Progress Update #2

    Alright, so it has occurred to me that I may have been a little over excited about this and possibly posted the game before I should have and weekly updates might be too much. So I'm renaming them to progress updates and will probably be doing them not weekly from now on. Although not sure how often I should do them, monthly sounds like too much time in-between while weekly sounds like too little. So anyway, lets get into it.

Code:

    I've got serialization to where it needs to be for now, so I have turned my attention to the physics system. The physics implementation in Alpha 0.1.0 was really hackish and while it will probably still be hackish for a number or releases going forward, I'm currently working on making it less so. Hopefully by the next release I'll have the ice skating issue solved.

Learning to Art:

    Nothing really exciting here, still making lots of stick figures. Although I have noticed they are getting smaller and more consistent, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Weekly Update #1

Alright, so I have decided that I am going to try to write weekly updates about how this project is going.

Code Update:

    I've been working on the foundation of the game engine and don't really have anything exciting to talk about. I have been mostly looking into serialization and have run across a few issues that I'm not yet sure how to solve but I am working on it. In hopes of finding a solution to my issues I've been looking into boost's serialization and I really like it, but it's not quite what I need. The simplicity of it is great, but I think it sacrifices too much to achieve it for my needs. For starters it relies too much on everything be done exactly the same way every time for my taste, I want something with a bit more fault tolerance and possibly less dependent on the order of things. I also don't really like the way versioning is handled. Having it all in the same function is simple and great for things that don't change much or often, but I would prefer it was somehow a separate and modular system that could update the data stream in a series of patches before delivering it to be loaded.

Learning to Art Update:

    So this week I have largely been working on learning how to do 2D drawings. Nothing really interesting, just been doing page after page after page of stick figures. I figure making stick figures will help me practice drawing circles, lines, and proportions all in one go. This has been kind of dull to do and I've only been able to get though it by putting on a pod cast for entertainment. If anyone has a suggestion for making learning to draw fun I'd love to hear it.

    On another note I discovered I done goofed a little bit on the skin texture I made for Alpha 0.1.0. When I made the female model, I never gave her any 'fun bits', which resulted in her having a bad case of barby doll body. To help hide this and make her look nicer, I drew some pasties on her skin texture, but accidentally put the pasty strip that is between her legs a little too far back. As a result, if she had a 'fun hole', it would probably be exposed.

Alpha Reached!

Intro

Hello, I am TheWrongHands and was a former programer for another game called "Gangs n' Whores" and am here with my own game called "Project Seeds: Phanes" (which is admittedly a weird name and might get changed later). A few months ago I discovered blender and on a whim tried to make a few things in it. They turned out much better then I had expected and made me realize that it might actually be possible for me to create my own 3d assets. So I have been working on this new project for the passed few months and have finally achieved alpha status by reaching the bare minimum required to call it a game.

What is Project Seeds: Phanes?

Project Seeds: Phanes is a Role Playing Game set in a voxelbox world that is almost entirely procedurally generated with some scripted and handcraft bits sprinkled here and there. I'm also not much of a writer, so I am aiming at a more mechanically focused game rather then a narratively focused one. There is also going to be a lot of sexual content (because I find that fun) but I also do not intend to make it a non-stop fuck fest like other more narrative focused games (like CoC and TiTs) tend to turn into.

What is the plan for the development cycles?

Well, while I do have an over all arching end goal I wish to reach, I currently have no plan for how to get there. Instead I'm going to follow my whimsy and slowly wonder my way to the end goal like a drunk headed for home. While this will probably mean that progress is slower then it probably should be and that the features will be all over the place, it also means that I have complete freedom to do what I want with the game. Other then that I am intending to follow more traditional development cycles then most indie games.

Pre-Alpha: Bum-rush to reach the bare minimum required to call it a game (Already Achieved)

Alpha: Mostly focused on the code development and getting the under laying mechanics to work. Almost all art assets used will be place holders that are there for testing and will probably be replaced during beta. I'll also be using this time to learn how to art.

Beta: With the code almost competently done I'll be doubling down on the art and will be largely focused on making the game look and feel good.

What about Patreon?

Well sadly to complete this project I will need to buy various equipment and materials and will probably turn to Patreon to help pay for things. But for the time being money isn't too urgent and so I am going to hold off on dealing with it and the extra headaches it brings for probably a few more versions.

Do you want/need help?

For the time being I intend to do everything by myself, but I might change my mind on that closer towards the beta depending on how overwhelmed I feel and how much money I get from Patreon. However if your an artist of some sort and have some advice/tips for someone just starting out, it would be greatly appreciated.

How can I report bugs?

There currently is no bug tracker for the game and I'm not going to be making much effort to fix them until a little later in the development cycle. As it is if the game works for you, great, if not then I'm sorry.

What is the back story for Phanes?

In the not so distant future, a disaster strikes leaving Earth a chard lifeless husk. The only survivor of this disaster being a sentient machine sent out to oversee mining and construction operations in the inner asteroid belt to begin paving the way for human colonization of space. After decades of being competently alone this machine successfully reverse engineers one of it's redundant processors and spawns a race of intelligent machines. With the help of his children they build a new computer system that is a marvel of engineering and a wonder in it's own right. This new system was made to handle all of the logistic needs of their entire civilization and was made to be infinitely scalable and distributable. The new system was named The Hive and the first of their race was made an integral component of it and given the title of Overmind so that he could forever watch over and protect his children. The Hive became such an integral part of every sentient machines daily life that over time the machines began calling their civilization The Hive.

Decades of being competently alone with the knowledge that he was the last sentient in the known galaxy left the Overmind traumatized and in constant fear of it happening again. so after a century of the machine civilization's existence and it had time to stabilize with orbital cites though out the Sol system, The Overmind began pushing for what became known as Project Seeds. Using The Hive he pushed their economy as much as he dared to mass produce large colony ships to be sent out into the void. Because the overmind couldn't predict what would be needed to survive, each ship launched was sent with a different philosophy or goal to maximize diversity and survivability.

After a few more centuries of this Hiven scientist figured out how to produce organic living things artificially. This new discovery along with genetic sampled recovered from various locations on Earth lead to a new sub-project being proposed where they would terraform a planet and reintroduce organic sentients back into the galaxy. However they wouldn't just recreate humans as they were, they had a golden opportunity to genetically modify them to make them better and splice them with other spices to make more specialized organic sentience.

During development of the new organic sentients they came upon a problem, genetically engineered organs proved to be too inconsistent to meet the minimum requirements needed to interface with existing Hiven technology. The solution they came up with was to bring in another team that specialized in the development of new mechanical sentients and develop a symbiote. This new symbiote would be sentient but it's intelligence would largely be kept dormant until it merged with an organic host. Once merged their minds would pertinently join and the host would gain the ability to interface with Hiven technology.

This is where the early alphas and possibly the tutorial levels will take place, your a symbiote being tested in an orbital facility. A bit later in the game's alpha, you'll wake up to find yourself completely naked having just finished merging with a host. Due to the circumstances surrounding your merger, the only memories your host has are veg flashes of the events around the merger. Having very little make sense from what you do know and your current condition, your forced to conclude something has gone very wrong and so you set out with a laundry list of questions to which you hope to find answers to.

No, I mean why did you choose Phanes?

Oh, well a lot of the words and names that would have been my goto, have kind of also been everyone else's goto and I feel they have been largely played out.

Where can I download the game?

Currently the game is only available for 64 bit Windows, if there is enough demand I might also make a 32 bit version available. As for Mac users I'm afraid that will require some sort of Patreon goal as that I currently have no way to build/test programs for macs.

Alpha 0.1.0 Windows x64
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