Morning guys! Waking up early today to post this before starting to work on Nebula!

First of all, let me apologize for not posting an update last month. Some crazy stuff happened, my old computer died because of a flooding (always backup your stuff guys, we never know what’s gonna happen on the next corner), and I MOVED TO THE NORTH HEMISPHERE! Now I live in the beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. Well, to compensate, I’ll bring you guys two updates this month! So, let’s get to it.

The Alpha is taking shape, and is now moving at full steam! Each day brings new challenges and new features, some of which I’ll show you right now.

Let’s start by talking about the Main Menu.

The Main Menu for the Alpha is already programmed, and the commands are fully operational. The hardest part to do was the Continue button, which leads us to the Saving system. You know what they say, no saving system, no game, so this is almost all I’ve been worrying about lately!

Right now, the game will save the player’s data up to the exact point where Ivy was when the game was saved - probably something like a save platform -, but on the actual game there will be a special room that the player must reach in order to properly save the data. This special room, which will look like a small infirmary, will guard Ivy against, for example, re-spawning enemies, and will contribute to the overall atmosphere of the game and immersion.

The basic savegame system already works, so when we press the Continue button on the main menu, Ivy will hold her previous position, along with information on which map she is and which items she has. This will most likely be available on the Alpha for you guys to check!

Apart from the programming advances, I’m also working on adding new content for the game, such as this new bad guy:

The Scav, aka Alien Flea, is a bug-like creature that lives near the main nests, walking on the floor, on the walls and on the ceiling. It contributes to the well-being of the creatures’ colony, but it’s not harmful per se, so it’ll not attack Ivy directly - except if she walks under a Flea-infested ceiling/platform, in which case the bug may or may not fall on her, or if she touches the Flea, causing some minor injuries.

I want the Alpha to be a small version of the game, but the map that is available on the Alpha will not be a part of the final game. The idea is to demonstrate the gameplay features so you guys can try it out - without spoiling the main story for you!

This is it for now! I’ll come back soon enough with more news! Stay tuned on facebook.com/nebuladev and on my page on IndieDB :)