I haven't gotten too much done with Alternare because I've been devoting a lot of time, and a lack of sleep, to making sure 64DSC started smoothly. I'm SUPER excited for the progress it's making and I'm proud that I was a factor in the creation of all the awesome games that are sure to come from this! Thanks for contributing, everybody!

Workflow

One important thing that a lot of indies and hobbyists don't take into account when attacking a game idea is the required workflow to launch a game within a specific timeframe - this should be defined early on in the development process.

Alternare is something that is EXTREMELY important to me, but I realize that I have other important events going on in my life so I have to budget my time correctly. Being a one man team, early marketing and promotion is NOT even an option until the game has a solid foundation and making sure I don't get burned out from the project is a HUGE part in keeping my progress steady with development. Slow and steady is infinitely faster than deciding to drop a project because you took too much on at once. At the current rate that I'm working, I'm TRYING to work on the game for at least 1 hour a night - I wish I could work on the game full time, but that would require funding for the game that I don't have. I've set up a Patreon account, which is currently unfinished, but I won't be promoting it until I feel like I have enough progress to show my worth to have people support what I want to achieve. The skeletal system seems to be going pretty smoothly for the slow start I have, though I haven't included all of the necessary parts. I've been thinking I might need to use an already established skeletal system to develop the game in a reasonable amount of time, but I'd much rather create my own and have full control.

A simplified version of the current production plan for Alternare is below:

- Testing with skeletal systems, procedural bone structure, and adaptive movement

- Testing with procedural flora design

- Testing with procedural architecture

- Use the results of testing to build a base engine for world generation

- Testing with event types and procedural storytelling

- Finalize gameplay

- Expand part list for skeletal and floral systems

- Bugfix

- Polish (Clean up rough edges in hud/environment/menu systems and visuals and add some prettyfulness)

- Second round of bugfix

- Q/A

64DSC is my MAIN priority right now, and I'm already starting to plan out the details of OHJAM, but Alternare is still of high importance. This doesn't mean I won't participate in other jams and events though - it sounds silly, but I love making games and sometimes the best way for me to blow off steam is to work on a random project. Every month I'm going to take a day and do a small jam to brush up on skills and do something fun or silly.

I also am working on my art and my music as hobbies outside of everything - I barely devote time to them, but I still do it. (I sent hel a dumb little song I made where I rapped over a track I produced :P)

ANYWAY: Good luck to everybody participating in #64DSC and thanks for reading my Alternare blogs if you've been following along. This one doesn't have any pretty pictures, so I'm expecting 200% less attentiveness.