Status Update, February 2024

Summary

• Shinmera: released cl-gog-galaxy 
• Shinmera: released an updated version of promptfont 
• Shinmera: automated releases of trial's examples 
• Shinmera: improved collision performance via hill-climbing
• Shinmera: improved cpu particle systems
• Shinmera: various gameplay and camera improvements
• Shinmera: grant pitch documents and taxes

Some Details

Alright, as promised, here's the big update: you can now try a current prototype build of Weiss for yourself (if you're on Windows or Linux, at least):

https://keygen.tymoon.eu/access/ZUSO3XSLZKS4PJ1Y 

It still has a couple of issues, but it shows off the basic movement, environment style, lighting, physics interactions, and painting mechanic.

For controls:

• Keyboard
  WASD for movement, Space to jump, Shift to dash, Control for over-the-shoulder camera, mouse to pan, left click to attack.
• Gamepad
  Left stick for movement, right stick to pan, A to jump, X to attack, R2 to dash, L2 for over-the-shoulder camera.

The thing is also very easily moddable, since all the graphics (in pool/) are open formats that you can just replace. A friend of mine has been playing around with that a little already, making their own levels:

Other than that I finished the grant application wahoo.... for the most part. I still need to record a short video with voice-over for one of them in the next few days.

I also did my taxes, and things are... not looking so great. If you're interested in my financials, you can read about them in this Mastodon thread I wrote.

I've also personally been struggling with some increased mood swings, but I hope that's a temporary thing that I'll climb my way out of again as time goes on.

Looking to the future, next on the menu is that I want to hire Domolutz again to make some more animations, since I've been hitting the limits of what I can do with the few animations I have at this point.

I also want to add physics joints to Trial so that we can do fun stuff like doors on hinges, tying lights to other objects that can be thrown around, and so on.

As always, if you want more frequent and immediate updates on what I'm up to, follow my Mastodon profile. Thanks a lot for your continued support!

— Love, Shinmera ❤️