Moving Forward and beta release date (EDITED)

EDIT:

It's not coming out on 01/08/2018, but the beta will be released sometime in August. It's not that there's a massive mountain of work to do (more like a hill), it's actually finding the time to sit down and work through it. My current plan is to work on it early in the mornings before work, and put aside some time on the weekends to work on it as well. As always I'm eager to get it out there, it's just finding the time to work on it.

-eragnarok

---------------------------------------------

Beta release date: 01/08/2018 To be determined

Just a weekly check in and a word on where the current project is at.

So I've started implementing networking, it's very limited at the moment but I already know how the rest of it will be implemented. The real difficulty is actually sitting down to do the work. Lately I've been in a bit of a slump and haven't brought myself to work on the project. Not that I feel rushed or anything but I go through phases of wanting to work on the game to not wanting to look at any code and just do nothing for a while. I think these phases are normal for a lot of programmers. However usually at this stage a lot of programmers get bored of their project and want to move on, which is something I don't want to do. The game will get released so I think it's a good time for me to actually set a release goal, so that it will give me something to work towards. I've set the date to the start of August, so we'll see if we can hit that. If I can't get it done by then, hopefully I get it done on or around that date.

Then, once it's released, we'll do a month of beta testing, finding and fixing bugs, playing the game etc., and then on September 1st I'll release the 'final' version of the game and put this project to rest. I want it to have some kind of shelf life, a finishing date, so that I don't get stuck in development hell and end up hating the game :P I'd be willing to work on fixing any game breaking bugs after the final release, just so that it stays playable, but I won't be implementing any new features. I just want to create a platform for people to play this beloved game that we all knew and enjoyed.

I know I've been a bit vague on what the beta will include, so I'll spill the beans now, and maybe it's something you can look forward to:

Single player 'sandbox' mode - Take on waves and waves of enemies and see how far you can get before losing all of your lives

Multiplayer:
LAN support - play with someone else on a local network, or forward your ports and play with someone over the internet
Public Lobby support - join games with other people on the internet, or host your own
ELO system - create an account to track your ELO, this will be done through the website

Beta only:

Change modifiers for the towers and enemies. This includes bullet strength, starting gold, how much tower upgrades cost, adjusting the difficulty for enemies after each wave etc.

Looking forward to it :)

-eragnarok