What's next for ROCKETPULT


Oh woah, what's this?

Today (August 10) marks the third-year anniversary of ROCKETPULT's debut.

As per my last update, The State of ROCKETPULT, I mentioned that this project was put aside while I focused on university and my in-progress mastery of the whole game dev pipeline.

Over the past three years since the game's launch, I've been making steady progress with university, and I have definitely improved my game dev skills. I wanted to tackle the entire pipeline in a small, scoped, and manageable way, so I decided to start building the next version of ROCKETPULT, which I'll colloquially call v2.

Development for v2 started in December 2019, and has been on/off for several weeks at a time, due to university and my personal health. I had actually started working on an initial implementation of v2 a year prior, and even started designing it shortly after v1, but ran into issues I couldn't solve then, which I have now.

I'll elaborate more on the development history in the future; you're probably here wanting to know what's in v2!

Core principles for v2

Instead of outlining all the changes I have planned, since this is a teaser I should outline the core principles of how I'm approaching v2's development.

  • As with v1, make a game I personally want to play. I am my own target audience, and it's a great bonus if others like it as well!
  • Incentivize and reward the gameplay I want players to experience, and don't penalize gameplay I don't want players to experience.
  • Make easier gameplay interesting and challenging in their own way.

I'll go into further detail how all this is implemented in a future development update.

Things to get out of the way

The first thing I should mention about v2 is that it's a total rewrite separate from v1, with an all new code base from scratch and fancy vector graphics. This project has well outgrown Construct, and I'm rewriting it in Unity. This gives me an amazing amount of capabilities that weren't possible in v1, such as an improved physics simulation. Did you see those landing legs? Those were some great legs.

Next, v2 will pretty much be in feature parity with v1 at release, with the core game mechanics that were designed in v1, and include quality-of-life improvements for some gameplay elements. Unfortunately, this does mean that some engine-specific quirks won't make the transition. (However, new ones will show up in its place, somewhere.)

Although being in parity with v1, with a new physics engine comes another important note: yes, the feel of the rocket's controls will be vastly different. The best analogy I have of that is switching from controlling characters in Smash 4 to Smash Ultimate. A little less floaty, and faster-paced.

Unfortunately, I am not taking any feature requests. The game is far in development, and the scope is managed tightly so I can release the game I want to make on schedule.

This'll be treated like a traditional game release. I don't plan on having any regular content updates for the "life" of the game, as I have my next project in its planning phase. And I think my next project will satisfy an itch that some of you (myself included) have been craving.

Some of these changes might not sit well at first, but I feel it'll lead to more satisfying gameplay in v2. As mentioned earlier, I'm making the game I personally want to play. I'll cover the details of what's new in v2 in a future update.

When v2 is released, it'll be published right here, lf.itch.io/rocketpult, and with a redesigned page! Since I know quite a few of you would continue loving v1 and its quirks, myself included, v1 will remain available to play, and will be given the "v1 (Classic)" moniker.

Release date

I estimate this game should be released on or before December 31, 2020. I'm intentionally not publishing my planned release date (which is sooner than that) until I know for sure my health and studies would permit me to meet it.

There's not a whole lot riding on the public success of this game; if I can get it published reasonably on time, that's a personal success I can ride on. I make the games I want to play.

Fun facts about this trailer

  • Recorded in-engine! That's the actual rocket playable in the game, with a few numbers tweaked to make it well-behaved for the trailer.
  • Music is a sliced version of the music in-game!
  • Animations were made with the outlines of v2's new vector graphics!
  • Custom font! Designed by yours truly!

Stay tuned for future updates

I'll be posting micro updates on the ROCKETPULT Twitter, and larger updates here in the devlog.

You can also follow me on my dev twitter for more frequent, occasionally weirder updates with projects I'm planning and currently working on. Although I mentioned I'm not open to feature requests, I am always open to helpful critiques and general feedback!

ROCKETPULT.COM will be updated with a proper landing page (haha get it) at some point. For now, it'll redirect to the game.

With all that said, I want to reiterate that I greatly appreciate everyone who plays, shares, and enjoys my work. Especially those who provided constructive feedback! You've been encouraging me to improve my mastery of the game dev pipeline, and make fun projects for myself, to share with all of you. Thank you!

Comments

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YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS LET'S GOOOOO!!!

PS I love your game man!  Don't let anything get in the way of your dreams, games, or university.  Out of curiosity, what are you studying for in university?

pog and hype mode!

Yes, also he may be her little POGCHAMP!

By he I mean the developer FYI.