Now it’s been even longer since the last entry :$

Whoops

But there has been a lot of progress.

The Progress

Commits since last entry:

1* 47621e6 Outline of a base, basic drone maintenance, human controls
2* da6d9d6 New iron model and some other various things ;p
3* 1550f34 Inventory, picking up items, UI for that
4* 7ff67b6 stuff
5* a5a6985 Lower battery drain if drone is inactive
6* ca01453 Smoother drone transition
7* f8eec38 Braking, with brakes when drone is inactive
8* 9886f43 Loading screen, camera controls, switching drones
9* c7f9848 Battery and basic HUD

I’ve added battery to the drone, so that now it can run out of fuel and become unresponsive. Things like stronger components or driving will increase battery drain, but the capacity will also be upgradable. I’m not totally sure what the player will have to do if their drone gets stranded somewhere with no battery, but I’ll solve it later.

I also added some basic HUD to show the current battery level and signal strength:

As you can see, there’s also an UI element for current cargo! I’ve finally started working on the items that the drone will be able to pick up. Currently it’s just this iron ore, but other materials will be added in the future.

I’ve had to make this model from scratch, because I haven’t found a fitting one online for free. It took a few iterations, but I think it looks good enough for now. It definitely reminded me that I’m not good at visual stuff. Or, rather, that I don’t have the patience for visual stuff. But using a generative/procedural approach works well for me.

And, finally, “main base” is starting to come together. I’m still debating whether it’s going to be an escape pod or a ship or what, but it shouldn’t matter for now. Now you can store your drone inside the base and unload its cargo and recharge battery. Next up will be buying upgrades and applying them. I’ve decided that I’ll try to make the UI be an in-world UI: you will interact with the upgrade fabricator through a screen on the wall. I think it will add to the immersion. I hope so.

As a bonus note: being an overall better programmer makes developing games so much easier. At least the technical part. I’m also trying to keep the count of lines of code to the minimum. Not by playing code golf, but by using a more declarative approach and utilizing engine features (nodes, resources). It’s going well, currently at less than 500LOC and the code base is easy to manage. But I’m sure that will change soon ;]

Overall, the game is starting to be a game, which is great! And terrifying.

Anyway, good talk, bye!