Pirate Island Status Update:
I actually have probably at least six different irons in the fire at any one time. Pirate Island Mini Golf is my highest priority right now, but I also have a number of other things that I’m working on at any given time.
The depression I was wrestling with for a healthy portion of May seems to have cleared up and I’m able to focus clearly again on multiple threads of thought. It isn’t so much that I couldn’t work on my projects… because I was… there just wasn’t a lot of energy or joy in the work. I’m back to being happy to crack down on code and test the results immediately.
I’m well on my way with implementing the treasure map idea into Pirate Island and if I keep on this path it should have some kind of visible results that will be part of the June 8th release date. This really was the last thing that I wanted incorporated into the game prior to release so I’m pretty focused on getting it done.
Autumn Park Status Update:
As I mentioned elsewhere, Autumn Park Mini Golf is getting a face lift and I’m having to rewrite a LOT of code to bring that into 2020. I have a couple plans for this game’s future, and once I have the game functioning in the latest version of Unity, I will be experimenting with the options available.
As of this posting, the game itself runs (albeit none of the quests/achievements are working and requires a complete revamping of the code to accomplish this) and the system now has that save/load feature that people had been requesting. After the June 8th release date for Pirate Island, I will be investigating additional ideas for Autumn Park’s overall improvement.
Pesky Humans Status Update:
Then, there’s Pesky Humans. I’ve poked at this project off and on for the last couple weeks. The two things that I’ve been needing to implement (but had not gotten around to doing) now are happily coded and tested.
Now, I just need to tweak just how often the game throws a Mini Boss at the player. The easy game seems to get overwhelming quickly and hard just isn’t playing fair at all. So, edits continue to be in order.
Everything else:
I understandably need to spend at least a little time away from the computer, so I have been dabbling with my walking stick project. This is a tree that about 10 years ago I wrapped in wire and stones, and after letting it grow around the wire I finally harvested it mid-May. At least it’s a project that gets me outside, sanding away at the bark and wood, all while sneezing up a storm.
Allergies aside, I enjoy working with my hands and this art project forces me to get ample vitamin D. The idea behind the project is that I wanted to make a ‘wizard staff’ that had fully grown around the stones and crystals, making it part of the tree. I’m actually pretty excited to see how it’ll turn out. This is actually my prototype. I plan to make another one with the lessons I learned from this project, like that I’ll need to up the gauge of the wire around the stones as it’s very brittle after all that exposure to the elements.
There’s a couple other things, too. I’m revising a healthy portion of That Night in the Park, rewriting some chapters from the ground up, while others are getting heavily edited. Thanks to feedback from my beta readers for Exit Pass and The Light Rail, I think I can realistically publish those two novels in June as well.
I have two other writing projects that have not been worked on in a while, but as I was clearing out some boxes I found a veritable treasure trove of old notes that I had written for these two RPG titles that I thought were lost to time. I am presently trying to eliminate the musty smell from the papers using some newspapers, keeping it all sealed in a decent, clean cardboard box. Hopefully in two weeks I can start using the notes to finalize the missing sections and maybe get these two tabletop role playing games Grammerly’ed and ready for publication too.
But like I said, I’ve been working on the Pirate Island the most. The maps look good, and while I have not made a final determination on how the player is going to ‘dig up’ the chests, the code now detects when the player is in the right area. Digging with a golf club isn’t going to be easy, so I’m working the particulars out there… but I knew this was going to be a serious cram session right before finals, anyway.
Hope you all are staying safe out there and had a decent weekend. I’ll be checking in again in a couple of days with another progress report. Thanks for your time!