Hey all,
Here is an update on the state of the project, first with a recap of 2017, and then with my plans for the coming year.
2017 Recap
So last year was a wash-out for Universe or Nothing, there is no other way to put it. My wife was very ill for most of the year and I had to juggle work committments with looking after her and our two children. Thankfully her illness passed and things began to return to normal, but it took a lot out of her and the recovery process has been ongoing. I ended up with a large backlog of client work for my day job, which made the last three months a bit of a firefighting exercise for me.
Now I say it was a wash out but some work was done on UoN. I continued doing bits and pieces over the year, but it was only maybe 10% of what it would have been. Most of the work I did do was on the game engine, fixing issues and adding new functionality. I focused on that stuff because frankly it's easier for me than the art side of things. I am most comfortable with code, and least comfortable with art (though I do try to challenge myself with it). The biggest project I completed last year was to break a lot of the game's code out into the mod system, to allow more of the game to be customised in mods.
I also employed some artists to work on the ships for the game, turning the two ships from Isaac's concept art into usable assets (models with all of the required material maps). That work is quite advanced but there is still more to do (I pay for this work out of my earnings, so it is bit by bit).
2018 Plan
My plan is simple in concept, I want to create a properly playable multiplayer build of the game so that we (as a community) can start to figure out what works and what doesn't. When I say properly playable I mean that it has to have three stations (Helm, Tactical and Engineering) with at least the base gameplay for each, and the ability for crews/ships to fight each other. What this build does not need to be is polish, so I am going to just focus on getting it done and I'll worry about polishing it up later. So that means placeholders for everything non-essential, which includes the 3D graphics (I will use the ship and effects from the old build that I made videos with).
What I have now is the base multiplayer game with much of the ship simulation systems in place, a fairly complete Engineering station, and the guts of Tactical and Helm. My focus will be on building out these stations, and only doing the work that is directly needed to do that.
There are risks to this plan, as there are to every plan. These include work, my situation is a little volatile right now, and my wife's health (though I really really hope this is not an issue). I'm stating this as I want to be completely transparent with you guys, but I really do hope there are no setbacks this time.
Once again thank you so much for sticking in there with me, I really appreciate your support.
Thanks for reading!
Mark
