2022 seems reasonable
I know it's pretty rough waiting for releases, and tracking this project is probably like watching a snail run a marathon. But I'm still working away, whenever I can find time. I can't thank you guys enough for continuing to post here, to ping me on YouTube, and for just being so cool.
I'm posting a quick update for Christmas Eve to showcase some of what I've been working on lately. In the course of making significant technical improvements and continuing work on the isometric renderer / procedural sprite generation, I took a careful look at the world generator and decided that it could stand some improvements, too.
Here's a very brief YouTube video showing what world generation now looks like. Biome sprites are still very much a work in progress, event sprites are missing, and this isn't yet in a finished state, but it gives an idea of how things will look and work:
https://youtu.be/ATtZZ7J53qsThe main purpose of this update is to let users experience more of world generation as it's happening, just to make the process more interactive. The goal here is to show the simulated processes that take a world from a near-blank slate to the environment where the game takes place and help users connect with the underlying mechanics. You can watch the heavy bombardment stage bring oceans to the world, fault lines and volcanic hot spots moving around, wind and weather patterns reshaping terrain, river systems and lakes forming and shifting, and all the other elements that go into making a world.
You can also note that the UI here now uses the game's internal windowing system, which just makes for a smoother experience.
All I do in this demo is click through some different world views in the course of generation, I inspect a few tiles here and there, and that's it. But I wanted to post something for Christmas and wish everyone happy holidays. Thanks to everybody for continuing to support the project, have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year!