Time for the June update, a little late because the end of June was busy… In June, I managed to clean up a few things, fix some annoying bugs, and do some general housekeeping. I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked, but that’s what I expected.
Goals for June
My goals for June were to add some extra effects, fix some bugs with the editor and defense modes, and look into some new options for my AI.
What got done?
New Effects
I added in a few new effects, but not as many as I’d like. Nearly every unit has a sound effect now, but they will likely need to be improved. I switched back to a few better-but-higher-draw-call effects (projectile trails) because of rendering improvements with the map and units.
Defense Mode Testing
I tested the defense mode, fixed a few bugs with it, and added some new UI elements for it. I think defense mode is about done – the only bugs left are general bugs not limited to defense mode.
New Resource Storage Concept
I had a new idea for how to handle resource storage to make it a bit more dynamic, so I implemented it. I’m happy with how it turned out, and I think it adds a lot to the game. I’m planning on describing the changes in a later post.
UI Update
I cleaned up my UI textures so it’s easy to create new pieces of the UI and should lower texture memory usage overall. I also updated the map previews to load from disk rather than being generated at runtime. While the runtime generation was neat, it was a huge processor hog. Finally, I added a new loading screen that features a progress bar so I can start to track loading times (and hopefully reduce them).
What’s left?
AI Rewrite and Updates
Same as last month, the AI still needs to be rewritten in a new system (if I choose to go that way), and I need to improve it overall.
Effects
There are still a few effects left to add. Mostly sound effects, but also some particle effects and maybe some miscellaneous environmental effects.
Map Sharing
Same as last month. I still need to create the website for BattleGrid map submissions. Along with this, I’ll need to update the UI in-game and think of an elegant way to let the player browse through possibly hundreds of maps.
Music
I’m still terrible at creating music. Even if I think I have a good idea, I don’t have the skills to make good-sounding music from it.
Goals for July
I’ll likely focus on the effects and AI for July, since they’re the biggest “gamey” parts left to implement. Once those are done, I’m down to the ancillary stuff like the map sharing site and the music, which I still expect to take several months while I try to build some music-making skills.