After making some tough design decisions last month, I've been able to make good progress on a number of fronts. In this post I'll run quickly through ship generation, "micro" puzzles, planning sessions, and object selection.
What's New this Month?
One exciting feature that I started is random ship generation. This lets me include different puzzles in each game session, and ensure that the generated ship meets certain conditions. In this example, the balcony with the coil of rope is always placed so as to have free space to its left.
Another area of the game I made progress in is the single-player mini-games that you complete during the resource-management parts of the game. There's still a lot of work needed to make this fun, but it's nice having a framework for it in the game.
On the subject of making the minigames fun, I've also spent time planning and playtesting small parts of the game. This really helps me get a feel for what works and what doesn't.
The last thing I've been working on is streamlining the navigation and interaction. The early builds of the game used separate keys for movement, inspecting objects, interacting with objects, and navigating menus. This was very confusing. The new system, although not quite complete, already feels much more intuitive.
Watch this Space
In the upcoming month I'll be working on minigames, resource management, and hopefully adding more to the start and end of the game. I'd like to have a completely playable story arc before too long.
Don't forget to follow @philipbuchanan on Twitter for more regular updates and development news, and if you have comments or questions leave them below - I always enjoy hearing your feedback on the game!
