I was surprised this week after I'd gotten through my tasks just how much a little bit of art can make such a huge difference to a game. To be clear surprise is maybe not the right word, as much as maybe... taken back? This happens every time I make a game. It'll go from looking like absolute rubbish, to looking kinda ok if you squint and look at the phone from the other side of the room, to having the rough colour pallet and then boom, looks like a full game, and every time this last stage happens is exactly when I know I'm onto something.
Initial Prototype April 2023
First proper combat prototypes: September 2023
Today (March 2024)
Overall I'm super happy with the way the game's looking. It's got depth, it's got atmosphere, its visually hectic. Gifs don't do the texture justice, but it has texture. Most importantly it feels like you're stomping around in a giant robot, partially because you can level city blocks with your feet, partially because I think I'm getting the scale right, and partially because the sound, even in it's prototype phase really sells the idea.
It's coming up on a year of work on this game, and its feeling really mature. The gameplay systems and tooling's in a good spot, balance is easy to modify where needed, new content is not too difficult to add. I can see building out content for new Campaigns should be relatively straightforward.
Most importantly though it's achieving all of this whilst getting a consistent 60fps on the iPhone 8, a now seven year old phone. CPU usage and battery drain seem to be below the levels I saw with Interloper too, so the game also feels relatively well optimised.
The next phase is getting ensuring that all the games encounter levels aren't too badly shuffled by the new art, and then getting the remaining art assets sorted for the Industrial Campaign.