DevSlog

Mod Support in SpaceSlog | Devlog #2

In this update video we focus on the importance of mod support in SpaceSlog plus various other ramblings.

Being the creator of a popular Game of Thrones mod i know creating mods can be time consuming and can be met with certain restrictions. Modding is fun, and for some the fun part can be overcoming such restrictions. For SpaceSlog we aim to remove as many of those restrictions as possible, allowing people to create the exact modification they wish.

My work within the modding scene over the last decade has also influenced the reasons why i want SpaceSlog to be as fully modifiable as possible. We go into these reasons a little bit in the video and show whats currently possibly. We also talk a little bit about what we expect for the future. Of course all of this comes down to the scope of the game and how long we can actually spend on development. Which also depends on how popular the game will be, or if at all.

DevSlog

Improvements to core features

With the initial test build released on Itch.io i have spent a bit of time making improvements to some of the core features of the game to improve usability.

When multi selecting an item it will now only select up to 200 items of that type, this should help performance if you have too many objects that are the same. I also removed the ability to multi select hull pieces as there are always quite a few of these for each ship. There should also not be any reason for you wanting to multi select all hull.
To further improve performance, I added a VisibilityNotifier to each Entity in the game, this is a node provided by the Godot engine and allows us to check which items are being shown on the screen, or what the player can actually see. Using this we can now make sure only those on the actual screen will be selected.

Multi Select

I further improved the multi build tool adding new sounds to let the player know when the multi build has started. Unfortunately you cannot hear those sounds in the gif below. I now need to allow multi build for removing build objects and blueprints.

Multi Build

Skin and Hair Colours

I have moved skin and hair colours into a separate JSON file. This allows modders to easily change what colours they want in the game and for which race to assign them to. As you can see below, the pawn data file accepts an array of colour categories, this means you can create separate categories of skin tones and add as many as you want to each race.

The Skin Colours data file.
The Skin Colours data file.
The Pawn/Human data file
The Human data file.

This also means you could have different coloured skin tones for humans too if you really wanted.

Green Human
Information

SpaceSlog now has an Itch.io page

I have now created a page on itch.io for Spaceslog which can be viewed by clicking the widget below

We will be using Itch.io so our testers have an easy and convenient way to download the game. I have yet decided if we will be using the platform to sell the game, though it is looking likely. Mainly as there are not many downsides to doing so and it should be much easier and cheaper to release here in early access before we decide to release on Steam or anywhere else.

Anyhow, we are still quite a long way out before we can start to think about official releases, but if you wish to help and assist with the development of the game you can offer up your services to become a tester. I have created a post over on our forums where you can do just that.

Will a demo be available?

I have been thinking of a way where i can offer up a demo for a limited time before people are prompted to purchase the game. The idea is that every updated release will have a certain amount of hours playable before the game is locked and needs to be purchased. This means throughout early access you get to try each update and decide which of those updates you feel would be a good entry for you to purchase the game. With every update the hours would reset, meaning you get a couple of hours to test each build.

Currently i am still working a day job whilst working on this game and having something like this available would make me feel much more comfortable working on the game and updating when needed, instead of trying to push out updates that may not be ready to try and appease all those that had purchased the game and expected more.

This is something i do still need to look into however and the plausibility of doing so. Once i do receive enough interest in the game i will most likely switch to working on this full time anyhow.

You can find us at other links too:

Discord