Cosmic Construct News

[p]Welcome to the 36th week devlog for Cosmic Construct. Just as a reminder from the end of last week, this post isn't going to contain much as to progress on the game. In addition to combatting burnout, I have some other personal project I needed to upkeep. Going forward, we will return back to the normally scheduled progress posts. I also wanted to make sure these devlog entries get back on schedule. Upcoming devlog posts will be scheduled for the 10th, 17th, 24th, and 31st of August.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]Deck of All Things[/p][p][/p][p]If you, like me, play 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, you maybe be familiar with the magical item, the Deck of Many Things. For the last couple years I've had a collection of art work for a DnD themed tarot deck I made for fun. At the same time I had a half completed custom magic item rule text written up for an "improved" Deck of Many Things with more available random options. So thus...[/p][p]The Deck of All Things, and its accompanying web app. It is available for free in browser for full size monitors. It also has a download available which can be run without installing (as a portable application). It has a total of 160 unique effects which highly effect your character for both the better and the worse. It is a powered up, complete drop-in replacement for the Deck of Many Things. Thrice as dangerous, thrice as deadly, and thrice more fun.[/p][p][/p][p]There are 80 cards here including all of the major and minor arcana's as well as a few added cards. I was considering making a physical deck for sale at some point, but never got around to it. All of the art here, except for the logographic typography is a mixture of stock vector graphics and my own art. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]As I mentioned before there are 80 cards, but have a normal and inverted side, creating 160 total card reading which each have an accompanying effect. If for some reason you can't use the webapp, there is a homebrew page on DnD Beyond and you can follow the rules from there.

---[/p][p]Alright, now the most important news. I will be returning to the normal devlog format starting next week.[/p][p]Here is the work I expect to get done by that time.[/p][p]- 4 new structures. (one of which is a multipart structure, which I will explain later)[/p][p]- Improvements to Pawn AI to include structure garrisoning.[/p][p]- Work on art for the first minigame; Sparkle.[/p][p]- Some for the achievement icons to be used in a new objectives submenu, and for steam achievements.[/p][p]That is all, see you new week.[/p]

[p]This is the Week 35 devlog for Cosmic Construct, which while being a good week for my general productivity, hasn't contributed to Cosmic Construct. I really wanted to make this week short, but I just didn't do that. It needs to be done, so I will try to do it for this week. Obviously, I can't promise anything, because I'm apparently bad at keeping to a schedule.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]Quite simply, I didn't work on the game over the past week. In addition to preventing general burnout working on the same project and providing updates for 31 consecutive weeks (I did not have devlogs before week 4); I have other projects that occasionally need my attention.

In lieu of an update on Cosmic Construct, I will go over some of my other concurrent projects that need to be maintained, and what I'm doing that isn't Cosmic Construct. [/p][p]---[/p][p]Simple Space Ship System[/p][p][/p][p]I have a few tabletop games that I sell. One of them is Simple Space Ship System, a tabletop wargame with simple rules, and a legacy progression mechanic. I'm not trying to pitch to you here, but recently it has seen a bump in sales I didn't expect. It caught me off guard, and I would like to capitalize on that by taking the opportunity to update the book. Both to make it more visually appealing to drive sales, and to improve rules explanations and provide visual aids as a quality of life inclusion.[/p][p][/p][p]To provide visual explanation of the games rules and corner case problems, I modeled a virtual tabletop in blender. So that I can speed up to process of making arrangements to show in the book. In this case, it is a flanking rule.[/p][p]I didn't get everything I needed to get done for this book done during the week, but its rewrite took up a bunch of time I didn't expect. I do still need to get this done, but its whatever.[/p][p]Orros[/p][p][/p][p]In addition to tabletop wargames, I also make tabletop roleplaying games. This is Orros, one of my "back burner" projects. It is a superhero themed d10 roleplaying game system. This book is about 80% complete. As it gets closer to completion, motivation to work on it over my other projects, including Cosmic Construct, increases. There might be a week in the not so distant future where I will drop everything to push that game to release. The book is... entirely artless at the moment. So behold, this wall of text.[/p][p]Keygemin[/p][p]In addition to games, I also create content for a "fiction IP" called Keygemin. This includes a game on itch which I haven't touched in a couple years. I operate a wiki, which details everything that is public about that universe. It is a massive creative effort, and I would love you to check it out. This one I will absolutely pitch to you.[/p][p][/p][p]Recently, on youtube, I have been posting readings of the stories I have set in that word. I've spent some time this week recording those. I've broken them down into shorts, and they seem be received well. I'm not too worried about view count as the content is "evergreen". Anyone who runs into it that likes the story can continue down the playlist.[/p][p][/p][p]Various Games[/p][p][/p][p]I have many other game development project that I'm looking into reusing or readapting that content for other purposes; including for Cosmic Construct. I'm just going to provide this game screenshot out of context. Feel free to strongly interpret it.[/p][p][/p][p]tl;dr - This has been the side project week.[/p][p][/p][p]---[/p][p]Over the next week, I'll be working on only structure art.[/p][p]This next devlog post should be on the 3rd of August.[/p][p]My birthday is on August 2nd, so we will see if I actually get any work done. :P[/p][p]Just being honest with you all, I might be in the mood to take a break.[/p][p]Thank you for being here to listen to my excuses, I'll see you in the next one.[/p]

