Status Update

Once again it feels like I've fallen off the face of the earth or something. Can't believe that it's been 2 months since I last post something. I started this blog with the intention to post regular update of the things I'm doing and the progress I've done. Just to remind and motivate myself, if not to anyone who is interested. It seems like I've either have so much to do I've forgotten about posting, or I've been doing nothing all this while.

Truth is, my status hasn't change much since the last few months. That is I'm concentrating almost all my effort on MechCorp. It has been taken way way too long than I first expected. But it's all because of my own doing. Indecisive in finalizing the various aspect of the project and inexperience in many of the execution. The consolation is at least progress are slowly being made.

I've now built almost two dozen of mech models, along with another two dozen or so of interchangeable weapons for the mech, and other units. They all have been integrated into the game. I've got most of the game mechanic nailed down, at least half of the UI finalized and done. There are still a lot to do but it feels like I've crossed the half way line. There's no reason why this can't be finished now.

Honestly, it has been a very rocky process with lots of roller-coaster like ups and down. There are days I feel like I'm nailing it and it's going to be the a very good game, then a little design flaw I found later makes me feels like the whole thing is a big waste of time. Project fatigue is certainly closing in. I've lost count of how many time I'm tempted to scrap everything and start again, or just do something else.

On another note, as of this month, it's been 4 years since I started this blog. It also means that it's been 4 years I'm trying to do this professionally on a full time basis. Not saying I'm surprise that I'm still here, I know I have the will to see thing through. I will most certainly still be here this time next year. But it would certainly be very nice if I've a moderately successful game released by the same time next year.

MechCorp Update (11th March 2015) - Colors!

Feels like ages since I last post something. But this time I'm back with many cool update about MechCorp. Most importantly, there are eyes-candy.

First, more customization option for the mechs. By which I mean the colors on the mechs. They no longer stay grey. And also there are skins. Well there's only one for now. I'll see if I can put more in later.

Then there's the combat. Thing has been spiced up a bit by the addition of randomly placed obstacles on the grid. This should make line-of-fire a more prominent role in the game and making the game more tactical.

These two are the obvious visible changes since the last update but they are not all. There have been other progress as well. A simple plot has been added, giving the overall progress of the game more context. The pacing of the game has also been re-structured around that. So the game now has a clear objective in which the player needs to work toward with certain sense of urgency.

To put it bluntly, all is well at this point. I'm pretty pleased with the progress and how the game is shaping up.

MechCorp Update (4th February 2015)

A little gameplay footage, I didnt record the sound unfortunately

It feels like it has been an eternity since I last posted. I've been hiding in the mountains working on MechCorp and I've done an awful lot since. I think.

So I've ported MechCorp from to Unity4.6, rebuilding the UI from NGUI to uGUI, update the TBTK component from the older version to version2. In the process, I've done a major restructuring to the coding. I've also done some redesign to some major component the gameplay. It's quite an operation to say the least. And I'm quite glad I manage to get it done within 2 months. Considering I've manage to take the project past the point where it were before the update. The only 'but' is the new build hasn't got a save system like before. I figure that can wait.

The new gameplay offer more stuff to do and more reasons to explore the world. I feel like it should give a tighter experience. Basically all the major component is done at this point. There might still be room for one or two features that I really want to try but that's my feature creep sneaking in. I should be able to just focus on building content and it wouldn't be straying too far from my original vision.

By the way, I would like to have someone playing it and give me some feedback. So if you are interested in trying it out. Please let me know and I'll be happy to send you a demo.

MechCorp v0.2 (Early Alpha)

It's good to be back working at MechCorp. I've been working on other stuff *cough* AssetStore *cough* for way too long. The good news is, I've managed to get it working to a reasonably playable state before I got distracted, with most of the core aspects of the game working. In fact, I think it's that good that I've decided to share with the world about what I've done, and gather some feedback if there's any. So I proudly present:

MechCorp v0.2 alpha

>> unity webplayer <<

>> download standalone <<

This is pretty much the first playable build demo I released. Well, technically second, since I once made public a prototype build. On a hind sight, that was simply too imature to be consider a working game. So let's just ignore that.

