Imperium Engine

First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of any real update on development over the past month and a half. It has definitely been a busy time for us here at Imperium Studios. We work full time jobs outside of game development, try to manage some sort of social life, and for me personally have two young children to raise. This of course is all on a good day and those have not been the majority as of late. However I must not digress from what I am actually here to discuss.

One of the major problems we have had since the start of development is a way to keep track of and manage the tasks we need to complete. At first this idea was completely non-existent and we simply just wrote code and made simple graphics to get the general idea across. This left unfinished tasks and projects of varying importance and size. So then we decided to try out Toodledo for keeping track of a growing list of items that needed our attention. The basic free account did not suit our needs and we upgraded to the premium version, only to find out that was not what we needed either. So time went by using the same method we started with of not really keeping track of anything.

So last week I was thinking to myself about the unused databases and web space we have available on our hosting account. Since this is the first time I've ever worked as an official team on a major project I did not have much first hand knowledge of what was available to us. So I began to research project management software and look for exactly what we needed without breaking the budget. As luck would have it I found the perfect solution that was simple and easy to use. WebCollab is now a fully integrated member of the Imperium Studios team, and it was completely free.

Now we were no longer wasting time trying to remember which tasks we needed to complete, what features we had planned to implement next, or what bugs/issues had not been fixed. Everything is now in one place with the ability to assign tasks to each other, categorize them, specify level of importance, and even upload files. This has greatly helped development and things are moving along more smoothly and much quicker.

Changes and Updates

As I mentioned above things are moving along much quicker now that we are keeping ourselves organized and on task. I'm not going to go into too much detail on every new feature that we have added over the past month and a half. However I will list the most important changes and updates below.

• Upgraded and Revamped the Text Engine, Now Supports a Larger Variety of Font Options
• Upgraded the Console Window Style, Scrolling, and Display
• You can no longer Exile the Lead Survivor
• Increased the Size of Skill/Task Management Buttons on Survivor Details Screen
• Completed the Game_Time Class Functionality, Allowing better control of Logic and Game Simulation
• Shelter Screen now Displays Survival Time Properly
• Message Box moved to Shelter Screen, includes Filtering by Message Type
• Construction Menu now Includes Construction of Walls, Doors, Windows, Floor, and the Dismantle Tool
• Completely Overhauled the Shelter Construction Feature, loads all Construction Data from Resource Files
• Shelter Construction Consumes Resources, Cannot assign Construction Without Required Resources
• Construction Requires Survivor with Build Task, Survivor must be Present at Build Location
• Construction Progress is based on Projects Build Time and actual Game Time

I will try and make sure that our next "Monthly" update is actually on time, things seem to be settling down outside of development which gives us a little more stability for keeping the public informed. I would also like to start doing a developer video at least once a month to discuss some of the features and changes in more depth and show them off in-game. You can Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the latest videos from Rise of the Infected.

Coming in the Next Update

Random Events: Outlaw Attacks, Government Aid Drops, Radio Broadcasts, Survivor Arrivals, and more.
Simulated Survivor Behavior: Emotions, Thoughts, Relationships, Hunger, Thirst, and Mental State.