I’ve been making some changes to Phenomenon 32 – beyond the bugfixes, that is. And I’m quite happy with the results so far.
Saving and loading has been altered radically. There is now only one game state – you don’t save/load at all. You just continue playing. This means that when you decide to spend resources on something, you can’t undo the decision. The save is always on the main game map, so you can’t get stuck in a level or anything, and the game autosaves at the beginning of each area and takes you back there if you blow yourself up. I know some people will complain about this system, but I feel that it functions much better.
The game will be a bit easier than it was before. I hope the emphasis will be more on exploration, and not on grinding. Revisiting the same areas is often necessary, of course, but not just to pick up the same five pieces of Quatrium-B over and over. It’s tricky to get the balance 100% right – I also don’t want the game to be too easy – and I may make some more changes in later versions. We’ll see.
Another big change is in how the ship controls. Previously there was just too much inertia, which made it very hard not to run into things. This has been changed completely; the ship now stops instantly when you stop pressing the key. It’s also a tiny bit slower, which should also help.
I’m also taking the opportunity to add a couple more areas and creatures to the game world.
