Contrary to what I imagine is the case for most hobby game developers, the weekend is usually not my most productive time.  I tend to do most of my development during the weeks in the evening when I'm already in work mode.

Despite that, some progress is worth reporting over the last couple of days.

First I began implementing the recruitment panel.  In the recruitment area, you can recruit people, mercenaries, and generals.  I completed the mechanical work on the people recruitment which is an important step as this allows you to effectively spend happiness to gain more people to your city state to manage.  It's a trade-off but it's a much faster way to get people into your city then the slow population growth.

The nice thing about the addition of this mechanic is that I can really start to feel The Last Dragon becoming an actual game.  Slowly but surely there are more gadgets to play with and city management, one of the three key elements of the game, is coming along nicely.

My goal is to have both the Army and Generals recruitment ready by Monday, so that starting next week I can focus a bit more on the other two pillars of the game (Event-Based Story and Tactical combat).

It might seem weird to jump around, rather than simply finish each part of the game, but I personally find that working on things that steer the gameplay, helps me to figure out the design.  Unlike professional game developers, while I do have a basic design document, I don't have every inch of the game mapped out.  A lot of this game is going to be designed based on "feel" of how it plays at any given point.  As such it helps me to visualize the game when I have all of the different elements in a working state.

For example, knowing how tactical combat will work, helps me to adapt and adjust elements of city management, as well as to understand the pace of the game and how I might balance different elements.  Also, the story events are an important element because I plan for this to be a "system" that impacts player decisions, so the game won't be as simple as managing a city, raising an army, and fighting.  The player will have other "things" to do, to progress the story that will force them to make less optimal choices when managing their city for example or deciding where to attack.

All of these things have to work together to make a cohesive whole and while I feel I'm definitely on the right track, I really want to get the core of the tactical combat developed as soon as possible.  I think once the recruitment panel is complete, the core of what I need to do is ready.

That's it for today!