That escalated quickly!

Strap in test pilot!

The weapons testing tool grew legs. Due to the dependencies within the game object the scope expanded to manage the entire object rather than just the weapons. Which sounds dangerous if you read all the indie groups, scope creep is a killer. If you code professionally then scope creep can be a very serious issue and burn a lot of cash. Pleasingly, it has turned out to be a huge help. I'm coding the tool in Python which I'm more adept at using compared to GML, the language used within the GameMaker engine. So it has kind of turned into a proof of concept for my most complex game objects. The code has been kept generic, in line with my templated approach. I can use this model for enemies and player alike, with game controllers controlling the enemy objects. Without giving the game away lol the code can also be used for game objects I thought would need different system. I can also use it for other game projects I had in mind. So I've massiveley reduced my development time and code base. Which means efficiency and lower support overheads.

I still need to transpose the Python code into GML. But I know what the behaviour should look like so I can compare the output of the GML code. It is also easier to copy logic than create new logic. So I don't have to worry about the logic and just concentrate on the GML syntax which helps the GML leraning curve. Basically I've broken the problem down into architecture and unfamiliar syntax allowing me to tackle the issues separately.

The next stage is enemy AI but with a finite state machine sat ready to use with all the behaviour it needs it should be fairly easy to implement. I do feel as things in my game are coming to life. I'm still unsure how far off the final goal is but I think as long as I'm making progress the project is entirely achievable despite it being very ambitious for a newbie game dev. I did have a brief look at the graphics workflow and what I want to do seems possible. I've also been researching the voice, sound effects and music. Including an idea for adaptive music. Even though I'm not musically inclined, with FL Studio and lot of samples I don't think it is beyond me. Surely adaptive music is just a question of having different tracks defined and transitions between them. So just take one track off loop, run the transition and run the new loop. Regardless I'm not paying for sound engineers and artists so I'm going to have to rise to the challenge.

I also ran the story past my wife to get a none gamers perspective. I think diverse opinion will help greatly with the non-technical aspects of the game.