Status Update 20/03/16

So while this blog has only been active for a day or so, it has actually been a good couple of months since I last released anything or properly worked on the Space Soldier Management Engine.

So what am I doing now?

Well, this weekend I've finalised the sound system to allow for individual volume control. Sounds pretty dull, right? Well, this will lead me quickly onto adding an in-game options menu which is essentially my next goal.

The thing about this engine is that ultimately I could be using something like Unity or Unreal to make the game a lot faster, have all the graphics, sound and networking already built for me and perhaps even make it better as I'm more familiar with that. However, the game I'm envisioning would only suffer from having advanced graphics I think - I'm not building a Starcraft 2/Dawn of War/Civilization style game with nice graphics and real-time interaction. My real aim for this engine is something more akin to the Dominions series - simple graphics and interface, but extremely high in detail and management. Customisation is king, and I'll be drawing a lot from games like Dwarf Fortress for that. So with that in mind, I am building everything from the ground up. I will be using some existing libraries to facilitate cross-platform functionality and simpler construction, but will not be using an existing game engine or game development library.

With all of that in mind, my current goal for a v0.2 release is as follows:

• Main menu sequence - splash screen, new game, load game, options, credits, exit.
• Basic division creation screen - created at this time to support Chapter Master's chapter creation parameters, though as ever everything will be kept extremely modifiable and will be provided as a core engine only.
• Completed chapter management interface - for this I intend to pre-define in mod files the specific structure of troops and divisions, such that you can allow for a Chapter Master style of 10 comapnies of 100, or something altogether different. I have plans for this interface already finalised and it will be touch navigatable.

At my current rate, depending on movitation, this should be done in a couple of weeks, but we'll see how it goes.

That's all for now
Peace out