An Unfinished Update

[h2]He Has Been Thinking Again[/h2]
I did start to write a long update on how I was currently feeling about what I am doing, and why I work on my projects, but it was long and probably not very interesting to anyone else, so I got rid of that and instead just have to say I have let the “Mostly Negative” of Siberian Dawn on the Steam market affect me too much since the game’s release, and as I am the only one working on my projects I didn’t have the strength of a group working on them to get over this.

My belief in what I am doing needs to be stronger than anyone else’s and that is what got Siberian Dawn through 5 years of development without showing it to anyone. I should be proud of what I have done with my projects and not let others kill them off.

A few weeks ago I got some great feedback from a player of the Android version on Facebook and they said about the unfinished parts of the game, so as mentioned I reflected on what I was doing, I wrote a long update about this reflection, I deleted long update about this reflection, and this is where we are now.

I may not make any money from my projects, I may not get much positive support for my projects, but the most important thing is I enjoy making my projects, and if I get some of the other two then that is a bonus.

But of course what I have said up to now doesn’t mean I ignore what people say about my projects and when I can understand what is said improving that in the project, as a look through the update log in Siberian Dawn should clearly show.





[h2]Codename Lore 2[/h2]
Work on the sequel to Siberian Dawn, which has the codename Lore 2, has gone well. all I will say about it so far is that it has a different setting than Siberian Dawn, and it has all the strategic elements of the first game removed, which is about 80% of the mechanics of Siberian Dawn.

The theme of the game is built around hunting in a strange world and has more of a focus on deck building. I have programmed the gameplay of the hunt and now I am at the stage of adding content and designing the unique hunts. While working on this game it of course gives you ideas for improving Siberian Dawn and finishing outstanding elements.





[h2]Finishing Business
[/h2]
So with Lore 2 being in this Content Building / Design stage I have been doing some more work on Siberian Dawn with the unfinished sections, thinking a bit more about them and thinking about what I can do being a single developer and not a team of 30.

I have now designed Skirmish Mode, which is a mode that will let you play a mission containing a series of dynamically generated objectives, with content take from Chapters that you own. I am now adding content to this dynamic system but otherwise it is coded and designed.

Crisis Mode is a mode that will let you play a series of smaller missions as you try to defeat a crisis, and is again built from the content you have brought. This was already designed and needs the content adding for running the Crisis, a lot more work than Skirmish.

The Ark is the other section that remained unfinished. With this I had big ideas that would be fine for a team of 30 but not for just me. The Ark will now be a place where you can unlock pages featuring the cards and their art and maybe also pages containing background from the game. Still a lot of content but more realistic than previous plans.





[h2] Improving Dawn
[/h2]
I have also been looking at the game more and seeing how I can improve it. I have now changed the Action pods so when they are for navigating the Market they show an arrow above and below the text on the pod to distinguish them from pods that perform an action. I am also adding text to the data screen for all the market screens that currently have no text to help the player.

There are also other areas I will ponder and look for ways to improve if needed and possible.





[h2]Closing Time
[/h2]
So I am still working on Siberian Dawn, finishing business, as well as working on Lore 2. When I am going to have these updates finished is unknown I am just going to enjoy what I am doing and make sure business is finished when it is ready.

I also have my Conscious Chronicles series of novels to finish but I have been working on them for over 15 years, with the first book The Last Mask Tradition published 10 years ago, so I don’t like to rush things (The art on this post are from those novels).

And that is that, I have to be more positive, enjoy my projects, and not let the negatives make me forget why I am doing these things in the first place.

Winterflood