Dev Log 2: Urgency and Struggle
One of the major problems that could be the downfall of this particular project is if while playing the player does not feel any form of urgency while trying to accomplish the goal. My original idea was to just have rescue come and pick up the stranded crew at the end of the 30 days. However I felt as though this wouldn't create the experience that I was looking for. So in order to solve this issue I decided to go the route of having a disaster that would happen around the end of 30 days which would wipe the crew out, as well as having the player be the one who ends up arranging the rescue from the station. These two ideas create a situation where simply surviving off the rations scavenged from the station and maintaining the water filter would not be good enough to win the game, instead it makes the player assess their situation and decide whether they should try and contact help or focus on trying to make sure they can survive the next few days; which is exactly the experience I want to create with this game.
I have worked on adding additional art to the project such as finishing the title splash screen the event log and the various job options as well as the next day button.
INTRO SPLASH:
CURRENT HUD:
I need to adjust the for the job selection so that they do not take up quite as much of the screen or overlap the next day button. I have it set up so they only appear when you are trying to set someones job.
The event log is hooked up properly to display text about the well-being of the crew as well as information about the power, water, heat, and distress radio of the ship.
The player can assign jobs to each of the crew members to accomplish through the day; most of the crew members have specific advantages when working on specific activities except for the Captain and the Janitor. The Captain is a jack of all trades master of none sort of character, he is better than average at doing most of the tasks however he doesn't excel at any of them. The Janitor on the other hand is not very skilled in mechanical engineering, medicine or scavenging through the debris of the station and will have a much lower average ability to accomplish any task assigned to him.
Once I have finished polishing the roles of each crew member I will post a list of their strengths and weaknesses.
The next task I will be working on is balancing the internal numbers of the game and creating random events that will have various effects on crew members such as injuring them, making them sick or hurting their mental well-being. As well as making the jobs that have been assigned actually take effect on the station.
Also one other thing I have done is create a new portrait, I'm guessing I don't need to say what it's for. :)
