Hello everyone, this is Smithy! Thank you for the positive reception at FEE3 2021. I greatly appreciate the feedback as well as the chance to show my game off. Truth be told, it was quite scary to showcase the game to strangers, but I’m glad that it was well received.
This post is small, but I’m gonna use it to detail what I’m currently planning for the future. One thing I noticed about the game was that people don’t always know what’s going on. There’s a tutorial and glossary, but it evidently still takes a bit of time to fully grasp the game. That’s fine, but the way that information is shown to the player is something that I’m choosing to improve on.
So hey, currently there’s a lot of jargon thrown the player’s way. There’s a glossary intended to help players overcome this, but now there’s also going to be work put into communicating things immediately. After remaking the Unit Bio from the ground up, it now has more detailed information about statistics and equipment, and how those things are relevant to the game. This is an in-progress image, and the menu is not fully completed, not even having a background graphic. This is just to show the general intent.
I’m also generally in the process of redoing and retooling other UI aspects to better communicate to the player, as well as just to unify the looks of them. Project Stratagem’s visual identity is something I’m investing a lot of time and effort into. In general, the game is designed with a grunge/punk aesthetic, inspired by printmaking/woodcutting art and anime character design. The UI has previously been somewhat cumbersome, in my opinion, and so I’m working to flesh out the art direction to be readable to the player while still maintaining the vibe I’m going for.
The Battle Forecast was also entirely redone, now taking up much less space, allowing you to actually see the units. There may still be changes in the future, but I feel like it’s an improvement for the time being.
The End Path Menu is also receiving a similar treatment, again taking up less visual real estate and overall communicating things better to the player. Again, changes are possible, but for now, it’s a welcome shift.
Lastly, when certain skills are activated, a quick popup now occurs to let the player know. This should make it a little easier to know what's happening, and also hopefully break up the pace a little bit.
In general, polishing the game up is something I’ve been doing a lot of recently. But I know that time in menu hell is not that exciting, so I’ve also got things like game mechanics and story content in the works. In general, I’m aiming for gameplay content that allows a better sense of progression and choice for the player. That'll be something that is going to be detailed a bit more soon.
I also recognize that the current demo has no story content in it currently. Story has been something that was put on the backburner for a while in favor of the main gameplay loop, but I'm also in the process of developing a little slice of the story for the next demo.
Most likely, the next demo will feature the first two chapters of the game with most of the story content present. There may also be additional chapters without story, but there will be a sizable chunk nonetheless. As for when I think it's gonna be ready, I have no clue, but look forward to that in the future.
That's really about it for this update. I know it doesn't look like much, but there's been a lot of work put into the game since the demo. Thanks for reading this post, and hopefully I'll see you around soon.
-Smithy
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