Post Jam Review

Voting for the LowRezJam 2020 has ended. I am not sure if you can see the results as a non-participant, but CovidFighter came in 87th with 13 ratings. The total number of entries was 368. That  is  about 76%, a C+. which is not bad for a jam this size. But I was scratching my head, there were a lot of "Make a hot dog" games that beat me. My map maker said that this is more a popularity contest and to use the comments I received as a true measure of how the game did. The comments were mostly positive, and the issues are easily fixable. I have decided to keep working on the game to finish it. But what exactly does finished look like? After discussing it with the team and the jam community, here is the release plan (as of now) on what we will work on for the next set of releases.

I am a very open developer and love feedback. If there is some feature or thing you want to see improved post it in the comments below!

Covid Fighter Road-map

Covid Fighter V0.1 was release on LowRezJam 2020 on Aug 16, 2020, and the bug fix V0.2

It was a very limited product and it does not hit all the things I wanted. This is a road-map of features that I want to add for the product. The plan is to do a release each month with significant features while slowly adding Maps to complete the content. Each release has a theme about the features it is added and they are in the order needed to implement the follow up features of the next release. I have six releases planned, but you know how it goes.... Your mileage may vary. Things may be discovered along the way which may require another release.

Release 1 - RezBreak
Estimated date October 5th

The first release is about breaking out of the limited lowrezjam limits. We do not want to break out of the lowrez style, just open up the canvas size to fit whatever screen size there is, and likely double the pixels per inch for the shapes.

•  Redraw sprites - The player and citizens are 16x16 which is very limiting. We will try 32x32 to give us a bit more detail without breaking the style.
• Resolution Independent code -  A lot of stuff is hard coded to 64x64 pixels. The code needs to be gone over the make it work with whatever resolution and ratio it is playing in. 
• Smooth! - The first release was setup with pixel snapping to give it that exact 64x64 image. We can remove pixel snapping which will allow the sprites to smoothly scroll across the screen. its amazing how much it improves gameplay. 
• Details - There are some tile details that need fixing, this would be a good time to clean up and complete some artwork. This will also mean an upgrade to the screens for the title, credits, player picker, USA map, travel cutscene.
• Your my Type - The screen text was really tiny (a 3x5 pixel font) and sometimes unreadable. We will change the font, keeping the bit style but now you can read it clearly, and have more text on the screen.
• More HUD - With the limited screen from the first release the HUD was super scant. Now we have the real estate to make a complete HUD for the tools. Also we will add the asked for "reload bar for spray".
• Add more maps - Did you know there was a popularity list of the different states? We will being going down that list for the order. Next up is Florida, Colorado, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, North Carolina. (We already did California, New York and Texas which are the other three in the top ten) https://www.areavibes.com/library/americas-favorite-states-cities/

(The rest of the release info is just the synopsis. A more detailed breakdown will be listed after the previous release)

Release 2 - Setting the Stage

Upgrade the Cut Scene engine. This is the code that tells you the story using text screens. It needs to be updated for the larger screen. That means added artwork, possible animations, etc. Update the minimap, add legend to it and icons for key locations. Add road signs to locations on ornaments.  May have time to animate some tilesets.

Release 3 - Big Brain

This release will be about upgrading the AI in the game. We left out a lot of AI features due to time, now we can add them in. Add a Statistics screen showing the status of the game, time/date, points, ammo, etc. Adding tracking for time of day and date. Modify AI to change behavior of citizens for weather, work schedule, holidays, etc. Track their mood, add events for protests, mask removing. Start keeping score/political/research points. Add research centers.

Release 4 - Toolbox

Due to the limited time (I think this is about the fifth time I said this) we only gave the player a spray can of disinfectant, and a mask launcher. We have a lot more tools to add, and a store/research tree to unlock them. Area Closed signs, more mask capacity, stronger masks, better contact tracing, better map tracing, longer lasting spray, relaxing spray (chill out people), Disinfectant stations, masking stations. Purchasable population restrictions like quarantines, social distancing, etc.

Release 5 - The Jet-Set Crowd

Remove the limitation of a single state. As the agent you travel to other states while the pandemic is going on. Work with the spread at a national level. Update screens to display state by state statistics. (I think this mode will be really hard to play) Try to get all states done. Remember its not just the agent that can travel across states, the population can too and along with it the virus.