Thank you for your always kind encouragements. Going the distance is, I think, the single most challenging aspect of solo game development. I’ve been doing okay in the past, which I owe to my personality; I get very upset when I give up on something I set out to do, even to an unreasonable degree.
Still this game is more complex than anything I’ve attempted before and sometimes I’m concerned about the long road ahead of me. But truth is that I have better odds of finishing a “big” game that I’m passionate about than a small one I don’t care for.
Now I declare the exterior views done, but I still have aircrafts, more animals and other small things I don’t want to spoil, but it’s at a point where I feel confident enough to move forward. I want to try and bring features to 85% in order to get a sense of the loop and the flow of the full game as quickly as possible, and then come back to polish / add less non crucial content.
Thank you for sharing your opinion on the illustrations. I tend to agree with you but there’s no rush to decide. In the end, all things being equal, if I can’t find a definitive advantage for either option, I always go for the less difficult or time consuming, which would be the silhouettes in this case.
I will have an interactive tutorial to teach the player every aspect of the game, including how to read the gauges, but it may not be enough now that you point this out. I’m going to add white and grey arcs on each side, which will be the “best” and “average” zones, similar to the range. In fact I should make sure every gauge has a similar color code. I think this may be an effective and elegant solution. I’m glad that you asked the question. Thank you for this.