Screenshot dump time! New test campaign is underway. I have a couple more major bugs to fix before uploading this build to Steam, but the game is playable with all major features more or less working as intended.
Scripted stuff from the introduction. Some of the testers mentioned not knowing how to control the game, so there's a very brief tutorial-and-story-introduction section in this test campaign. I'm getting better at gameplay scripting, so I should be able to put together cutscenes much faster now.
Latest iteration of the world map implements some tricks to optimize depth precision for faraway views. I also implemented a depth-of-field focus effect. As you zoom in on your characters, the view levels out, and as you zoom out, the camera tilts down for a more overhead view.
Making new battle maps, trying to give each one some personality. On this "grasslands" map, I thought a bridge battle would be more interesting than just slugging it out on an open field.
Here's a forest battle map at night. I think the hand-crafted battle maps are prettier and more interesting than the World Machine maps I was trying to make before. I think it also just works better with the cartoony sprites and tactical gameplay.
And the same map during the day:
And here's a cave map. Right now there's a major bug somewhere that's preventing the nodes in only this level from connecting to each other, so the player and computer armies can't reach each other. That's going to be the first thing I tackle in October.
It's probably for the best though that I can't fight this army yet. They would tear my guys to shreds. And right now I think the game difficulty is too hard in general. I need to give the player more starting units and make the battle loot worth enough to pay for losses and then some, so long as you're fighting battles you can win.
So I still have some bugs to fix, and some balancing, and I'd like to add a little more content. But I think that October is finally the month when I can release a playable test campaign.