As an alpha build, of course nothing in the build is finalized. A little bit of technical info, it's build with Unity4.3, with TBTK as the backbone for the battle scene, and NGUI for the UI. Now with the new Unity4.6 is out, and combine with the fact that I've rewrote TBTK2 (which is better than its previous incarnation in almost every single way), I'm tempted to port it to the new engine. And while doing that, I might redesign the map exploration and event encounter aspect of the game. Somehow I feel the current execution falls short of my expectation. It's simply not very engaging to me.

On the other hand, I'm quite happy at how the combat and to a certain extent, the mech customization system turns out. But I was hoping to hear other opinion about that. So any comments or feedbacks are much appreciated.

Screenshots from current version:

Mech Configuration

Squad Screen

Battle!

Exploration and loots

Shop

Tech Upgrades

New TDTK and TBTK is out!

Finally, I can now get back to working on MechCorp. Well, in case you haven't read the title, both TDTK3 and TBTK2 is now live on AssetStore. It has taken me 3 full months of working like mad to rebuild both of this packages from ground up. But it's well worth it I say. Both of them are now more polished than ever.

It's as promised, they now use the latest uGUI. For that reason, they now require Unity4.6 to work. And since uGUI is a lot more accessible then both NGUI and old script-based GUI, both the old GUI has been scrapped.

Anyway, I've updated each respective page to reflect the new update. Check them out for more info.

• TBTK - http://song-gamedev.blogspot.co.uk/p/tbtk2.html
• TDTK - http://song-gamedev.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page_27.html

Oh, did I mention they are free update to the older version. So if you already bought it, go download it! Just remember they are not backward compatible so don't import it into an existing project.

TBTK v2.0b WebPlayer Demo

Took me quite a good while, but I think I'm almost there. So I'm happy to present you the webplayer demo of TurnBasedToolKit:

>> TDTKv3.0b WebPlayer demo <<

Like the old demo, there are self-contained, stand-alone levels, as well as a mini-campaign where you get to choose your unit lineup and upgrade before each battle. The units and upgrades are carried forth to the next battle. Oh, did I say the units level up if they survive? Yes this is very much a  improved feature of the coming update. Well it's there in the current version, but I don't think it's fresh out enough.

Please note that since this is the first build, there might be bugs. In that case please let me know. At any rate I would love to hear some feedback.

Anyway, I might, I mean I'm planning to do a soft release of both TBTK and TDTK to AssetStore very soon. By soft release I mean include the source unity package as part of the current version. So if anyone wants to, they can unpack the package themselves to the latest version of Unity and try things out. Just a plan though, we'll see how it goes over the next few days.

TurnBased-ToolKit v2.0 (Work In Progress)

Well well, what do you know. Following TDTK, I've been started to rebuild TBTK from ground up too. I've only created the package a little more than a year ago. It is not even that old. But my OCD gets the better of me I guess. 

Consider that many user do end up doing modification of their own, I think it's only right I clean up and streamline the old code, which is pretty messy at place. The turn logic is quite dodgy on hind sight. Not to mention there's lot of patch work since I've added stuff like hotseat multiplayer, fog-of-war and cover system, etc. The goal in the new TBTK, is to redesign all those features as an integrated system from the start. I'm quite happy with the result so far. I'm sure another who want to mod this in the future would appreciate that. On that note, if you are trying to mod the current released TBTK, I do apologise...

I've also taken the opportunity to redesign most of the editors to make it more manageable, if not more intuitive. The spawn/deploy area on the grid for instance, now can be painted using mouse in SceneView. Instead of painstaking setup factions information across different component using Inspector, there's now a window to do that with all the information at a glance.

Also the grid system has been overhauled and now it can support a much much bigger grid. See for yourself, the next image is a 80x100 grid. Keep in mind I still haven't test this thoroughly so while the grid generation is not an issue, other aspect of the game might be. We'll see.

It's early days and I still have a long way to go. I barely manage put the key components together at this point. But I do hope you like what you see.