Dev Talk - On the Map

(Bi-weekly reminder to wishlist Personal Trainer on Steam.)

This development cycle had a bit of everything. PT RE, in its current form, is fully playable and largely free of bugs, covering all the existing content of Personal Trainer. I've methodically implemented each event one by one, conducting initial testing and editing with every addition.

On the technical side, there were some coding changes in the backend. These adjustments have made the various modular components of the new system operate more smoothly. While there's still some room for improvement, most of these enhancements can be part of the major polishing phase of development. This will commence after the beta build of PT RE is released on Patreon.

A fresh map and new icons have been integrated, offering a more visually appealing experience compared to the previous bland Open Street Map screenshot. However, the character icons are somewhat hard to distinguish on the map. I plan to explore solutions for this during the polishing stage. I don't have any experience or background in design or UIX at all, but overall I'm mostly satisfied that the UI is uniform and coherent.

Two new locations have been added to the map: Jenna's place and the Park. Jenna's place is a definite keeper, already featuring a couple of repeatable events. The Park's inclusion is still under consideration - if time permits, I will add new repeatable events there; if not, it may be removed.

The primary focus for the next development cycle is on integrating and coding all the new PT RE content, including all the official endings. Each character has at least one epilogue-style ending. I anticipate that most, if not all, of the new content will be implemented in this cycle. What remains afterward is the creation of smaller, repeatable content and general testing before the beta release.

This project is taking longer than originally anticipated, but I'm feeling excited and rejuvenated as we approach the finish line.

Cheers,
Dom