So, after my previous devlog (https://itch.io/t/925663/space-factory-week-1) alot happened and last week I was supposed to post another devlog but didn't feel it was a good time as I was transitioning the project quite significantly.
Summary version:
* I trialed some isometric-type tiles and didn't like the way they were looking - my pixel art skills are basical and I do need to work on that in future for 2D games.
* I switched to 3D and it didn't take long for things to start looking pretty nice.
* Unfortunately, Blender and Unity are harsh mistresses, and I actually ended up switch game engine completely - I jumped ship from Unity to Godot. Madness, I know, though having done it, I do feel Godot is actually a better choice for me personally, and it was simple lack of knowledge that meant I didn't start in Godot.
* I've rebuild things up to an interesting point
* This is based on an idea I have in my head that this will be a more wacky factory game, set in some form of parody 1980's style world, where other factories have outsourced even the crushing of boxes for efficient disposal.
*Obviously, the animation isn't perfect, but its sufficient I think for getting the point across.
* The camera has free rotation but no zoom in-out.
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So, this has me in abit of a bind at the moment - the backend of code is 'evolutionary' ... as in it evolved each time I needed it to do something and has become abit of a mess. Not unsolvable, for certain, but I feel it'll need fixing before moving on.
Which then brings up the question of "Is it worth carrying on at this stage?" I think the 3D work is actually pretty nice, but I'm wondering if my idea has any real legs to it - factory games do already exist and does my idea of the wacky parody 1980s with themes of waste and over capitalism (2020 influencing me? probably) actually separate the concept from the crowd enough to be worth completing? Doesn't help that I saw this (https://store.steampowered.com/app/923710/uFactory/) come up in Steam the other day and it does look to be a very well put together factory game.
Geniuely interesting to hear what people think.
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Goals for next week:
So, having gotten the state of play out their, the next question for me is 'what's next'? I feel that aside from the code needing a cleanup, the GUI is non-existent. So...
1) Cleanup the code (first establish a local git to keep the current code and allow reverts on breaks) - limit to 3 days at this stage.
2) Add a UI for picking to what stations to 'plop' onto the floor - at the moment this would be limited to just the boot-stomping station, but should be able to handle more as the game processes.
--- Note: I'll be looking up 80's graphics and styles to see about theming the UI
3) Stretch goal(s): Add an exporter to the game (can just be a copy of the importer with the rollers facing the other way) that destroys items within.