Check out the official Roadmap for the game here!
This devlog comes a little late than planned due to the update that comes alongside it. I'm proud to announce Synthaar has achieved its first milestone, focusing on the development of the homestead, the basic needs of characters, and the foundations for which the rest of the game shall build upon! The roadmap has been updated, and now development will march on toward our second milestone; relationships and progeny!
Hands down, the most difficult part of accomplishing this first milestone is getting the AI to work and work well. While there are still a few kinks and unknown bugs to find and work out, of course, the AI of Synthaar is able to sustain its characters, utilize objects with intelligence, and prevent collisions, crashes and errors while doing so. With being able to take care of the basic needs with basic items, this opens the door to begin creating new and more diverse items in which to buy, furnish the homestead with, and make life easier for characters overall. Being able to buy nicer and more efficient items is one of the keystones to progression in any life simulator.
Unfortunately, because so much has been focused on refining and cleaning up systems rather than adding content, it has been difficult to showcase new things in Synthaar, as it is difficult to show how a character is more capable of keeping themselves alive than perhaps showing a new piece of furniture or building option. Moving on, new content will be provided alongside new systems, as many of the fundamental systems have been put into place and are operational.
With this milestone complete, the next milestone is focused on relations, building your legacy through offspring, venturing out into commercial and communal lots to meet new people, and managing your family tree and the memories made along the way. As characters are not able to live forever, it is important that they secure their lineage with children. Children will be able to be conceived through natural and scientific methods, and grow from infancy, to childhood, and beyond.
It is exciting to see Synthaar progress into becoming the game that was envisioned, and quite a challenge with the complexity of the systems that are going into its overall simulation. Smaller improvements, bug fixes and more features will of course be implemented even if they are not explicitly laid out in the roadmap, and due to my rather eclectic design style, some progress on future milestone markers will be furthered as needed.
Stay tuned every other Tuesday (or around Tuesday, sometimes!) for a new Devlog regarding the development of Synthaar! Thank you so much to those who have been interested in my game. Please join our Discord for more information, and check out Synthaar on Steam and Itch.io!
