Cosmic Construct News

[p]This will be the first devlog of 2026, week 57! Thank you for being here, although there isn't much in the way of tangible progress this week, I did a lot of planning out that will save me time in the long term. Improving the quality of the gameplay experience overall. I'll talk about exactly what that is this week.[/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]Structure Art[/p][p]I finally made some progress on the Bazaar procedural generation, and I think that will be done soon so I can show off what that looks like. I didn't start any new art for structures, but biome parts for Dansland were added instead. With Dansland, also thinking about adding the biome labels in at the[/p][p]AI State Machine[/p][p][/p][p]This is a screenshot of the clunky old stat machine. Each of the pawn_state_x() scripts are large swaths of checks which have redundancy which needs to be cleaned up. Really, this is a poor way to do this checking amounting to a list of if then statements. I knew that this would need to be replaced with a priority queueing system at some point. The added complexity of the pawn moods and personalities requires this, and was always a part of the development outline.[/p][p]I just didn't know what I would be doing to set this apart from other games in the same genre, like Rimworld. The current plan is to have a priority queueing system based on the 8 levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, instead of letting them be individually assigned by the player. The player will still control professions and tasks, but the individual actions performed to carry out those tasks will be chosen by the pawns. The way this is carried out will be based on pawn personality. For example, a glutenous pawn will prioritize food over work, stopping work for even small amounts of energy loss; or occupy their inventory with food items instead of work items. (All pawns have their own inventory by the way, I've just never made it viewable.)[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]I work on a litany of things that aren't video games, including tabletop roleplaying games, wargames, board games, trading card games, and in this case CYOA image sets (which are basically games). Every couple of years I put out a new one, and had a great idea for a refreshed CYOA set for my world of Keygemin. This won't be done for a while, but when it is I'll make sure it goes up on my socials so you can play it.[/p][p]Hytale[/p][p][/p][p]A couple of weeks ago, I let you all know I would be taking some time this week for the Hytale early access launch. I have to say I like the game. I'm still enjoying it, and will probably be playing a bit longer until I get inevitably burnt out on it. Consider this a form of market research... I'll also be playing every new gacha game that comes out, for example Arknights Endfield, and Seven Deadly Sins Origins. I do this to all of them and it is just part of who I am. So you're gonna have to deal with it.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As with the previous month or two, I'm still working on Structure Art, and interleaving it with other stuff to prevent getting burned out on it. Structure Art will be worked on for the next 7 weeks, then I will move on to other parts of the game regardless if that is finished or not, replacing unfinished art with placeholders.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]Welcome to the week 56 devlog for Cosmic Construct. Apparently I'm sick again, winter has not been good to me. I went from throat pain, to coughing, now I'm leaking. But its whatever. Not much I can do about it.[/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]Structure Art[/p][p][/p][p]Most of the Dansland biome stuff is finished. I have a few biome specific plants to make, then I'll have it integrated into the game. Dansland is going to supply some of the more brown tone decor item recipes, and as mentioned before fruits for cooking[/p][p][/p][p]I did some work on the Hotel, Stadium, and Resort, though not as much as I would have liked. I'm going to blame sickness for my unwillingness to sit down and draw. Let me instead talk about what is done, what needs to be done, and what I'm going to do next. Seeing that this devlog is a sparse on images.[/p][p]Tier 6 buildings need the Bazaar coded in, although all of the parts are done the procedural generation isn't looking right. The City Hall, Guild Hall, Observatory, and Treasury haven't been imported into the game yet, but are complete. The Library and Museum arts are still in progress, both are large triple buildings so that take a lot more work. After those are done all of the Tier 6 structures will be done.

