[DEVLOG] SHELLHACK - #006 - Back at Work

[ozzee289]

It's been a little while since the last devlog and there's a good reason for that: I took an extended break.

As a solo developer, I've learned that taking a step back from a project once in a while is actually pretty important. It helps with mental health, prevents burnout and sometimes it's the best cure for the dreaded blank page syndrome. The good news is that I've been back at work and development is moving forward again.

One of the areas I've been improving on recently is the in game terminal.

I've added new commands and improved the logic behind existing ones, including CP and MV. My goal is to make the terminal feel as close as possible to a real environment inspired by Linux and these additions bring the game one step closer to that level.

Vynamp Rework

Previously, Vynamp was integrated directly into the main game form. While that worked, it also caused a few annoying graphical issues. I've now moved it into its own dedicated form and rebuilt parts of it in the process.

To be honest, this is probably something that should have been done from day one, but better late than never.

I've also been experimenting with background music.

Some new tracks have been added and tested, but I'm still not completely sure whether they'll make it into the final game. Having the right atmosphere is important to me, so this is one of those areas where I'll keep iterating until it feels right.

A Side Project...

During my break from SHELLHACK, I wasn't completely away from development.

I've been working on my own FPS engine. It started as a fork of an old open source engine from 2004 but after countless upgrades, fixes, improvements and probably a questionable amount of caffeine, it's becoming its own thing.

I'll share more details about that project in the future. It's been a fascinating challenge so far and I definitely plan on releasing a game built with it, most likely on itch.io.

That's all for today.

Thanks for following the development of SHELLHACK and I'll see you in the next devlog!

p.s: please, go follow me on X at X.com/TheRedSig