[p]Welcome to the 34th week devlog for Cosmic Construct. Sorry that this one is a little late. I really need to get the schedule back on track. This should be a week 35 post, these posts are more than a week behind. I think I'm going to do two short weeks just to get them lined back up.[/p][p]So sorry for remainder of this month. I'll get it back where it needs to be with some short posts.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]As usual, I will be covering the goals set in the previous posts, and discussing ongoing work for and about the game.[/p][p]---[/p][p]Finish the new biome.[/p][p][/p][p]There was a bunch of art needed for this one. 135 frames total, which is more than any other biome I think. Discounting the farmable resources. I've made a new tree type, which isn't just a repurposed general tree, and these took a while to figure out, because they are just trunks. I wanted the tops to be "cut off" at the top, but didn't know how that would turn out once everything was put together.[/p][p][/p][p]Visually, 4 varieties of mushrooms were added which each have 5 variations. This biome functions as a sort of "mooshroom" biome, for Cosmic Construct. Food and wood is plentiful. It's a biome that exists purely as a boon to the player. A place that the player can seek out get out of shortages through simple passive grinding. It's the AFK chop, biome so to speak.[/p][p][/p][p]It's important to show this, as its hard to describe, and see. Many of these just looks like copies of the same drawing over and over, and in a way they are. Squigglevision animation requires small changes between frames to look convincing. It quadruples the amount of work compared to just putting flat static images in an environment. I could probably get away with using a distortion shader, but I feel that the squigglevision animation is more  "genuine". You can feel the hand drawn aspect of things. I don't want people to look at the game and think it is lazy.[/p][p][/p][p]Anyhow, here is the finished biome which I have named the Akyulands. I didn't even talk about the grass, which is yet another thing I needed to draw. The shapes are simple, but they have a very distinct appearance. To think I have another 4-5 biomes to make before I feel comfortable saying that I'm comfortable with the amount of exploration content.[/p][p]Do some new structure art.[/p][p]Didn't get to doing this, the biome took alot of work to complete, due to 6 new interactable objects being added.[/p][p]Continue work on the first minigame.[/p][p]There are two minigames I've been considering and working on them concurrently. One is a pretty normal dice game. Most people will be familiar with it. I want to have a betting component, and luck modification to make a combination of skill and luck based.  This will be the first minigame, called "Sparkle". The second minigame I am working on is far more complex, and I'm not sure if I can even pull it off given alot of factors. It's something difficult to do in gamemaker, but figuring it out as a puzzle has been fun. I am happy to say I got it working, and has to do with optical character recognition. I'm not going to describe it further, because I want it to be a surprise.[/p][p]Make improvements to Pawn AI, to allow the game to be played further in.[/p][p]Discussing Pawn AI is pretty dry. The details of the state machine, and small adjustments made to it are just boring to detail. Its like showing code of, nobody really cares. All you need to know is that the pawns are being integrated into the buildings that are already in place. The garrisoning, works and the pawns are processing resources from the garrisoned buildings. I have some of the businesses set in an "open for business" and "closed for business" state. So if a pawn responsible for say a Tailoring building, if they are sleeping; that function will be disabled until they wake.[/p][p]Another thing I am working on is pawn retirement. When a pawn leaves the settlement, they can later return. There is not an age mechanic, so they pawns never "die". But they can leave due to unhappiness or stress. I would like the pawns to still visit as tourists, or ask to return to the settlement if it has improved.[/p][p]---[/p][p]This week will be very short to get the devlogs back on track. I'm tired of them not being correct.[/p][p]- Do structure art.[/p][p]Yep that's it. My level of success will be determined on how many new buildings I add.[/p][p]See you next "week".[/p]

