Had a solid day of dev today, nothing fantastic, nothing terrible, when I came across some code that made up the various force values in the game. It's over-designed, because it's revamped code from prior coders I worked with, which means it's prone to excess junk being all over and in such a state, code doesn't always work exactly as you expected it to.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw some really horrendous logic and thought to myself, "I should probably fix that", so I did. And now my force values are capable of doing things I've been wanting for a long while now, a force can start very strong forward, and it can transition to a negative value over its lifespan.

This means bites can lunge forward very fast, but stop on a dime! The combat feels much more "snappy" now where I want it to, and it can do the usual floaty feeling dashes.

This means more robust player attacks and movements, as well as more robust enemy movements.

The downside is everything broke, and I had to refit most all attacks in the game from scratch... which I've done like so many times now.

But I'm pretty good at screwing things up at this point and fixing them at this point. It doesn't even bend me that far out of shape, it is what it is. It's worth it.

But you have to wonder after working on a game for so long... how much better does this game make your game? Much better? Or are you just so tired of playing the exact same experience over and over again, that even the smallest change, EVEN IF IT MAKES YOUR GAME WORSE, you will perceive it as better as it breaks up the monotony.

Honestly, I think the game is better now.

I got most all the broad strokes done I wanted today, got a few more fish in, got a few more areas started so two steps forward. But I also starting building up the world and it's going to take a LONG time to make it polished, so there in lies the inevitable 2 steps back that will eat up tons of my time.

BUT as I have stated in my prior blogs, I will be building the world in a non destructive way. It will be pretty and very playable, quality over quantity. These areas will be very modular and salvageable if their connective areas do not work out. I'm already looking at older areas I saved and thinking of just nuking them away, they're not up to quality. That's a good thing, it means the rest of your game is getting better.

Every day every single thing gets a little bit prettier, a little bit less buggy, a little bit more fun, and a little bit more expansive. Solid progress! Very burned out but I think I'll be able to keep it up for a few more days, and hopefully I'll have the new build I wanted to have up at last week's end.

Been blathering online against my better judgement out in the wild, kinda feel silly now, it's all a waste of time. No more effort blathers out in the wilds of the internet, tis a silly place. All I can influence is the fish game, so that's what I'm gonna do.

Feels good to be back in the weeds again! Didn't think i'd have a solid dev today, was sleeping like shit and not feeling 100%, but hunkered down and got some good sh&t done. Onwards and upwards. Hoping to keep this going through the week.