I don't have time this week, since I still have to study for finals and prepare a commencement speech.
Congratulations on graduating! What is the commencement speech on?
Spoilers! Ask me next week.
The college is DigiPen Institute of Technology, and I'm majoring in Game Design, so it probably has something to do with video games.
Oh, and stop working on LCS if you don't feel like it anymore. You've made it into a VASTLY more playable and FUN game, you should be very proud of yourself. You've gave all of us very powerful experiences. I like to think of it as something the "Sensates" of "Planescape: Torment" would admire, in my little geeky mind!
Take a break now. Or if you're so inclined, work on your zombie game. But don't worry about LCS any longer! I can't imagine how the game can be improved now (except for a graphical engine)... well done, foxy Jonathan Fox!
Toady One pours features and liquid vision into his games. LCS was a weekend project for him, a little adventure to take a break from his very early development of Dwarf Fortress or Armok I, but one that caught on. I've tried to extend it and make his vision into a more balanced and complete game, supporting a more diverse range of strategies (strategies that were in the game but were broken in some way) and wringing some of the grindy parts out, but without fundamentally transforming the vision of the game. It's like if I worked on Dwarf Fortress... you'd lose the boggling new feature growth that defines it, but in exchange would get more focus on playability and balance.
The point of this is to say that I hope you're right that the game is much more playable and fun than it used to be. That would mean that my efforts were worthwhile and well-spent, even though my approach is quite different from the explosive, visionary approach that gave birth to the game in the first place. I do love adding features, but I also do a lot of trimming and adjusting to try to carve the game into a lean, maximally fun experience, and I know that hurts sometimes.
I am planning to work on the zombie game next -- after all, I have to get that game made if I'm going to make money now, since I'm doing it instead of getting a real job. But I really enjoy working on LCS too. And I can definitely imagine a few more things that could improve LCS.
So, should we expect the LCS development pace to change once you have completed ze College? I'm not complaining (your update rate is quite good for someone also doing college, actually), I'm just wondering.
LCS development has always been paced as a hobby for me; I work on it when I get really excited about working on it. To be honest, more than one development burst happened because I got inspired by something I read in the forum, or because of a Let's Play I saw. I've thought I was done working on the game several times before, and always proved myself wrong six months later when I just had the unbearable itch to come back and do something. I imagine that won't change.
Hello! I just downloaded the new version, and I already found some bugs.
Bug 1: Prompting help screen for selling art promps the one for playing street music instead.
Bug 2: another interface bug, this time with teaching. Infiltration is second, and indicated by the number 2. Urban warfare is third and indicated by the number 3. Hitting 2 selects Urban Warfare, hitting 3 selects infiltration.
Anyway, thanks for the new version, Fox. If I find other bugs, I'll report them. It's the least I can do to contribute to this great game!
Thanks for the reports. I'm pretty embarrassed about Bug 2; I knew about it and remember looking at that block of code, ready to make the two line change that would fix it. Imagine my surprise when a day later, I realized it was not only still there, but it was in the release. I must have gotten distracted by a YouTube video or something. Darn it, GaGa.
I'm off to my Math final! (Edit: It was Probability and Statistics. My estimated grade, using the skills developed in the class, is a 76%.)