It's hard to stop thinking about something that constantly haunt my mind. I am pretty busy with school so I do not have much time to work on anything. Now that school is over I can breathe a bit more. Unfortunately, World War 3 is about to break out with the threat of nuclear attack. It's not really the ideal atmosphere to actually start working of games that most of the time involves war or combat.
Video game programming
I previously decided to split up the Wizardry Legacy code into sub engines. One of the sub engine I intend to reuse is Glymmer. It's basically a menu based user interface that is connected to an SQLite database. It would allow making UI very easily making prototyping a breeze, and testing mechanics early. Some board games and KOEI style games originally found on the NES and SNES could be created. So I intend this summer to work on that engine if I have time, and maybe implement a small project game if things goes well.
Once the Glymmer will be more mature, it will be easier to make the level editor for Mapper, the 3D 1st person maze crawler required for Wizardry Legacy. Eventually, I could make a C version of Pixel Board, my original ideas of supporting board game concepts digitally (ex: hex maps, units, tokens,etc).
I still had a huge dilemma between going old school with C programming, or going for Android development with Java/Kotlin and libGDX. I still have a game idea of android and of course the making of WizCiv which is more mod with some code modification. Even if android did look interesting, it's really not programmer friendly, there is a lot of struggling and it creates a lot of "trial error" situation generally found in web development. That makes the programming experience un-fun. So I try to stick with what I know well for now.
Game projects
There are various game ideas that are in my mind right now, some are video games, some are board games, and some are both: I intend to make a digital and/or a physical version. So here are the update on various projects:
Wizardry Legacy: Currently on hold, I have a good deal of design made so far, I even re-drawn the map for an adventure that would take place in the future of the Wizardry 1 maze. I need to have a working engine and editor to start testing mechanics.
Order of Wizardry/Sorcery: If wizardry legacy gets completed, there is a possibility of making my own rogue-like game. I am thinking of using pixel graphics to make the artwork creation possible. I'll have to test my skills. This is a very late project, but it still haunt my mind.
Bubble burst: A stock market game that currently works, but is not balanced. I want to offer various strategies that could all be viable to win. But digital playtesting has proven that a strategy wins all the time. I made some modification lately that could help, but I need to modify my AI players to completely test the balance.
Deep Space Colonization: This is my android game idea I would like to do in Kotlin + libGDX in order to understand better how Kotlin works. The idea is to have a real time colony management game similar to the NES Overlord video game, except that there will not be any opponent, but rather some random events and obstacles like a Sim City game.
WizCiv: This is still a game idea on paper. Some rules and data has been written, but it's just an idea for now. This is also a late project, as it is dependent on Unciv, so the more I wait, the more mature the code of Unciv would be. I would finish Deep Space Colonization first to get a better understanding of Kotlin.
Legion: This is a minigame inspired of the classic Tab game which also have some inspiration on backgammon (same family of games). It's an abstract game where you move pawns forward and try to capture enemy pawns while moving them toward the enemy territory. The player with the most units wins a the end.
Rats Craft: OK, this has been dusted out from the attic. I kind of had some nostalgia for Star Craft the board game which I traded away, especially the solitaire variant I made many years ago. So recently I was thinking if I could redesign a new game with similar mechanics specifically designed to be played in solitaire. I reused mechanics from Star Craft, Forbidden Star, Many of my star craft variants and of course my Rats Craft board game idea. Everything is going well so far for the rule draft. What I am currently trying to detail is the unit stats and makes combat simulations before testing the other mechanics. Since balancing combat, designing units and tech cards is the most complex portion of the game, and it is required to play other mechanics.
So this is the most important ideas currently floating in my mind. I intend to stick more to programming, because it easier to produce something than works. In game design, there is more trial error, which I hate.