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Status update
Hello there, it's been a while since I wrote about what and how I'm doing.
Last post was about the complexities of my animation implementation, as a whole. That is, not only animations but how I manage them, their transitions, the models render separators auto-sorting, etc. In a nutshell, how stupidly complex the whole thing is.
Well, that work is done. I've used the other game's tech demo (not gonna call it v0.1) to find dozens of ways of how NOT to implement those systems, and left the one way to make it work to my satisfaction and my OCD.
As Edison (supposedly) said, "I didn't fail 999 times in making a light bulb, I found 999 ways of not making one."
The "problem" with amateur game development is that I don't have a non-time-consuming way to show you people proof of my continuous effort. You only see the final results so, understandably, you'd think I only needed one try for making it happen. But nope... expectations only match reality after many tries, even if you're smart.
Anyways, I think you'll like that demo. All the work invested in its making will benefit Pizza Hot development 100%, and it sets the quality standard for both games.
Truth is, when I've finally got into making the events, it turns out that they can be made pretty quickly with all the background systems in place. So I'm optimistic about future content updates.
That said...
About ten days ago I released v0.4e freely. And it seems the far larger public player base has encountered the infamous 'no customers' issue a lot more times I'd believed possible.
I absolutely need to address that problem. Even if I can't reproduce it on my own machine, and only guess what core engine changes would minimize the likeness of that happening again.
Bugs are a big hit for the reputation of a project because, for some weird reason, a good number of people think that if they're there in the first place, it's because the developer didn't give a damn, so he'll never fix them. And no, I'm the first one interested in clearing them out, so people don't get frustrated and mad, and I can focus on content.
Therefore, I need more of your legendary patience with me. I know it may sound like an old line coming from a crowdfunded amateur dev, and we all know how many of them give long-winded excuses while essentially abandoning their projects and still receiving support from their fans.
Well, I can only tell you I've put all my hopes on this game getting big enough to change my personal situation, which is really messed up to a level you wouldn't even believe.
This is my escape pod. And as such, I won't let it self-destruct. I'll fix it, I'll maintain it and keep it well oiled, and install new life-saving features on it for the moment everything decides to explode around me.
I've traversed a sea of shit in the last five years, mainly due to my incompetence at gauging people's loyalties. But far from asking for your pity, what I'd be grateful for is that you let me show you how I can use my skills and time for you.
And with all that said, I'll return to my thing.
Thanks for reading!
I had the 'no customers' issue happen myself, so I tried reloading my last save from earlier that morning. The issue happened again, and I think I tried 2-3 more times with the same result. When I actually quit and restarted game then reloaded the same save however, a customer appeared as soon as the shift started. Maybe this was just co-incidence, and while I am a dev, I've never touched Unity, but it seems possible some bad state is persisting across loads. Certainly wish you good luck with the game, I think it's one of the best early releases I've seen. Really like the art style you've got going on too.
Yup, loading it's a very tricky thing to do correctly. Much harder than saving, which is funny. No doubt that problem persists between loads, and that makes the theory of the 'no customers' issue coming from the NPC pool system much more likely. Thanks for your input!