Where is the progress?

Progress has been feeling slow. I'm sure those of you following the project have had that same feeling.

I love showing screenshots and art for the game! However, I needed to step away from the pretty pictures to deal with the core mechanics of the game. Walls of code just don't make for exciting screenshots.

What progress has been made?

I spent a little while discarding my custom syntax in favour of Yarn. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get it to work quite right so I went back to square one and wrote a new, lightweight method with future localisation in mind. It works rather well and the code is clean and simple.

With the new system in place (and easily expandable), Acre Shore seems within reach.

Why has progress been so slow?

Well... when I make progress it always feels like a huge leap forward. As we all know, life has a horrible tendency to get in the way and take a steaming dump on everything. Life is good like that.

The pandemic hasn't been easy for a lot of people. While my thoughts are with people worse off than myself right now, I can't discount myself from the category of people royally screwed by COVID.

My day job is in entertainment. I haven't had any work all year due to social distancing rules making it difficult to enjoy live entertainment. We were told that our home was being sold and that we have to find somewhere else- we are still looking. No luck yet. Both myself and my partner have lost relatives during the pandemic- some still in intensive care. On top of that, we have resorted to rationing ramen noodles and huddling up for warmth. It's a pretty rubbish situation.

Despite everything, this major breakthrough with Acre Shore has filled me with optimism and enthusiasm! I am determined to have some form of demo together before long!