The last Nordenfelt dev log is quite old now, dating back to June. Time to continue this “diary”.
What happened during the last weeks?
Primary Weapon Level System
The primary weapon got a charge meter. Destroyed enemies drop charge balls which fill the meter. This way the weapon gets stronger the more enemies are killed.
This feature will be interesting to tweak. Theoretically the weapon can reach its maximum strength and keep it. But there could also be charge decay, lowering the strength over time. Charge balls could be reduced to full pattern kills (e.g. all planes in a formation). There are plenty of ideas for balancing this feature. Let’s see what turns out as best solution.
Tech Tree Work
Unlocking equipment in the tech tree is done by beating specific levels. E.g. availability of the Tesla gun may depend on resource Dilhamid. This resource has to be conquered by beating level X. The order in which levels get played is not linear. Therefore it’s up to the player which levels (s)he wants to play to unlock the equipment of choice.
No More Money
To simplify the equipment complexity I’ve dropped the money system. In the public demo version money is used to buy equipment. The current version does no longer rely on money but on resources. Unlock a resource and the depending equipment is yours.
I’m Full-Time Indie Again
To be honest: I’ve lost my job a few days ago.
It wasn’t that surprising. The game dev department I had worked for got disbanded in September. Since then more and more game devs have left the company. I’ve tried to contribute my workforce to a high-performance project dealing with CUDA, age-old FORTRAN code and petabytes of satellite data. It did not work. You can’t switch passion to another focus, externally specified.
Shit happens.
So here I am, back in my loft where everything started. I’m full-time indie again, armed with more marketing knowledge (from selling my book), more business insight, and a little wiser in general. Will it be enough to survive? Don’t know.
The only thing I know:
I’m happy to be released from the “machine”.
2013 will be a great year. Come what may.
Cheers,
Thomas
P.S.: Get real-time updates via Twitter feed @nordenfeltgame.