Weekly Dev Update: Oct 23
We’re working hard to bring this game vision to fruition. Here is what we are doing.
[h2]Update #2b Combat Rewrite[/h2]
Last week we were down a programmer due to illness, and our tech lead Jonathan is moving continents. But Michel was able to achieve something big which has taken months to do: Proper Damage Calculations with immunity, resistances, and weaknesses.
I am putting more resources on Combat to speed it up. Zach is moving from polishing to combat. Mark is taking a more involved role providing design priority and leadership.
Combat is now being made by Jessi, James, Tyler, Michel, Josh, Jonathan, Mark, Zach, and Rubi.
After all this work the goal is to make it good, not just get it out the door.
Still no dates yet.
[h2]Update #3 Exploration[/h2]
The first step in planning out an Update is deciding scope: what is in and what is out.
In order to decide this, we start the Inception phase with the Roadmap bullet points and what players have written on the forums, then determine how to achieve the feel we want. We dream up many features and ways of achieving our goals. This is where Mark is right now: turn creative dreams into solid designs. For instance, we just discussed how we might better do food & nourishment, moving it from a negative to a positive system. Still lots of flux.
We are close to the end of this Inception phase and deciding what exactly Exploration is.
One thing we need to determine is how much of Dynamic Quest generation will be in Exploration.
[h2]Procedurally Generated Dynamic Quests[/h2]
This is the biggest challenge of my 20+ year tech career. Others have tried to tackle ‘Computer Generated Story’ and broken their brains and career on it. I have been thinking and tinkering on it for almost a decade. I think as a team, we have the right people to do something special and compelling. This could be the core secret sauce of Archmage Rises.
To that end, I’m going to document the journey in more detail. Writing up weekly summaries, like this, as it helps clarify thinking and may be of interest to others.
Last week I wrote that I needed to stop thinking and start doing!
Well, I did, and managed to get something really terrible working.
As awful as it is, it shows real promise. It only gets better from here!
I think with another week or two of effort we can really have a solid direction.
[h2]Priority Fixes[/h2]
[h2]Update #2b Combat Rewrite[/h2]
Last week we were down a programmer due to illness, and our tech lead Jonathan is moving continents. But Michel was able to achieve something big which has taken months to do: Proper Damage Calculations with immunity, resistances, and weaknesses.
I am putting more resources on Combat to speed it up. Zach is moving from polishing to combat. Mark is taking a more involved role providing design priority and leadership.
Combat is now being made by Jessi, James, Tyler, Michel, Josh, Jonathan, Mark, Zach, and Rubi.
After all this work the goal is to make it good, not just get it out the door.
Still no dates yet.
[h2]Update #3 Exploration[/h2]
The first step in planning out an Update is deciding scope: what is in and what is out.
In order to decide this, we start the Inception phase with the Roadmap bullet points and what players have written on the forums, then determine how to achieve the feel we want. We dream up many features and ways of achieving our goals. This is where Mark is right now: turn creative dreams into solid designs. For instance, we just discussed how we might better do food & nourishment, moving it from a negative to a positive system. Still lots of flux.
We are close to the end of this Inception phase and deciding what exactly Exploration is.
One thing we need to determine is how much of Dynamic Quest generation will be in Exploration.
[h2]Procedurally Generated Dynamic Quests[/h2]
This is the biggest challenge of my 20+ year tech career. Others have tried to tackle ‘Computer Generated Story’ and broken their brains and career on it. I have been thinking and tinkering on it for almost a decade. I think as a team, we have the right people to do something special and compelling. This could be the core secret sauce of Archmage Rises.
To that end, I’m going to document the journey in more detail. Writing up weekly summaries, like this, as it helps clarify thinking and may be of interest to others.
Last week I wrote that I needed to stop thinking and start doing!
Well, I did, and managed to get something really terrible working.
As awful as it is, it shows real promise. It only gets better from here!
I think with another week or two of effort we can really have a solid direction.
[h2]Priority Fixes[/h2]
- Based on some weirdness we found with how mount inventories are handled, Zach is rewriting and streamlining the inventory system. This will fix current and future bugs. In his words “Make it difficult for other programmers to use it wrong.” 😛
- RiverSideHibbard requested the ability to see what the character’s current skill is when viewing an item with a skill prerequisite (mounts, weapons, armor).