Tier 7 buildings have the Auditor, Terraformer, and Centrifuge arts done but not imported. I have to do a special animation for the Terraformer which need its own code. The Hotel and Stadium are in progress. Not started or with almost no art are the Institute, Mall, and Mausoleum, as well as an unnamed triple size structure. So Tier 7 is about half way complete.[/p][p]Tier 8 Buildings are barely started, and need the Embassy finished (which is almost done), then the Distro, Mansion, Resort, University, Colosseum, and 5 other unnamed structures. Tier 8 is barely started. I think I'll spend most of February doing that.[/p][p]---[/p][p]I'll still be doing Structure Art for at least the next 8 weeks, after which I'll be moving onto something else regardless if it is finished or not.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]And now welcome to the 55th week devlog for Cosmic Construct.[/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]---
Structure Art[/p][p][/p][p]This isn't anything new, but I've been working to get the parts in for the Bazaar procedural generation. Its more complicated that I realized, as the existing seed function I have in place was making the generation look too regular, so I've been tweaking it a bit so that parts don't get repeated. I'm not too knowledgeable about how to prevent these modulo based hashes repetitions, so I've had to learn about that.[/p][p]New Biome[/p][p][/p][p]I'm working on a new biome called Dansland which will be tropical themed. We don't really have enough fruits, so I plan to add a few in this biome to encourage exploration. Also, a new type of tree with a new type of fiber for decor later. Basically, after the game releases, I can support it with expanded decor recipes, which will allow for a late game "progression" feeling without the need of additional character levels by doing tiered decor. Some of which will have functions and be interactable by pawns. I'm just getting stuff set up for that.[/p][p][/p][p]I have a couple of trees I am preparing for a future biome, as well as palm trees for Dansland which I've barely started. These trees will help increase diversity across biomes so that biomes don't just contain a single type of tree.  Something I'll flesh out more once the structure art is done. Good news is that after the structure art is done, I only have items, interactable, biomes, UI and minigame art. There are only 4 more planned biomes, and biomes are generally "easier" than the structures are for me. Minigame art is the most complex, but I have assets I can reuse for most of that. Also, much of it is UI anyway, and programming[/p][p]Side Projects[/p][p][/p][p]A dungeon map page generator for tabletop games. I wanted to see if I could do it real quick, and I like it. I might flesh this out a bit more and make some maps PDFs .[/p][p][/p][p]I've been working on developing my conlang from 10 years with of documentation into a textbook that teaches the language to others. [/p][p][/p][p]So I made this Kawaii sakura-themed page layout for the textbook.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As has been for a while, I'm still working on Structure Art. But, I'll now be interleaving that with the new biome. I should have the new biome done either this week or next. We'll see.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p][p]- New Biome[/p]

[p]Welcome to the 54th week devlog for Cosmic Construct. Getting back into the swing of making art assets, and we are coming long. Slowly but surely. Anyhow...[/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]Structure Art[/p][p]I have a couple half complete multipart structures done which include the Library, Museum, and Institute.[/p][p]The Library will control the upgrade system for pawn abilities and generate research. It will be the first major crafting / resource bottleneck and mark the first major jump in "power", when complete.[/p][p]The Museum will serve as the stats tracker for the game, and allow you to collect items, rare materials, and variants for display. Doing so, increases tourism (for tourists visiting the Museum). A nice Museum will be more desirable to tourists.[/p][p]The Institute will generate the Research resource, as well as unlock upgrades for various pawn skills.[/p][p][/p][p]Got all of the new Structure Icons done which I've been neglecting for a while. This probably means I'll have a new demo build of the game up soon. It will happen more often as we approach the Beta[/p][p]Side Projects
[/p][p]To combat burnout with my hyperactive brain, I have the side project[/p][p][/p][p]These cute little cards are being made to text out card generation for a more complex project. I want to see what all I can actually do, and what the limits are. More importantly with rapid prototyping and simulation. You can see that, and I'm not going to show you yet, but it works better than expected and I might be able to roll out my other (actually good) TCG game sometime soon.[/p][p][/p][p]This is Naspunk, I posted a teaser for a little while ago. I was planning to make a video game out of it, but I'm more of a TTRPG enjoyer. Naspunk is a blend of Starfield, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, with a little Star Wars in there. It is in an 80's cassette futurism aesthetic.[/p][p][/p][p]There is a tone of placeholder AI writing throughout the book used to lorem ipsum the book. Which I'll be going through to rewrite. So this game will come out sometime in 2026. I plan to make it available for free on itch, and it will come with an OST, and other bonuses. A print version will be made available later.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As was stated previously, I'll be doing struture art for a least a couple more months before moving back to the main AI code, as the game parts have to be in the game for the AI to interact[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p]

[p]This is the 53rd week devlog for Cosmic Construct. After a couple weeks of personal trouble I'm back to the regular development of the game[/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]Structure Art[/p][p][/p][p]I did the bulk of the work on the Embassy building which will control visas and tourism for the city. This is control the number of tourists and generate a small amount of revenue. In a way, the late game of Cosmic Construct is sim city like, so there will be diverse buildings like[/p][p][/p][p]Another, important building is the Auditor. I've done most of the detail of the building already, it just needs interior animations. I'm still not sure about the building's shape, but I made it to be similar to the Embassy, and uses the same color scheme as most of the government buildings. With decor the player will be able to make a "government sector" which should be stylistically univ[/p][p][/p][p]I didn't quite get the animations done for the Guild Hall, so I was also working on those. A few other buildings still need interior animations as well, and that is kind of time consuming. We'll get there. The Library has taken a while to get done, but I should be able to show it off next devlog.[/p][p]Indie Dev Practice

[/p][p]Have this cute little ascii dungeon crawler testing out some pieces of a complex concept that will look nothing like this when I actually get around to making it. Eventually, I'll have to make a game after Cosmic Construct, and this is for that project.[/p][p]---[/p][p]As has been the usual, I need to finish the Structure Art before I can flesh out the gameplay. I'll aim to get 3 parts of the structures done, and try to finish up the multipart Library so I can show it off.[/p][p]- Structure Art[/p][p]I know this is dry an uninteresting, but it's got to be done. The vegetables before the dessert.[/p]