Now i've hit some major milestones, the 3 hour Showcase, Trailer Complete, Game Intro and Title Complete, and Steam Page Submission Complete -> it's time to start the final major pieces that will allow me to release Demos and Alphas. That is
Allowing Save / Load states.
Refactoring the game so I can Export to Binary that will run on your computer.
Changing the internal Engine's State Machine (i'll explain don't worry).
These three things are all super chunky, complex and is why i've left them to near the end. The good news is, I'm already progressing all three. I've just completed the first one and am testing.
But I want to talk about state machines, as they are interesting and its time to teach you guys some stuff.
Take this scenario below.
This is they way I actually code it in game using state machines .Like below, all it means is a state represents a different scenario i.e. Straker sleeping with Tabby, vs getting yelled at by Kane.
The problem with this is, what happens I want to jump from state 0 to state 2 (for testing, or for loading game at that point).
I'd have to go through all 3 states (0,1,2) in order to make sure Straker is in the right room, and have spoken to the right people before Kane (maybe they gave him a keycard for example that i would't have gotten if i jumped right to Kane).
Solution
One appraoch which i'm trying out is to treat every state as a 'loadable' save point, meaning every big step, I set everything rather than just check.
So to get to Kane rather than check i did everything, just ensure I DO everything regardless.
So thats' the approach i'm doing now, it will make save/load more easier and also shipping to binary for Demo's i'll keep you updated.
On a personal note, you know me by now - burnout shmurnout! I had 6 days last week going to bed at 2am and waking up at 8am. Saturday I tried to go to a different city, but came home early as realised i was wiped out, so i spent Friday, Saturday frequently falling asleep 😅
Anyway, it's not just the game, don't worry - i'm just a workaholic, I was also working big hours at my job as big things were happening -> the good news is with the pressure off on both fronts now, i'm able to enjoy the work again and not feel overwhelmed.
So good on all fronts.