Devlog #7 One year of development Happy Birthday!

Hello and welcome back to another devlog. This marks the first year of development of Exterminators. Sure it's been in development as a side project and solely in after work hours but a year has passed and that's something worth celebrating! (A year give or take a few days.)

We started focusing on this project in February of last year and we have learned so much in this one year. Having had no formal education in programming and coming from completely self taught c# and game engine experience such as Unity and older frameworks like XNA, this year has been jam packed with new concepts and epiphanies that others have had many years ago.

 We are currently working with an entirely C++ framework and lite openGL structure which has been both an amazing experience but also a challenging one. The past several months we have really hit our stride and my brother and I have gained considerable confidence in our abilities. There's still plenty to be learned but it has been a wonderful year and I'm excited for the road ahead.

When I started this blog I wanted to share the experience of what it was like to develope a game going from very little experience all the way to completing a game and all that entails. But I also had no frame of reference of what that might look like at least from my point of view. As such it seems I dont update the blog all that often but that has always been because I chose to work on the project instead of writing the blog. (In case it isnt obvious, I dont have the best writing skills.)

Despite my lack of updates I hope that you can follow along with our journey and gain an understanding of the decision making process and the work involved with making a game. Specifically one that is not full time. I draw attention to that to make excuse for the time spent up to this point and the time we will be spending going forward. 

My brother and I work full time in a field of work that isnt related to programming at all and as such we only have a few hours every day to dedicate to this project that is if we sacrifice those hours we could spend doing other things such as engaging with entertainment or other hobbies.

 That sacrifice shouldn't be taken lightly, choosing to develope a game requires dedication, a constant grind if you will. I would like to talk at length about the concept of sacrifice in the future, how all artists and craftspeople alike spend their time and sacrifice it to their work. There is a balance that should be achieved but a person shouldn't feel bad for making those sacrifices if the end result makes them a better person. 

Sadly we dont have time for it today and I havent thought of the precise words I would want to use anyway so it would just sound like a rant. Like this paragraph... Plus. Aren't we supposed to be celebrating? Which brings me to update portion of this Devlog!

UPDATES

We've added a great deal to the game with this new iteration of Exterminators. We are constantly looking to improve the look and feel of the game. So with every pass we check what things need the most attention at the time, we may not get it right every time but we are confident the changes are an improvement over the original game. Since our original focus was on an overwhelming horde of evil alien bugs that only our two trusty Exterminators could deal with we wanted to make sure that everything in the game was destructible down to the ground. So the lighting can even be brought down and in doing so we added lamps into the game that fit with the scifi setting. 

The stage is now surrounded in dirt tiles to show you are deep in the alien home world. The Exterminators are here on a job and they wont get paid if they dont eradicate the bugs completely. Their company moto is the only good bug is a dead bug. (It's something like that, dont want to trip any copyright laws)

Some subtle changes to the wall tiles themselves that re order themselves as you destroy them so they appear less glitchy. ( Note: some new glitches with the walls have been noticed and are in the process of being fixed, feel free to comment any glitches that you notice below so we can catch them.)

The tech upgrade system has expanded to a level up tree that the players will be able to choose throughout gameplay and decide for themselves how they will advance and which weapons they will use, this is still in early development but the beginnings of it is already available and you can select between different weapon types in the game in the tech tree. The older upgrades will appear in the game as random temporary drops as well for even more custom combinations. The focus will remain on making the Exterminators increasingly powerful throughout play and increasing the challenge accordingly.

 Several small updates and bug fixes have occurred over the last several months and the best way to experience them is to hop over to the game page and giving it a play. 

An updated version of the game is available to play in the browser and is compatible with keyboard and mouse and with most gamepads. It is also local co-op with 2 players! Go ahead and check it out and please let us know what you think of the current build.

With that we are brought to my favorite section of the devlog.

                            WHAT'S NEXT? 

We have already been hard at work on fixing new bugs and adding polish to the game, along with outlining the steps for the project required to think about releasing the game on steam. We originally set a one year development cycle so that we could begin working on future projects. 

We didnt want this project to drag on too long and so we set a short dev cycle knowing we would likely have to extend it so we never fully committed to it. It was like a milestone number we set to help us push through as fast as we could. It has been tremendously helpful and I highly recommend everyone do that for their personal projects. As it is we are aiming for some time this year but we aren't sure the exact date. Stay tuned for future updates on that.

The first thing we are going to work on is adding more animations and more bugs and more boss fights. We are also going to finish the level tree so the players can fully customize their exterminators for each play through and find new ways to dominate as a player. After we finish our first sweep of bug fixes and animations we intend to work on trailers and submitting the project to various games fests and begin marketing the game. We aren't there yet but it is fast approaching. 

If you have suggestions on working on that or steps involved feel free to comment that below. I value all input and learning from all perspectives. In the meantime we have plenty to work on and we are excited to show you the things we've already added and updated since the newest build. 

Again be sure to check out the newest build and follow for more updates! 

https://violenceinvideogames.itch.io/exterminatorsofsaturn

Until next time remember "The one piece! The one piece is real! (Can I get much higher!) - Jack from ViVGames