Now & The Future (Roadmap)
Today we discuss where we are now, and what we want to do next!
Iron Armada has come a long way since our first Greenlight campaign. We had a roadmap to build ourselves a solid simple platform, for us to grow from... and to expand upon forever. After nearly a year of work, we feel we have met that goal. As we continue to improve that upon bedrock we've built, the speed of development will start accelerating as well... like an oiled machine.
Getting us where we are now has been a long path of hard work, but also with a clear and direct goal. To build a pyramid... we needed a foundation. That foundation consisted of the following:
Iron Armada is a canvas. Something we can take in any direction, and something that our community can influence in any way. As we progress, more details will be released on future features, design ideas, and suggestions we receive from the community.
Currently the only limitation is our imagination, and we want you (our community) to play a big part in building that vision. So for now... play the game, post your ideas, attend the events, and make yourself heard. You are one of the few here, at the beginning of everything, making your influence greater than anyone who comes after. Don't waste it!
Until next time, I hope to see you on the battlefield... and keep a close eye out for upcoming updates and announcements!
Thank you for your support, and attention!
~ Bluedrake42
Drakeling Labs
Where are we now?
Iron Armada has come a long way since our first Greenlight campaign. We had a roadmap to build ourselves a solid simple platform, for us to grow from... and to expand upon forever. After nearly a year of work, we feel we have met that goal. As we continue to improve that upon bedrock we've built, the speed of development will start accelerating as well... like an oiled machine.
Getting us where we are now has been a long path of hard work, but also with a clear and direct goal. To build a pyramid... we needed a foundation. That foundation consisted of the following:
- Competitive-Grade Networked Physics
In the event of high latency, or resource overload... we needed to build a system which resolved networked physics issues in a non-game-breaking way. This means instead of glitching ships, or exploding blocks... it compromises by slowing down all clients to properly simulate all physics events.
Because of this, when you play Iron Armada... you'll notice that our physics simulation process makes competitive play incredibly feasible. This was our goal for the first build of Iron Armada. We wanted the game to feel like a competitive game, not a sandbox. That meant finding ways to remove all the "wtf" or "why did that happen" moments that you often see in other building block games.
We want the entire game to revolve around competitive play, and if we are to build our game upon that premise... we needed competitive-grade networking as our bedrock. This was imperative to our foundation of Iron Armada.
- Complex Animations & Destruction
We didn't just want Iron Armada to be competitive-grade, we also wanted it to look and feel good too. Having support for weapon animations, micro-destruction, and combat effects was additionally essential.
When weapons take damage, they become inactive. When reactors are damaged, they lose power (affecting the entire ship.) When weapons fire, they make proper integrated animations. All blocks have damage states and power values that we intend to expand on in the future.
- Foundation Resource Gathering
As a competitive game, we wanted to build a robust resource framework. Something that can be built upon, and deepened... but also intuitive and powerful.
In the current build of Iron Armada, you can mine procedural asteroids, exchange scrap for new parts, capture planets for residual income, and build factories to produce new ships. These foundational components are simplistic in their elementary form... but form the basis of a solid resource framework that can be infinitely expanded upon in the future.
Support for multiple resource types, shipyards, material refining, and more is all foundationally supported. Iron Armada can now rival the inter-structural complexity of games like Factorio, or stick to more simplistic roots... but now both options are possible.
It is only a matter of what we choose to do, not what is technically feasible! Which is the ideal place to be in when developing a game.
Where are we going?
Iron Armada is a canvas. Something we can take in any direction, and something that our community can influence in any way. As we progress, more details will be released on future features, design ideas, and suggestions we receive from the community.
Currently the only limitation is our imagination, and we want you (our community) to play a big part in building that vision. So for now... play the game, post your ideas, attend the events, and make yourself heard. You are one of the few here, at the beginning of everything, making your influence greater than anyone who comes after. Don't waste it!
Until next time, I hope to see you on the battlefield... and keep a close eye out for upcoming updates and announcements!
Thank you for your support, and attention!
~ Bluedrake42
Drakeling Labs