Returning to game dev after a break

After my last game jam submissions, I took a break from game dev and itch for a bit, trying to sort my new situation out a bit, but a break by definition means returning eventually. So, development is back on the menu, boys (and gals, and persons of indefinite gender)!

Game and Dev updates

First order of business was fixing a small bug in You Don't Have To Smile, where some UI elements were drawn in front of others when they shouldn't, a fix that took a few seconds to implement, but a good start back into the grind.

But what is ahead is actually tackling the task of working on the much more complex sequel. After opening up the source again, I of course immediately cursed my past self, as is tradition, but the code is actually not as bad to get back into as I expected. Still, the first order of working on it will be to refactor some stuff, and fundamentally redo some of the mechanics. Especially towards the end, but before I admitted I was too overambitious and I accepted I would not be finished for the jam by any stretch of the imagination, I was a bit hasty in implementation.

So, some of the mechanics will be reworked fundamentally: Proposals in the digital democracy systems will be reworked into objects linked to their object as proposals to be voted on and debated. Implementing those will be the next big feature to be implemented - inching closer to actually being able to have a rudimentary progression through the game. 

The current idea will be, that every proposal in the "Discuss and Vote"-screen will have several possible outcomes when put to a vote - with every of the factions favouring one or more or none of them. The player will then be able to have Julie prepare speeches in favour or explicitly against the different options, influencing the way the All-Union-Council will vote, and changing her standing with factions within it. Or, if time and stress do not permit, Julie can of course also try her best to make a spontaneous case for one of the options - at a disadvantage, but not one a good speaker cannot overcome.

Preparing and holding the speeches will be one of the main elements of gameplay - the player will add arguments relating to each of the three main attributes. Arguments relying on knowledge do extra well with intellectuals and engineers, but will have reduced effect on reactionaries and hardliners, arguments on empathy are good with syndicalists and intellectuals, but have reduced effects for hardliners and engineers, and arguments based on charisma have a highly increased effect on the undecided, but a slightly reduced effect on everyone else. Still, charisma is the most important attribute for this, as it will always be factored into the skill check when actually holding the speech.

The next thing will be reworking the statistics screen, adding some sub-screens, including a historical graph of some of the statistics, which will become very helpful and potentially satisfying to view developments, as soon as proper progression is implemented.

Long term, the basic idea of how the game will work is this:
The player will juggle Julie's personal needs and her duties towards her and the people's dream of a working, post-capitalist, post-revolutionary system. There will be the possibility to spend time at home or at the park to reduce stress, giving up time to handle stress in proportion to current joy. Joy can be increased by attending events, or just dancing and having fun for a bit at a club. After all: A revolution where you are not allowed to dance is not Julie's kind of revolution.

At the park, there will also be the possibility to meet up with random people from the street, which kind of person is met will be generated from the proportions of supporters within the general population. This will give both feedback on what effects proposals have had, and some flavour and worldbuilding.

Skills will decay each month by a percentage of their current value, but the player can choose one topic at the end of each month for Julie to study. This will eliminate this passive decay of the skill, but the player will still have to find ways to hone Julie's skills so they don't end up getting low. The main ways to do this will be talking to people and reading news articles.

Speaking of meeting people: Julie will be able to make appointments through her secretary, who can set up appointments with any of the de-facto leaders of one of the factions (except undecided) within the All-Union-Council. This way, she can try to reduce animosity towards her, try to make deals on upcoming votes, or just discuss how things are - increasing her stats. Every month will have one possible appointment, which will happen at the end of the month, before voting on issues takes place. For some months, Julie will get an appointment through a scripted event, that may progress the overall story, which leads to the next point:

The last main element of the loop will be scripted events, both semi-random and completely pre-determined. Examples to be teased here are events relating to the Republican League terror campaigns, events relating to a potential space program, events relating to a statewide urban restructuring program to permanently remove away from car-centric traffic, meeting influential people both elated and disturbed by the new status quo, and more. These will be added when the main scaffolding of the game is finished and holds up without immediately collapsing.

So, the basic ideas are prepared, and a rough idea on how to implement them is also already within my head. Coming up in the next weeks will be working on them, on a more controlled schedule than before - more time for having a day here and there to just take a break with a day of mostly listening to music or watching video essays while stimming, to prevent burnout which is a much more realistic problem than I thought. Especially interacting with the community and anxiously looking at the statistics on my dashboard is something I really have to tone down - accepting that it can really quickly lead to overstimulation.

More general updates

Speaking of music and stimming - while taking a break from game development, I re-discovered that I actually had an old YouTube channel from over a decade back. It still contained some very, very cringy Youtube-Poop content, mostly in German, reminders of a time when I was still a different person. Still, I decided to repurpose it, and it will serve for all kinds of small projects in the future, including anything relating to my games here.

It's also unavoidable to confess my sins here: I got into creating music with AI, experimenting how it could be used to use it for subversive messaging, and uploading some things to my YouTube channel. This also came from a sudden hyperfocus I developed on some days, where I would just spit out an "album", or rather, have the generative model spit out an "album" of questionable artistic value, and then stimming while listening to the communist propaganda I made, on loop. Any judgements are valid, but I can't deny it was soothing as all hell, and helped a lot to reduce the stress of the past weeks. I also sort of developed the mindset, that it will be here one way or the other, and who knows, maybe a generic AI-song (really, from an artistic standpoint quite mediocre, and by definition derivative) can still spark thought in at least one or two people out there. If the idea doesn't immediately disgust you - you can check out the latest result of this here:

In conclusion: Take care of yourself, strife to be more than you were yesterday, don't let the world win, and enjoy creating!