Hello folks! Long time no see!

It’s been a while since the last update, but rest assured the game is being developed. You may have noticed that the release date has been moved to February; there is a good reason for that, which will be revealed soon!

I have to stop the closed alpha, though, so that I can focus on the development of the game’s systems. Now I have a proper list of things to get done, and will be turning to a closed beta later this year, so you’ll still have a chance to play the game well before release, and provide good feedback!

So what is today’s update about? It’s hard to show, since it’s a lot of under the hood work. Basically:

• Moved the AI to a node-based state machine system. The previous hardcoded state machine was alright, but would be hell to expand later on. The new system works better.
• Implemented a proper pathfinding solution. Node-based navigation, with object avoidance and on-the-fly graph updates are also in. This means that the AI will now properly react to changes in the environment, including bridges and whatnot!
• Changed the terrain system to allow for expansion of the resort and proper culling of chunks you don’t see. Lighten up the processing load by a lot!
• Began updating the AI to make it more modern.
• Began implementation of the proper core gameplay loop of the game.

This last point is the most important one and the cause of the lack of updates recently. The game so far has been alright in a sandbox state, without any real goals to search for and whatnot. This is ok, but not optimal, as in the proper game you wanna have a loop of things to do, things to look forward, plans to adjust and whatnot.

So I took quite a bit of time experimenting and thinking ways to create a good core gameplay loop, and I believe I’m getting close to it now. It’ll involve a lot of facets of resort management, which I’ll expand upon at a later time! Gotta keep something!

And here’s a screenshot of the first pass of the new AI:

I’m going for a more minimalist/clean/flat look. The icons will be replaced by flatter versions of what they do. Placeholder for now, but this is the direction I’m thinking of taking things.

Oh and as of now, I’ll be posting weekly updates regarding the progress of the game, to give better visibility on how it is progressing, specially since the alpha is over. Not having to make sure things are compatible with savegames will certainly speed up development!

That’s all for now!

-Gus