Fossil Sweeper - minesweeper meets palaeontology (was Bonesweeper)

Erich_L Thanks!

In general though, I'm not sure that the advice you've given is particularly helpful even if I hadn't shipped the prototype mentioned in the first post/didn't have testers giving feedback on the game along the way/hadn't had my GDD externally assessed as part of my grant application process. I have difficulty reconciling how strongly worded it was with just how much assumption it seems to carry.

Everybody works differently of course, but broadly speaking, there is a lot of value from a project management perspective in front-loading your unknowns as a way of managing the impact of things taking longer than expected. For this reason, the map and museum were the very first things I gave attention to when I started production, and that initial work has allowed me to more reliably plan the rest of development.

On a more direct note, if the core premise of my project is "Minesweeper with metaprogression" as explained in the thread, recommending that all metaprogression elements be removed comes across as very dismissive of the game's concept - there may be valid reasons to question the value of the premise/structure, but calling completed functionality "deadly feature creep" and not elaborating on why you see it that way/what shortcomings you see within it doesn't explore that in the way that asking questions and explaining reasoning would.

Since I've received funding do develop the game at its current scope, your recommended cuts would be particularly dangerous/risky for this project. The grant mentioned in the first post and each video carries obligations, and if I am found to be in breach of my contract, that will have consequences that would affect more than just this game. From where I'm sitting, that's a much bigger risk to the project and my livelihood than some potential scope creep.

I've been making games in some form or another for over 30 years now. I like discussing and sharing my work in the hopes that it gives some perspectives/empowerment to others. I often do see people struggling to deal with overscoping or navigating necessary scope changes - they're real hurdles that nearly everybody faces, but I've come to learn that recommendations are less valuable and surface fewer learning opportunities than offering thoughtful perspectives.

I don't know if any of that is likely to be helpful, but I hope it explains why cutting bigger/scarier features out or leaving them for later isn't a good fit with how I make things. I will, of course, be sure to use the same accent for all of my future dev log videos

Last devlog video for this year! I've been focused on other projects having birthdays/anniversaries, so I decided to pad this video out with a look back at my first year of production on this game. It was fun to dig up old recordings/concept art (and sketch out the new piece seen at 06:36 while waiting for a draft cut to render). Enjoy!

Running very late on my usual mid-month video

JusTiCe8 Hi! Thanks for your kind words!

JusTiCe8 From the last dev log although, it looks like there are too much focus on museum/dinosaur/collecting/assembling stuff and not so much on mine sweeping, which, I suppose, is still the core of the game, you may have to be careful with that and don't neglect the core part.

Is there something specific that you think isn't getting enough attention? My focus right now is to get every phase playable to a minimum level. The Dig phase is already there and has been for a long time, so lately other phases have been getting more attention.

JusTiCe8 Also, from devlog 6 video, the mine sweeping game looks odd to me, I see blank space filled with "dirt", I guess, and a number, it doesn't look natural

Fossil Sweeper isn't a direct re-creation of Minesweeper and has some additional mechanics. One is that when you clear all the "dirt" from around a fossil, it is considered "excavated" and added to your inventory. These are left on the playspace so that you can have an idea of what you've acquired and see where it came from.

Another difference is that if you smash a fossil, it's not an immediate game over. The tiles you're referring to are the equivalent of an "excavated" tile, but without a fossil on it (because it's been smashed). At the moment, this is a little more intuitive with audio, though I generally mute that for the progress update videos. I'll be coming back to do more visual passes on the Dig phase at a later stage, and with that will come VFX, etc. to better communicate that something has been destroyed.

Another month, another video!

Running a bit late again, but there's some fun stuff in this month's video, including a visualisation of how fossil chunks flow through the game's various gameplay phases now that a bare bones (ho ho ho) version of the Research phase is implemented.

For those of you who haven't been able to elaborate on what you think is missing from the Dig phase, maybe some of the biome stuff at the start of the video might put you at ease.

Enjoy!

Running very late again this month, but here's the video - this time talking about the Research phase background and some small quality-of-life tweaks. Enjoy!

Whoops, completely forgot to share the May progress update video, so here's a double whammy with this month's. The past few weeks have been pretty slow, but after wrapping up a bunch of other commitments, I'm looking forward to getting back on track.

Whoops, forgot to post this month's video - better late than never! I've been continuing to work on museum interaction mechanics, which are getting close enough to ready that I'll be migrating that stuff to a more final implementation soon (at the moment, the museum phase is the only one that isn't extending my gameplay Phase class and is still based on a lot of temp framework I put together early in development)

Whoops, I forgot to post August's, but here's the September video. Been continuing to work on museum stuff mostly. Added a new dig ability too ^_^

Thanks, people!

MikeCL Thanks!

A little late, but here's the January video. Mostly museum interface work again, with gamepad controls nearly completely up and behaving now. This video also includes a recap of and reflections on the 2nd year of development. Enjoy!

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.