Hello again, I’ll be keeping the update short this month since things are getting quite busy in work and life.
Dehoarder 2 progress has largely focused on AI, with the dartboard and slot machine minigames now completed as a result. Attention has moved now to completing the more complicated AI entities, namely Pica the goat, Broombot, and Joe.
Vintage Pachinko, Breaking Block, and Prepare for Warp all now have working 64-bit builds on the latest Unity in testing. Ad network and IAP integrations have been removed from the test versions.
All three games still need to have cloud save added. Unfortunately it looks like at least some progress will be lost on the transition to cloud saves, but I will be scouring what I can from the local save files. For instance, it might be that in Breaking Block, upgrades purchased with silver coins will be lost, but I should be able to correctly calculate how many silver coins should be refunded based on level progress.
Vintage Pachinko is the closest to being release-ready, as its testing requirement is fairly minimal. As soon as cloud save gets added, it should be ready for release fairly quickly.
Breaking Block requires a bit more extensive testing, but only needs cloud save added to be feature complete. As part of removing IAP, Exchange rates between Silver Coins and Blocks have been adjusted to account for the removal of the ability to purchase Silver Coins via IAP.
Prepare for Warp still needs some work beyond implementing cloud save. In order to keep the items currently obtained via IAP relevant and not overpowered, they need a different means of purchase than via the current in-game Argen currency. For example, if Continuum Reintegrators could be purchased for Argen, they would invariably either be too readily available or too expensive to consider at most points in the game’s progression, as the rate of Argen gain increases with progression.
To address this, I will be adding some kind of in-game collectible item that would serve as a new currency to purchase the items currently available via IAP. Really, this should have been the way it was done out of the gate for Prepare for Warp, with the collectible currency being what could be purchased via IAP instead of purchasing the items directly via IAP. This is a mistake I had learned from and corrected in Breaking Block with the Silver Coin currency.
In all three mobile games, I see opportunities for performance improvements due to advances in both Unity and my game development skills. As part of testing, I will be profiling performance and making targeted enhancements to each game. While any modern mobile device and even many obsolete devices run these games competently, I anticipate that these performance improvements will help conserve battery life while playing these games.
I think that about wraps things up for this month. Until next time, stay safe, be well, and be good to each other.