25 SEP 2021:
On my business trip this week I did a lot of brainstorming about different aspects of Scrapship and came up with some really cool ideas that I'm excited to implement!
- Menu improvements so that the player can see at a glance all the game modes available.
- Fighters that can attack from the bottom of the screen (with ample warning, of course).
- AI for the final boss enemy.
- I like the 3D animation at the beginning of Scrapship, but it does take up a lot of memory. I've thought of a way I could arrange the graphics that should allow for smaller file sizes. This should also minimize the original load time for the game.
- A new Game Tip system
- Then last night I made a really cool discovery! QB64 allows your programs to open websites using the SHELL command! I also learned how to make QR codes if I decide to use those. These two things open up a lot of possibilities!
- This morning I started work on the first boss enemy in Blender.
I have another business trip next week and maybe another the week after that, but I've been able to use that time to think about some of my design decisions in Scrapship and refine them. A big problem in games is that developers get in too much of a hurry to create and don't spend enough time thinking about how best to do things. Of course, you can easily spend too much time thinking and brainstorming as well, which is why I usually only brainstorm when I can't actually work on the game.
Quote of the week:
"Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it, chased it." -- African proverb
Thanks for reading and have a great rest of your week!
You can view my latest stories and past projects on Instagram.