Game Development

I'm excited to see more once it becomes available. Have already added to wishlist. A couple of thoughts, similar to what some others have voiced:

• Animations are not everything or enough to make a good game. However, attention to detail in animations is a big plus in my book, regardless of graphical quality. It is something that I tend to notice and appreciate.

• Mechanics are fundamental to any game, physical or digital. There's two diametrically opposed directions that I've seen that result in enjoyable games:

1. Mechanics that are optimized for enjoyment rather than strict realism. People play games for entertainment. If a mechanic is extremely frustrating, it will likely cause people to lose interest even if it is extremely realistic. In this approach, such mechanics are tuned or dropped to ensure that the player experience is as good as it can be.

2. Mechanics that are optimized for realism to an excessive degree, with enjoyable gameplay taking a backseat. This is likely to result in a smaller, cult following as many will get frustrated and move on. A good example of this is Dwarf Fortress with its unofficial slogan of "Losing is Fun".

I would strongly suggest leaning towards the former as the latter is a really hard target to hit and the cult following for a game that does hit #2 perfectly may also be delayed until long after release.

• Graphical quality can be very overrated. An enjoyable game with terrible graphics and animation may be very replayable while one with stunning visuals and terrible gameplay may be a flash in the plan that is quickly forgotten. I highly recommend ensuring that graphics are well-optimized so as to allow stutter-free gameplay on even low spec machines, if settings are sufficiently reduced.

Keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing your future progress.