Entry #1 - Starting state

In the next state updates, I will delve into the details of particular systems. However, since this is the first update, there's quite a bit to cover without going into that. So, what's the current state of the game?

As you can see, it's very rough and prototypy. Surprisingly, no assets have been created for it, yet it's playable! I rely on the Mixamo asset pack (free) for animated characters (both enemies and player characters) and some free vegetation packs for the map. It's nothing fancy—super simple assets used to test gameplay ideas. The same approach extends to the UI, employing free icons, one background type, and two fonts. Interactable constructions consist of basic geometry (boxes for workplaces and a combination of cone, tube, and sphere for turrets to aim). I don't even use custom strings for the construction menu, just class names. It's super quick, super easily replaceable.

Ok, but what actually does work here?

1. Resources system - Recources can be gathered, used for construction, consumed in workspots etc.

2. Building new constructions - Checks for available resources, validates terrain, allows player to rotate buildings.

3. Ordering characters to move and work - Most workspots produce stuff only when operated, so the player must order a character to do a particular thing. It’s especially important in early stages of the game, when there are more workspots than characters.

4. Characters have health and needs (sleep and food). Health slowly regenerates, unsatisfied food and sleep decrease and when reaching 0 start to decrease health. Then (surprise!) character dies. 

5. Characters have several different skill levels. To each skill, experience level is tied. Performing particular actions increases corresponding skill experience. Later on, it will be used for leveling up characters.

6. There are stashes of resources scattered around the map for quick reward at the beginning of the game (green glowing things).

7. Day / night cycle - As characters are nocturnal, night is mostly intended to develop the base and gather resources. During the day base can be attacked.

8. There are several types of turrets, some of them need to be manned, some operate autonomously. Some of them need resources for shooting. They auto aim at the nearest enemy in range and… shoot. 

9. Enemies - There are basic behavior tree based enemies. Right now their logic is super simple, they just try to reach the center of the player base. If they see any characters in their range, they attack.

10. Waves management - Each day several waves of enemies are spawned. It’s managed by waves system that decides the number of waves, number of enemies per wave and enemies types.

11. Simple test map that allows me to play for several in-game days.

This set of features allows me to do the basic playtest, check if all the systems work together. There is around 40 mins of gameplay ready. My main focus right now is providing more feedback to the player about his actions and fully using already implemented features that are not available to the player (like leveling characters). Once I get that, I can start working on increasing the size of content to allow mid range progression. Which is being able to play the whole level, start to finish, using all the basic game mechanics I planned for the first version of the game. It should result in around 1.5-2 h of gameplay.