the limitation.[/p][p]When I took a break to develop Fungal Colony Sim 2, I decided to invest in some plugins for Unity to improve my development. The first one was EasySave3. The save system I had previously was retired and adapted to fit ES3. Now, adding new save data is effortless, and I no longer have to clear player progression when making changes to the save file structure. If P&P wants to succeed, it needs to be updated to use the same system.[/p][h3]Challenge System -> Badge System[/h3][p]Again, for FCS2, I created a system that tracks game progress that is more efficient than the original version I had created for P&P. The core of the game is driven by this unlock system, and the badges are more stable and easier to add new challenges with than the old implementation.[/p][h3]Custom Shader -> All In One 3D Shader[/h3][p]I custom built a shader for all of my games, and P&P is the pinnacle of that shader. But it too has many limits. Another plugin I purchased for FCS2, was this shader. It can do everything my shader did, and more. It has more integration with Unity, and a better interface in the editor. It is superior to my custom implementation in every way.[/p][h3]Default Unity Physics -> Havok Physics[/h3][p]When I started this project, Havok Physics was too expensive to use. Since then, they have made changes to the pricing and now it is reasonable to use. Switching Physics engines would mean a complete reimagining of the core systems of the game. All the coin shooting, bauble bouncing, chest wiggling action would need to be re-engineered and tested.[/p][p]This would be a radical and extreme investment.[/p][p]It would, however, allow for better coin stacking and more "real" feeling bounces. A Higher quality final game would result, if the proper time and effort was spent.[/p][h3]Translation System[/h3][p]For FCS2, I learned how to properly use a string translation system, and localizing my games is as easy as paying someone to translate the sheet of text. P&P has a barebones translation system that doesn't work correctly and was not finished. This would need to be removed and replaced with the working version previously mentioned.[/p][h3]Finish The Game[/h3][p]and then the rest of the development can continue as planned. Enemies can be made, tables can be put together, and content can be added and expanded.[/p][h2]What about Early Access?[/h2][p]There are a lot of things to repair and fix, and the cost of the time required has the potential to be larger than the sales of the game could hope to be. It may already have cost more than it could ever hope to sell. All of the above stuff could be done in Early Access, but I am uncertain if I want to go that route. Early Access could cause this game to die in an unfinished state just as easily as it could save the game.[/p][p]Unless the wishlist number explode, Early Access will not be considered.[/p][h2]An alternative path forward[/h2][p]There is... another way... A risky one... With all the work that needs to be done, it could be just as easy to start the project over entirely with all the knowledge we have and implement all the correct systems from the get go. This would probably cause several major overhauls and a complete design doc rewrite. FCS2 and Grammar Grind were developed for ~$5000 each. There is a way to rescope, redesign, and rebuild the entire game for the same cost as it would be to upgrade and fix the old build on the new engine.[/p][p][/p][p]So that's where I am at. I am working on other projects that have better futures ahead of them. And I don't know what to do here. Let me know your thoughts here, or on Bluesky, or on Threads. I'm back on Threads btw.[/p]