January 2021 Update - Alpha 0.2 available

Hello Internet,

Another month has come and gone. This last month was definitely as busy as expected if not more so. But I made it though the holidays and into the new year and even got a little done on the project. This months update brings both a success and a failure. 

I'll start with the bad news - I found I am still very lacking in knowledge of the Unreal Engine. So much so that I am going to split my time and take another course or 2 while working on this project. UI in particular seemed out of my wheelhouse. And since my project is fairly UI dependent it was a real blow to productivity. What I ended up with seems like Frankenstein code and that really bugs me. So I will probably redo the UI in the future instead of just extending it. Also my overall architecture is a bit overly complex but I think I can refactor it over time. So once again progress will be slower as I will be training and working on the project at the same time. I am learning a lot from the issues I have but the amount of time I spend learning multiple systems to fix my problem could be reduced with better understanding of the engine.

Now for the good news - I am releasing the first "playable" version of the project since the swap to Unreal Engine. This is a very early build which is playable but is missing a couple systems that the original release had. First the storm system is not yet ported. Without the Storms means there is currently no win or lose state just the basic game loop. But I figured if anyone who reads this update wanted to see how the project looks and plays in unreal this is the time to do it. 

Lastly, I wanted to provide some transparency in a decision I am currently weighing. I am debating with myself changing the update schedule to once every 2 months instead of one a month. On the one hand I enjoy being able to put out some of my thoughts into the void of the net and seeing that there are a few people out there that view the page. On the other hand when I don't have much to say it is awkward posting an update to say "I didn't get much done maybe next month". So just letting you know that is something I am considering.

Once again I would like to thank you all for your time and for visiting my page.