Hello all!
After moving places last week, I finally have my internet back, just in time for a weekend update!
GDC & EGX Rezzed
I'll start with some awesome news- as I'm sure you all know GDC is approaching very soon in a few days. Although I myself will unfortunately not be there, a build of Concrete Jungle will make an appearance courtesy of Clickteam (developers of Fusion 2.5) who will be demoing it at their booth along with some other games. You can find them at booth #736, so be sure to check that out if you're going! I wanted to go myself, but the prices for me to visit were pretty astronomical as I'm based in the UK- I really hope I can go next year.
An event I will be attending however, is EGX Rezzed in London on 12th March. A build of Concrete Jungle will be there also- specific details on that to follow soon.
The GDC build is still without the versus mode as it's still not quite ready (it's very close to being completely functional though). The same goes for the character tech tree. You will be able to explore the tweaked and tightened mechanics that I mentioned last update though along with a load of buildings that have been added since the preview version.
The build at Rezzed will hopefully feature one or both- as I'll be able to work on getting a build ready practically right up until it's time to set up! Which is what I'll be working frantically on this week.
Progress
There's been some decent progress since the last update. All the buildings I've developed graphics for since the new year are now fully-functional in the game, and the AI also knows how to play all of them. How effective it is at playing some specific ones remains to be seen and will certainly require additional work, but the foundations are in-place. That means there are currently 106 buildings functioning in the game! That's excluding the cards which are not buildings.
The first character skill tree is almost done too, and Karl is nearing completion with the character designs which are looking *awesome*. More on the characters very soon.
Once that and work on the AI's ability to progress through the skill tree is complete, the versus mode will be functional. This, along with a proper main menu system, is what I'm waiting on before beginning a new testing phase- which will first be an internal alpha to get a feel for how things are working. I hope to have this going around mid/late-march.
Pending adjustments following that, I'll be looking at doing an opt-in beta for any backers who have access to the preview version. I want it to be opt-in to keep the numbers manageable, but you will be very welcome to access it when the time comes (I shall let you know when through these updates). I would expect that in April. Once the mechanics have been refined I'll move on to focusing on the mac port.
Unfortunately there are no new buildings to sign off with this week as I think there's enough in-game now to shift the focus onto putting everything together as described above. The next 50 will be added gradually as the game comes together some more- a lot of these will be be added for balancing and special character skills. We should have the characters to show you soon as a replacement for the weekly building visuals, but this week there's a bit of a gap in new visuals to show you.
Maybe you can have a look at some of the cool new card mechanics I've added for the new buildings over the last few weeks!
