After version 0.261 of Instruments in early June, I spent a little time taking some elements of Rhythm Storm to create a new "skeleton project". A skeleton project means a mostly empty project with some basic code for drawing stuff to the screen, playing sounds, getting input, etc. That took a bit over a day to trim it all down and clean it up a bit. Its purpose was to both allow me to have a basic project to start with in the 2023 GMTK Game Jam, and to have something to work from for future mini-projects.
"FUTURE PROJECTS"
The future ended up being the next day, and what I planned to be a 2-3 day "arcade" project turned into a 3 week game that I'll reveal in the future (it's done aside from sound effects needing work). In retrospect I should have finished it in 2 weeks, but I spent too much time waffling between various art styles/variations. Between that arcade project and a couple family vacations, I only worked on Instruments for a day or two more in June.
WRECKLESS
This past weekend was the GMTK Game Jam, and I spent about 38 of the 48 hour event working on a prototype. The theme for the jam was "roles reversed", and after coming up with 10 or so possible ideas, I went with one that felt the most obvious based on my experience: Creating a physics-driving game where you direct the traffic, but can't control your own car. You can read more about the game on the itch.io page. Here's a screenshot:
Wreckless is a fun toy/game, and I can check off "Do a Game Jam" from my bucketlist (I don't have one, but it would have been on there if I did). I'm glad it's over though, and I don't have any desire to keep working on Wreckless or do more game jams anytime soon.
A CLEAR PATH AHEAD
One thing I've realized while working on these various projects: I don't mind jumping between smaller projects, but I don't like having large not-quite-finished projects lingering in the background. I knew the GMTK Game Jam would be a turning point in my focus, and I'm glad the desire is there already: I want to finish Instruments of Destruction. I previously planned to have Rhythm Storm in the October Steam Next Fest, but now I'm less sure. If I really need a break from working on Instruments, it might happen, but I'm also fine pushing everything else off until Instruments is done.
Nothing has changed regarding what I'll be working on: A new/larger/improved single player campaign with dozens of pre-built fun vehicles to use, and redoing build-mode's UI. First up on the agenda is finishing up the work to support multiple vehicles at once (for real), and figuring out the best way to use vehicles built in the game for AI purposes (as both enemies and allies). There's a lot of work to do, but those are the two hardest remaining tasks by far, and I want to take them down now while my resolve is high.
I'm not sure how long everything will take or how frequent updates will be from here on out. But rest assured that getting Instruments of Destruction version 1.0 done ASAP (and done well, of course) is my primary objective.
