PCG 2024 Shareholders Report

[A figure in the shape of Bradley Potato is waiting. Has been waiting- minutes or weeks or centuries; muttering heartbeat, invisible breath, radiant awareness. A striped full-body bathing suit clings to the flesh, and a knit octopus mask hides the face. Sitting at the back of a raised obsidian altar, engulfed in a metallic throne of gleaming blades, half hidden in menacing chiaroscuro.]

[The kneeling throng of billionaires are careful to keep their eyes lowered to the imposing figure, their oozing sweat saturating the air as pulsating blue-flamed braziers, more organ than stone, cast nightmarish suggestions of forgotten trauma among the reverent faithful.]

[In a back corner, an odd man-shape in a rubber rooster mask and a sloppy 'Occupy Mars' t-shit fiddles with a tangle of sparking wires and fleshy circuitry labeled 'Trump Resurrection Crucible' in gold-embossed comic sans against a glowing plate of lapis lazuli. Startled, as if suddenly noticing the crowd, it makes a final adjustment and scurries to a podium and microphone at the front of the altar.]

ROOSTER: We accumulate in this darkness, the wretched honored, sycophant scum bums & trash juicers all, to celebrate in the orgasmic pain of our filth. Bless this mess, my Lord Pope CEO...

[Trembling in ecstatic fear, Rooster looks to the octopus-masked figure, who raises a skeletal hand in casual benediction.]

ROOSTER: Amen.

SHAREHOLDERS: AMEN.

[The sound echoes as if clinging to the walls, a liquid thing that lingers and recedes, finally, despite itself.]

ROOSTER: I will endeavor to be as brief as I am unworthy. The money is bangarang and the sacrament of shame is palpable. A shame not easily buried, though our shovels be the finest, black soil most desperate for airways, a dirt passionate to suffocate in slime and worm and sand. But in the glow of Potato we are baptised forever.

OCTOPUS: [stands]

SHAREHOLERS: [stand]

OCTOPUS: [sits]

SHAREHOLDERS: [kneel]

ROOSTER: Forever & ever, Amen.

[The blue flames extinguish themselves and darkness hangs for a terrible moment, pregnant with a mischievous sickness, before the fluorescent lights click on, and the high school gymnasium is bathed in embarrassing clarity. The gathered faithful scatter in silent panic, acolyte cockroaches awoken from fever dream, crevices of deep gloom wailing their siren call.]

[Rooster returns to its corner, finding a mop and a bucket, and begins to clean up, as per the agreement with the high school janitor, as octopus mask, Lord Pope CEO, old timey swimmer in the shape of Bradley Potato, watches in ticking silence.]

Big City Trucking

As ever, progress this month was slower than expected (I choose to blame cheery optimism rather than a crippling lack of self-awareness), but I am stoked with how the city stations turned out. I'm giving up on my arbitrary "v5 before '25" deadline, but I shouldn't be TOO far off.

City Stations Complete!

The new city stations are considerably larger than the old ones, measuring 10 km across and presenting a whole new docking vibe. My goal was to make city arrivals feel a bit like pulling off a highway exit after a long roadtrip. NPC ship traffic will eventually drive this point home (scheduled for the eventual 'province updates'), but I'm really happy with how it feels for now.

New City Model

Approaching the Canada City arrivals gate

Navigating Canada City

I really underestimated how much modeling work there was to do here, and I'll admit that I phoned some of it in. The city interior is kind of a mess and I'm still working through some lighting & optimization issues, but I'm calling it good enough for now; it's a huge improvement over the old city stations and I think it was time well spent.

A Nicer Looking Solis System

I'm now getting to work on finishing the planetary makeovers that I started on in the last update. The major problem was that the planet generator that I implemented (c/o Sebastian Lague) doesn't support craters. Sebastian did end up revising his generator to do just that, but rather than trying to integrate that into my existing code I just said 'fuck it' and decided to model the cratered bodies by hand in Blender.

It's going well so far! I think? I only have 4 cratered bodies to make, including the Ceres-inspired dwarf planet that I'll be adding this month, tentatively named Svartalheim. Get it, DWARF planet? Anyway, Mirchick is almost done, check it out:

Mirchick model WIP

Mirchick Shader WIP

Coming Up Next

I feel like I've written the same damn thing under this heading for the past half a year, but at least the station exteriors are finally done. Anyway, the roadmap hasn't changed: finish these planets & moons, redo the station interiors, fix a bunch of bugs, release this bad boy.

Like I said, I'm not going to stress about finishing v5 this year. I can feel myself easing into a burnout phase but I've got a bunch of time off from work in December & January. The trick will be finding the right balance between getting shit done & chilling the fuck out. I'll do my best! See you on the other side.