[p]Welcome to the 33rd week devlog for Cosmic Construct. [/p][p]Each week in these devlogs we typically go over development goals established at the end of the previous weeks post.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Framework for the first minigame.[/p][p]Because minigames are a new feature. I don't want to share visual progress on them before they are complete. I'd rather dump them on you all at once. The frame work code for the first minigame is a little complicated, as I can't just pause the simulation in the background. Doing so would sort of defeat the purpose of including minigames in the first place.[/p][p]There are at least 5 minigames that will be included with the game. All of them will generate currency or a particular valuable resource. There is even a building dedicated for pawns to play these minigames for recreation; the Casino. Not all of the games will be "betting" or "gambling" games, but most will. Almost all of the games will be "skill and luck" based. I do plan to add a slot machine which is pure luck. Of course, these use the in-game currencies; there are no microtransactions or anything like that.[/p][p]Get the market UI and trading done.[/p][p][/p][p]The base of the UI is done. Trading wasn't fully completed. I found that the trading and exchange system is more complicated that I originally realized, as I need to add a bunch of corner case event handling. For example, what if the storage lacks the space for the coinage being given as change? That and the conversion itself is a little complex as the currency denomination conversion is in base 4.[/p][p]Anyway, most of the visual work has been done to implement this feature. I'm going to let it hang out until I get it finished. I might do the pawn AI to operate the buildings related to it first. We'll see how I feel about it.[/p][p]Art assets for the next biome.[/p][p][/p][p]I've done a few of the assets needed for a new biome. This biome will have a new kind of large tree, which will produce more logs by requiring more chops per tree. I plan to have it automatically chop the tree until it has fallen. This will be a good biome to find for the early game, if people take the option to explore. Building a chest will give access to the storage array. Since all chests are linked (they function as Minecraft Ender Chests), you can contribute to the colony at any distance.[/p][p][/p][p]Here is the ground layer shape. The layer art is fully complete, I'm just lazy and didn't want to take a new screenshot.[/p][p]I still need to make two kinds of foliage for the biome, and determine a good color scheme for everything, which is much easier to do when I'm coding it all in. As I can rapidly prototype. I want this to be the "useful to early game" biome. That if someone is stuck not having the basic resources they need for some objective, they can look for this place to get them out of that rut.[/p][p]New structure art. (if I have time)[/p][p]I didn't start on any new structure art.[/p][p]---[/p][p]That is what I got done this week. After writing about it, doesn't sound like much. Most of what I've done is in code.[/p][p]Here is what I have planned for this week.[/p][p]- Finish the new biome.[/p][p]- Do some new structure art.[/p][p]- Continue work on the first minigame.[/p][p]- Make improvements to Pawn AI, to allow the game to be played further in.[/p][p]That is all, thank you for reading.[/p]

[p]This is the 32nd week devlog for Comic Construct. Now that the new demo version is out, I've been getting some feedback about the game systems, and some of them aren't working as intended. As is to be expected with a large changes like this.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]Each week in these devlogs we typically go over development goals established at the end of the previous weeks post.[/p][p]---[/p][p]Supporting the demo release.[/p][p][/p][p]With the new demo versions changes, there is a lot of testing and bug fixing that needs to happen. Most of these revolve around systems new to the game such as energy consumption and the totem sacrifices. Thankfully, the new demo version was finished and made live right around the next Demo Day deadline. So I was able to submit the new demo version to Demo Day 63, and update game jam hosted bi-monthly by the AGDG (Amateur Game Development General) community.  Which has had about 20 downloads on itch so far, and a couple people giving extensive feedback. You guys are awesome, and I know you all are gonna make it.[/p][p]Getting Pawns to consume food like they should.[/p][p][/p][p]This was easier to get working than I expected, considering the amount of things I needed to change. Which reminds me I need to update the github repo... and done lol. Pawns now consume energy while performing tasks, when they are low on energy they will become slow, and unwilling to work on their assigned job. They will change their job to gathering berries. Their energy consumption is considerably slower than the player's for balance reasons. I might need to adjust this in the future.[/p][p]Add achievements for exotic items that are missing from new biomes.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a simple database edit. However, I had other things I needed to set up for future integration because of the way I have the database managed (which is super naive). Thankfully, it works well enough that I will likely never change it. Considering the entire game pauses while menus are open, it's efficiency doesn't really matter. The only trouble it causes is on objective checks, which only check part of the struct infrequently. Which causes the same issue as storage updates. I have fixing both of these things on the todo list, but they aren't game breaking. Just slightly irritating when they rarely trigger at an inconvenient time.[/p][p]Get some more structure art done.[/p][p][/p][p]I finally got the Abattoir done. The building is a little plain, but there will be a bunch of Grubs moving around behind it, which will give more motion.  The Abattoir will passive produce meat, bone, and hide which will reduce the need for pawns to hunt. If or when I add new creatures to other areas, I can have it produce their resources too.[/p][p]---[/p][p]No unplanned work was done. I did do some marketing related stuff, which I'm not sure I'll see results from, I'll let you know if anything comes from that. Here is the planned development work for the next week.[/p][p]- Framework for the first minigame.[/p][p]- Get the market UI and trading done.[/p][p]- Art assets for the next biome.[/p][p]- New structure art. (if I have time)[/p]