Gym Empire is the first and only Gym Simulation Management Tycoon game.
Game Development
What is up my fellow Spartans! Long-time no update! I’m sorry about that, but honestly there hasn’t been a whole load of worthwhile game development to update you on. Let me get straight into the specific game development over the past couple of months and then I’ll come back to the why it’s been so long between game development updates.
So what developments have been going on in the world of the simulation management tycoon game Gym Empire.
Previous Development Update
Well in my last update I focused heavily on the gameplay loop. Immediately after that update a lot of work was done to create the gameplay loop and tie it all together. As each piece on the jigsaw fit together, something didn’t feel right. You couldn’t tell what was going on. This was because the visul hints and clues were missing.
With most of the gameplay loop complete, attention turned towards the visual indications to the user. A popup text system was added that shows what each gym client is experiencing and feeling. The visual updates continued as some of the graphical glitches were corrected specifically around the walls and building mode.
Tycoon User Interface
The next in line for maturing was the overall user interface. The need to change the user interface became apparent whilst implementing the gameplay graphs. Graphs are a crucial component of any simulation management game. So it is important to get these right. However they just weren’t working in the current UI environment. Therefore we needed to take a step back and re-evaluate the user interface.
The main HUD has taken quite a bit of constructive criticism over the past few months. And if I’m being honest I was never fully happy with it. I truly believe that a user interface and aesthetic of a game should tie up nicely with the logo and marketing art. The problem was the current Gym Empire logo didn’t provide a strong enough foundation to create a HUD that fit in nicely with the game. Therefore we needed to take yet another step back and re-evaluate the logo.
After some research and taking the advice of some of the awesome community over at the tycoon subreddit. A new logo was born. And I love it! In fact I can’t wait to get it on a t-shirt, lol!
With the new logo in place we were then equipped to create new strong HUD. These two key components now form the foundation for the visual aesthetic of Gym Empire so we can carry on putting some final level maturity to the rest of the game.
Other Developments
When I was developing my first indie game GLO it was very easy to provide weekly updates. First of all the updates were pretty short and lightweight but also developing a platforming game is quicker and dare I say easier than developing a simulation management tycoon game. That meant as I moved through each development task quickly there was always something fun to talk about.
When I started developing Gym Empire I had full intentions to continue with the same type of development updates. However things started to change. I started learning how to write better blogs to achieve better search rankings. At the end of the day I want to reach as many interested people as possible. However writing a better blog takes more time, thought and structure. I couldn’t just bang something out on my mobile in 10 minutes.
Secondly game development started to change. The first year of developing on Gym Empire was very rapid. I was learning a lot of things and the tasks were smaller. I was able to get systems and graphics in place to a good enough position. This was fine because I would always come back and spend more time to update them later on. Meaning I was always able to update you on something fun. However as development continued and I got closer to the alpha demo release, I found myself having to revisit these previous tasks. This time taking more time to develop the systems etc further. At this point the work got more tedious and repetitive. Don’t get me wrong , personally I still love it. However if I was to continue to provide updates at this level you guys would end up feeling like you were in some boring technical update at work!
Interesting Updates
So I made the decision to only update when it is relevant, useful and interesting. I want to involve, inform and entertain you with these game development blogs. Not bore to the point where you never want to read another one again. Also I have multiple avenues for communicating with you all through Twitter, Discord and YouTube now. Each platform providing its own unique focus in the Chronik Spartan world.
If you don’t already, don’t forget to join me on those platforms too, there’s always something going on!
Talking about YouTube, I’ve actually been fortunate enough to be nominated for YouTuber of The Month! I really didn’t expect to be nominated for something so cool in my first year of the channel! The competition is really tight and there are some awesome YouTubers I’m up against but there are literally just a few votes in it. Your vote can genuinely make all the difference! All it takes is a few seconds to make a quick comment.
It would be AMAZING if you could post a comment stating “Chronik Spartan” on the video below to make your vote! Thank you 🙂
Time Management
It is important to have a strong visual style when players first get their hands on Gym Empire. Now with the strong visual foundation in place the next areas of development will focus on maturing the rest of the look a feel to a point where Gym Empire is ready to be put in players hands.
Gym Empire is now available to add to your Steam Wishlist.
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