The Great Space Station Redesign Continues

The new station exteriors are coming along nicely, and I'm having a surprisingly good time working on them. Graphics have always been a headache for me, as you probably know because I bitch about it all the time, but it's pretty exciting seeing things come together as I slowly dial in a visual style for Black Road Sky.

Improving Upon The Cube

The small space stations, which I am now calling 'depot class', are complete. These are replacing the cube stations such as Laika Orbital. Nothing against the cube (I still like it, and some version of it will probably return eventually), but I think this brings more visual interest and feels a bit more believable as a space station. I gave it a modular design, so I can add more shit later: cargo drop off, external refueling dock, who knows. I had a lot of fun making it, and maybe I'm deceiving myself here, but I like to think that it shows.

Laika Orbital

Outpost Class Stations

The medium sized stations (e.g. Gagarin), now called 'outpost class', are also complete! While the new depots are significantly smaller than the old cubes, these outposts are pretty comparable in size to the old designs. But I think they look a hell of a lot cooler.

Gagarin Station

Looking sick as hell from the dark side

The hangar is smaller than before, and the terminals for refueling and managing contracts will be closer to the hangar exit, reducing the tedious running back & forth. Eventually there will be more to do in the stations, but for now access will be limited to this dock & commercial services area. Here's a little map of how I imagine these stations to eventually flesh out:

Outpost Map

Coming Up Next

I was really hoping to have the city stations done by now, but I've just barely started on them. These are going to be massive, and provide a different docking challenge than the other stations. Now that I'm in the groove, I'm confident that they should be ready in about a week.

After that, it's finally back to working on the visuals for the planets & moons. Some of them are starting to look pretty stale in comparison to the new space stations, and I'm looking forward to giving them a bit of a make over. The next step after that will be the new station interiors (which will be fairly limited for now), then it's on to bug fixing and polishing for a version release!

The Great Space Station Redesign

I'm changing gears and getting back to work on graphics, which isn't my favorite thing in the world but it's going well (if slowly) and providing a refreshing change from input & UI work.

Input System Refinements Complete

The final push was more work than expected, but I think everything's working now. There are still a few things I'd like to add, but those can wait for a post full release update some time in the year 3003. The UI is nothing to write home about, but considering how bad I am at UI, I think it's more than passable.

A New Space Station in the Works

With the updated input system finished, it's time to move on to graphics. This update is turning out to be pretty slim in terms of new features and gameplay, and to make up for that I want to put a little extra effort into making the game look better. So, deep breath, I'm finally doing it: I'm redesigning the space stations.

I've been putting this off for a few reasons: first, I'm going to have to do it again eventually with the province updates. Second, it's always a huge pain changing anything that's been in the game for so long, forcing me to revisit old code and untangle my own spaghetti. And finally, because I hate fucking with graphics. But who knows how many years away those province updates are, and this is some pretty low-hanging fruit in terms of making the game look better, so I decided to take the plunge.

And you know what? I don't hate it this time! I'm starting with redesigning the exterior of the small platform stations and I'm actually pretty happy with how it's going.

This is a work in progress. There's still a lot of work to do, visually and otherwise. You can't actually dock with it yet, but I made the landing platform significantly smaller, requiring a much more precise landing and hopefully providing a little bit of a challenge.

Landing Platform Size Comparison

Coming Up Next

Once I finish this station, I'll be redoing the exterior design of the other two station sizes as well. I don't expect to get through more than that this month. I want to redesign the interiors as well, but before that I'll probably revisit the planet generator and get the rest of the planets and moons up to par. That'll all be a lot of work, but I want to be able to focus on gameplay & simulation in the next few updates so getting all of this out of the way will free me up to do that without the game looking like shit in the meantime.

Chugga Chugga CHOO CHOO All A-Fucking-Board

For the first time in what feels like for god damn ever, development is rolling along at a reasonable pace. I lost a good couple of weeks to my job, which is always busy this time of year, but I didn't let it derail me & things are chugging along like a proper train analogy.

Ship Customization System Complete

You can change the color of shit. It's done. On the one hand, I'm frustrated at how lackluster it turned out; the final product is in no way indicative of (or justified by) the amount to time that went into it. You win this one, sunk cost fallacy. That said, it feels good to be moving on, and I think I learned some things about myself as a developer and how to recognize when I'm digging myself into a hole. And, negativity aside, it IS kind of fun to play with.

Optimus Prime

Black Gold

Planet Express

Input System Refinements Nearly Complete

This was one of the major goals for this update and it's been going pretty smoothly. Except that both of my flight sticks are busted, so I couldn't test it all as thoroughly as I'd like to, and I wasted a couple of days opening them up and putting them back together like, "yup, still busted." I can't really justify spending money on a new one right now, so whatever. I was still able to test with a throttle, rudder pedals, and X-Box 360 controller, so good enough, I think.

