Fossil Sweeper - minesweeper meets palaeontology (was Bonesweeper)

Since that video arrived a little late, it's now out of date. I've found time to cross a couple of items off the remaining items covered in the "looking ahead" section. Here's a quick look!

I've re-implemented skeleton size variation (weighted for adults, but also allowing for less-common itty-bitty-saurs). This was present in my first pass on the Assembly phase, but I'd temporarily taken it out while integrating it with the rest of the game. The skeletons and poses here are still placeholder, of course ^_^

I've also finally gotten around to implementing non-square dig sites, which a) help make digs feel a bit less "samey," and b) give a point of difference from traditional Minesweeper that's less subtle and easier to convey than stuff like the excavation mechanic, limited-use special abilities, mistakes not giving an immediate game over, etc..

Organic-shaped Dig sites don't have as big an impact on the feel of playing as those other things, but for prospective players who haven't yet gotten interested enough to invest time in thinking through the gameplay implications, this will hopefully act as a superficial hook and increase the chances of a "Oh, maybe it is different from Minesweeper" type thought.

Here's another Fossil Sweeper progress update video. A short one this time, looking at a new dig gameplay option, assembly fixes, and museum editing interface work!

I've settled on something that's close to isometric (it's not orthographic since I can't animate from a perspective camera to an orthographic one) for the museum editing interface, and I've implemented a new dig gameplay option that allows for much faster play.

April video time! This is a short one, but I feel like it marks a couple of significant milestones!
The game now has all the music it needs (although just after publishing the video, I found some notes where Peter and I had discussed an additional track - whether or not that's necessary is something I'm feeling flexible on though, so we'll see!
I've also finally put an implementation for wall and ceiling placement into test builds, and have added wall and ceiling variants for the placeholder informational display. I've also updated lights to be proper MuseumItems so that they can be moved around, added to the player's inventory, and saved/loaded.
I'm looking forward to getting back to other aspects of the game soon - my next focus will be nailing down how I'm presenting Dig phase environments, which I'm looking forward to!

It’s been a super busy month with other projects (a game I was doing contract work on came out a couple of days ago \o/). I still found time to do a little more museum work though.

Another very busy month, but I'm slowly starting to feel like I'm getting some momentum back. Over the past month or so, I've been working on Dig environment backgrounds to help convey a better sense of place. The solutioin that I think is giving me the best/most appropriate results at the moment is a simple hightmap (first impressions from after the period this video covers are looking good!)

Another month, another devlog! Over the past month, I've mostly been focused on Dig phase environment background work, making snowy mountains look like snowy mountains, sandy deserts look like sandy deserts, and beaches look like beaches, but this video gives focus to the effort and thought that the game's composer Peter Silk put into the soundtrack.

Some of the new Dig backgrounds are visible in the video, but to highlight the impact changes are having, here's a comparison with a screenshot from June. Look at those distant hills ^_^

Very late mid-month Fossil Sweeper progress update video. Still got a ways to go, but dig site environments are feeling like they're coming together.

Working on updating grass has been fun. I was surprised at just how far I could push my original texture by copying it a few times. I need to come up with some optimisation strategies in order to make full use of these, but I've got some ideas that I'm looking forward to playing with.

Running very late with last month's video - other projects and dumb admin stuff sucked up a whole ton of my time, but I managed to make a start on chat integration

housatic I haven't been very loud about it so far, but I'm getting close to a point where I need to start thinking about marketing

Very late again this month, but slowly getting on top of things! Coordinate labels and more chat integration stuff this time

Another very late one! Still haven't found my cadence - still going to try to get the next one out before the end of December so that I can say I got on top of things before the end of the year >_<

More chat integration work, this time iterating on Assembly phase chat integration to find something that's readable and fits with gameplay

One last update video before the year is out! I've been doing more chat integration work, this time focusing on the Map phase, and I also found time to address a couple of minor cosmetic bugs that I'm glad to not be seeing every day anymore \o/

Finally have the January video out! This time I cover recessing Dig sites for increased readability, a new auto-flag setting that I think will be an important accessibility setting, and adding a couple more chat integration features

Another month, another progress update video! This past month, I've mostly been doing QOL stuff like making it harder to accidentally misclick when your cursor is near the edge of a tile, but this video is a bumper one that looks back on development across 2024.

SkyshipDev Yeah! There are some really fun synergies there - it was a natural progression for me when trying to think about what would a Minesweeper style game would look like if I made it.

Explosions are boring, death as a consequence is boring, unexploded ordinances are boring unless the legacy and impact of them is explored, etc.. At its core, Minesweeper is about searching for clues that reveal the location of things. You're searching for buried treasure, and the most exciting buried treasure is dinosaurs \o/

Nearly on time with this month's mid-month update video! This time, looking at some camera transition stuff, and a bunch of misc work in the Map phase