After 2 years of inactivity, we are still here, and the will to complete and publish this tiny gem of niche entertainment is very much still alive. Alas, development is halted. Let's ask myself about it. What's going on?
Hello. That is correct, there has been no new development of Bot.Kill(); since the last 0.903a update in 2016. Thing is, this - developer of fantastic games - is not my actual job. I am a freelance web developer (since about 2000), who, like many others, played videogames for decades whilst dreaming of making his own.
This appeared to become an actual possibility when I happened upon a small windfall in 2016, just around the time I was looking up game engines for a different, rPi based project. Struck by Unity3d's simplicity, I decided to take a dive and invest said windfall in making a game I wanted for ages to see made. I promptly sacked all my clients, and worked full time for several months on Bot.Kill();.
About one month's work away from a suitable, fully working beta, as I went about purchasing a commercial license for Unity, I had the unpleasant surprise of finding the funds gone. While I will not detail how and why, the end result was a scramble to rebuild a business from scratch, and the ensuing sudden interruption in Bot.Kill();'s development.
So, is it still coming out or what? Are we going to ever play this?
I should hope so, yes. As soon as I find an extra 10k or 2 lying around. I would love, in fact, to hire a more experienced developer(s) (I literally learned Unity from scratch for this) to give it the final touch, refactor it and stay on for the future implementations.
What works right now?
The server, which seems to have gone down at some point in 2018, has just been restored.
It is in theory fully possible to play a complete game, saving the roughness of the CPU design interface which, lacking a number of controls, can allow for the design of a broken AI. Shame that I seem to have broken most weapons with the latest client update, which can cause the bots to get stuck randomly while shooting. It's still good enough to deliver the concept, but it would be nicer if you could also play a full match properly.
Game breaking bug aside, what else is missing? What's in the future?
A solid web counterpart: viz, a website to handle registration, scoreboards, AI designs and what have you.
New classes of bots: skirmishers, support, heavier tank-like units with specific purposes.
New tactical elements: fire, explosion, electricity, EM, hacking, healing.
New UI actions: in particular a group dedicated to danger assessment, locking orders, team and environment awareness.
Maps: like, done properly, and more of them, with environmental effects.
Mods: game deserves to be moddable.
Storyline, events: not giving this away yet.
Lots of ideas, some may even be good, so I hope the guy I mentioned in question #2 is really good at this.
So, in brief?
Yes, it is still coming out. Not yet, but it is.
Thank you for your time.
Thanks for having me!
