Game Development So Far
Long-time no see! It’s been just over a month since the last Gym Empire game development update and in that time a lot has been going on!!
What a hectic month January was. Never the less game dev continued and took top priority just behind my family. When I last spoke to you I was in the middle of adding in the game save and load feature for Gym Empire. I was stuck between developing a bespoke save game function (the hard way) or trying to find a pre made Unity solution (the easy way). In the end I had to pick the hard way. I tried a few different options for pre made save game solutions. However in the end I realised I’d take just as long trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. So I went ahead and started to implement a bespoke solution.
Thanks to the wonder of the internet and specifically YouTube. I was able to find some initial direction from a YouTube series by quil18. It’s basically a long series about building a 2D base building game in Unity. Similar to RimWorld. Although Gym Empire is a 3D simulation management game it has a lot in common with 2D tycoon games. Specifically the data handling.
The episodes of quil18’s series that cover saving and loading provided a great intro into how to create a bespoke save system using XML serialisation. XML serialisation is basically translating data in the code into an XML format. You can then de-serialise from XML back into code data.
The initial set up of this was quite simple. However, as Gym Empire is a data heavy game it goes without saying that there is a lot of data to save! Therefore, the last month of game development has been laboriously labouring through all the data in Gym Empire.Setting it up to be saved into XML. Equally, the loading system needs to go through every single piece of XML. Recreating it as game data. The raw data of the clients, equipment staff etc is pretty easy. It’s the associations between everything and the more complex management classes that require extra thought.
As of today I am still going through all the data and setting it up. I judge it’s about a week away from being able to test the full save/load feature at which point I can go on to finishing some of the last changes before the alpha demo!
Other Developments
Hello World!
As many of you may already know, especially those on the Discord server, I became a father again on the 6th January. This is a large part of why the updates stopped over the past month. Parenthood is like riding a bike.
However, the first time round I wasn’t trying to develop and market a tycoon game and build a YouTube channel. Sleep deprivation and being on constant alert is something that challenged me enough the first time round but this time it is definitely on extreme mode!
This is a large part of why I went silent for the past month. I guaranteed myself I wouldn’t put the brakes on game development when my new son arrived. However something had to give for little while and that was these updates.
Over the past month I’ve been able to readjust my schedule to keep up with game dev and get back onto the regular update. Somehow, like the crazy self-inflicting nut job I am, I’ve managed to add even more onto my plate!
YouTube Gaming Channel
Over the past month I’ve started uploading regularly to YouTube again. If you’ve been keeping up to date with the blog, you’ll have noticed some retro gaming posts with an associated YouTube video. Basically at the beginning of January I deleted all my retro gaming videos from 2018. Don’t ask me how, I blame it on sleep deprivation!
I decided to start re-uploading one of the videos each week. During that time I got more views than I did previously and gained a few extra followers. One in particular, Gaming Off The Grid, reignited my excitement to make new videos. Gaming Off The Grid is a new gaming channel as of 2018 and is one of my new favourite go to channels. You can see they have put a lot of thought and care into their videos from day and create genuinely fun and interesting content!
When I started doing the retro gaming videos early last year I wanted to do more than just pickup videos, but I didn’t really have the confidence to try other styles. If there’s one thing I’ve learnt over the past few years is that you have to put yourself out there and face the possibility of failure if you want to achieve anything.
With that being said I’ve started some new videos focused around what going on in gaming. I’m trying a new style and ultimately it will take a few goes before I land on my feet. However I’m really enjoying making them and excited about the future of the Chronik Spartan Gaming channel. I’ll continue uploading the “long lost” pick up videos and will do some new ones in the future for my new purchases over the past few months.
It would honestly mean so much to me if you could pop over and check out the channel. Watching the new videos and subscribing or sharing would honestly make a huge impact! If you don’t like my style or think I should head in a new direction feel free to let me know. All feedback is great feedback and your support means more than I can say!
The most difficult thing about making video content for YouTube is that it feels like I should be spending my time coding Gym Empire instead. However this is one of the hardest challenges when it comes to game development. The challenge of forcing yourself to make time for the non-game dev tasks. Tasks that will ultimately help to support the visibility of the game you are making. Tasks like creating extra content and building and engaging with your community are key to ensuing there is an audience for your game.
The Chronik Spartan Gaming channel is a place where I am able to engage with you guys in a different ways. Helping me o provide you with a different type of content. Ultimately it is all part of the Chronik Spartan Gaming brand. Supporting the game development of Gym Empire. It’s all part of the same gaming journey…
Time Management
I mentioned earlier about the new schedule that has helped to plan my time. Even enable some time for creating new YouTube content. The new schedule is split between game development. Video creation for Chronik Spartan Gaming. And video creation to support my wife’s upcoming channel Content Lifestyle Blog.
Game development this week will continue on data crunching for the saving and loading functionality.
Gym Empire is now available to add to your Steam Wishlist.
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