thombruce
commented
10 months ago 67 feels pretty good in terms of providing a reward. Just being able to see the damage that's being done... It's pretty fun!
It's not everything that's needed to call the current iteration a "game". There's still no score, no way to track a score or save high scores, there's no... loop, no enemy spawner and gradually increasing difficulty.
But it's a start. It feels pretty dope.
When I created the milestone for v0.1, I added this description:
Well, we have gameplay now... it feels fun... but it isn't rewarding, and there is no loop.
So, before finalising v0.1, I want to make sure those last two conditions are met:
Adding reward to the gameplay might be something as basic as displaying a score (this score might later evolve into an experience points system).
As for creating a gameplay loop, we need a few things:
At that point, Verse isn't just a half-sim half-toy that features basic gameplay. At that point, Verse is a game.
It raises the question...
If that's v0.1, what is v0.1.1? Some of that gameplay will be dialled back as we tweak background systems. For my own development purposes, I could do with the capability to turn enemy systems on or off... which I can do by simply commenting/uncommenting code.
From a player/supporter/downloader's perspective, it makes sense that each versioned "release" is additive (meaning whatever systems I toggle off should be toggled back on before a release). If the gameplay fundamentally changes, this is indicative that another minor version increase is required.
In essence, any v0.1.* version should be fundamentally the same game as v0.1.0,
Does this restrict my process at all?
Might video devlogs slow to the point that they're between versions, rather than describing versions, with bigger release videos also happening every so often...
Bridges we'll think about crossing as we approach them, I think. For now, the aim for v0.1 remains for it to be the first version qualifying as a "game" (meaning meeting the aforementioned criteria).