Anyway, the UI has been revamped to provide the room for growth that the coming updates will require. A slider for deadzone adjustments and a full/split toggle is now available for every bound axis. These were sort of already in the code, I mostly just had to expose them via UI. There's still a little more work to do here but nothing major.

A fun little side effect: as I was adding a few missed controls to the system (most notably the run button), I remembered that I had added a secret flashlight to the game some time ago. I needed it to debug some lighting issues or something, but never got around to including an in-game button for turning it on & off. Well, now there is one!

Spooky!

More Cuts >:D

Adding to list of shit for future me to handle, I've decided not to worry about the pilot reputation system for this update. It will definitely be a thing eventually, but it won't be a major gameplay factor until I flesh out the provinces. For now it was just going to be a number that you can make go up, it wasn't going to add much, and I'd rather get back to focusing on the simulation side of things as soon as possible.

Coming Up Next

Once I wrap up the input system refinements, it's on to graphics work. Space station lighting needs a rework, and I'm kind of thinking about redoing the space stations altogether. I'd also like to get some work done on the planet generator and start revamping some of the old planets & moons. And that'll round out the last of the major planned features for this update! Still a ways to go, but a version release is starting to feel within reach.

Slowing Down to Speed Up: BRS Development Back in the Groove

I'm finally back to making progress and, more importantly, not hating it! Unsolicited life pro-tip: allow yourself to take breaks. Sometimes you have to slow down in order to speed up (that's an orbital mechanics joke).

Scaling Back on Interior Customization

I've refactored the interior design system for color customization only. The model swapping system had some bugs to work out, and complicated the UI; these are both fixable issues, but I just kind of want to move on. I'm trying to get better at recognizing non-critical work that can be saved for future me, and I think this qualifies.

I also reworked the interior design UI a bit while I was at it. It's still ugly and I'd like to give it another pass before release, but it's good enough for now if I don't get around to messing with it again.

SPACE TRUCK

While the current Chonky Boi ship is certainly an improvement over the previous design, I'm still not super happy with it. Since I've decided to mostly hold off on the exterior customization system, I wanted to rework the model a bit for the next update. I made a bunch of little changes, then unexpectedly spent way too much time making this campy new cockpit, obviously inspired by classic American semi trucks:

10-4, good buddy

A bit too on-the-nose, perhaps, and I think it comes off as more goofy than cool, but I actually had fun making it. I feel like my modeling skillz are slowly improving; or, at least, I'm becoming more patient with the process. Anyway, "more goofy than cool" kind of sums up my whole vibe, so I'm sticking with it for now.

Exterior Customization

Work on customizable exterior colors is coming along quickly. I was able to reuse a lot of the work I did for the interior, both in terms of the UI and the actual functionality. It's clearly not quite finished yet, but here's a quick video to show where it's at:

So the code is written and the UI is in place, I just need a little more time to finish hooking them together and to get it all working with the save system. I should be able to wrap this customization nonsense up early next week.

Coming Up Next

With the ship customization boondoggle out of the way, I'll be moving on to input system refinements. I don't think this should take more than a week or so, but I haven't even looked at that code in like 3 years, so ... who knows. After that it's on to another round of graphical improvements; I have a ton of things that I want to do, but I'll be paring the list down to just a few things that I can finish in a reasonable amount of time. What are those things? I don't know! Tune in next month and we'll find out together.

Boring Update - TL;DR I'm getting Back To Work

Spending some time away from development has allowed me to reevaluate what I'm trying to get out this update, and to get some perspective on why I've been having so much trouble getting my ass into gear. No need to go into too much detail, I don't think, but here's where I'm at:

I really don't care about ship customization. I want it to be a feature eventually, but it's not mission critical, and it's just not something that I personally care about as a player. I got it into my head that if it was going to happen at all then it needed to happen now, but it can totally wait. So I'm reducing the scope pretty dramatically; I'm keeping the ability to change interior colors, but not models, and it should be easy enough to do the same for the exterior. That's good enough for now.

I still need to spend some time reworking the input system, and that actually does need to happen now, before I start adding more cockpit controls. This will probably be boring work, but it shouldn't take too long.

I'm still going to do some work on planet/moon redesigns, but only until it gets boring or frustrating. I don't need to do it all at once.

And I've got some bugs to fix, but when don't I?

That's it, that's the next version. Just a minor update before finally moving on to ship systems. I'm still pretty busy this month, so I don't expect to get a ton done, but I'm feeling good & ready to get back in the groove.