The Awesome Theory

	Serious progress... seriously!
	Behind schedule but all milestones are made up anyway!
	Friday, June 17th, 2022 - 7:36pm

Please note that I update the Discord way more often than I update this site, so if you're curious about what is going on with the game development, please check in there - the link is at the top of the page and at the bottom of most posts.

I've made tons of progress over the 7 months since I last posted here, though I have still not released the game for more of an open beta. I finished the dungeon redesign I referenced below, added offline progress, and pretty much completely fixed saving. I feel like there are still some things that need to be done before I get more people to come play it - too many things are half done. I am working furiously towards completing those things and hope to advertise it to a wider audience soon, but I won't make the mistake of settling on a date again. When I think it is ready, I'll do it. Meanwhile, check it out if you haven't... or done! Whatever you want!

Here is the Discord server link again if you want to come chat at me about this game, or about The Awesome Theory of old - https://discord.gg/WfgRppGKT6.

Screenshots!

Stay awesome!

	Still plugging away
	At this rate, I'll be almost done in a couple years!
	Sunday, November 28th, 2021 - 9:53pm

Wow, 10+ months later and I am still working on this thing and it is still not ready for primetime! That is what I get for going so ambitious for a first project. The current goal is to finish up a few things I need to do to make the game more palatable for a discerning audience and then open up the beta testing aperture to some curated strangers in January. I need to finish the dungeon redesign to make it an active event with choices, have offline progress be a thing, and fix the dumb saving issue.

Here is the Discord server link again if you want to come chat at me about this game, or about The Awesome Theory of old - https://discord.gg/WfgRppGKT6.

Screenshots!

Stay awesome!

	A thing exists!
	And you can play it, too!
	Sunday, January 10th, 2021 - 9:09pm

A short little update here, because I am too busy making this game to write too much. The big news right now, though, is that the game is online and available to play - though be advised it is a testing build and nowhere near ready for primetime. But at least you can get an idea of what it will be like. I am still enjoying making it and I am learning a bunch about Unity and C# constantly. I am taking a Master's Degree class right now (3 left after this one!) so that is slowing me down, but the tentative plan is to try and have this ready for a real release in November. I am going to get back to it now!

Play the game here -> Awesome Theory Idle (It loads a little slow and the progress bar doesn't work, just be patient!)

Here is the Discord server link again if you want to come chat at me about this game, or about The Awesome Theory of old - https://discord.gg/WfgRppGKT6.

Stay awesome!

	Not giving up!
	Felt like it at times, though
	Sunday, December 13th, 2020 - 7:39pm

I've made incredible progress since my last post a month ago. I have learned so much, and things that stumped me are trivial now. Things that I didn't understand are clear. Granted, I am still far from a C#/Unity expert, but my skills are coming along nicely. When I want to figure out how to do something, I'm more likely to understand the hows and whys of what tutorials are doing, rather than just copying code and hoping it works. In fact, tooltips were something that had stumped me on two previous tries and no amount of troubleshooting could get me to where I wanted. The third attempt, a few days ago, also did not work as expected, but this time, I was able to troubleshoot and get it working for me. It is still not a 100% solution, but it is 90% and that is definitely good enough for now. Even though my next college class has started, I am very encouraged with my progress and I hope that by the end of the holidays I'll be able to put something online here to at least mess around with a little bit and have people tell me how bad it is.

Here is the Discord server link if you want to come chat at me about this game, or about The Awesome Theory of old - https://discord.gg/WfgRppGKT6.

One more screenshot showing the fortress tab. Here is where you will construct and upgrade buildings that will provide resources and bonuses to help you in your journey.

Stay awesome!

	Legitimate progress has been made!
	And there is proof, too!
	Wednesday, November 11th, 2020 - 9:04pm

It seems like more than 3 weeks since my last post. Part of that is because I have actually made some incredible progress on AT 2.0 (Which is probably going to officially be called Awesome Theory Idle... or something). Over these last 3 weeks, I've alternated between despair that I'll never figure this Unity crap out and joy as I figure out some small part of this Unity crap. I still feel like I am coding the jankiest jank that ever was jank, but it works. Hopefully, as I go I can figure out better ways to do things and improve. That is exactly what happened the first time.

I've set a Discord channel if you want to come chat at me about this game, or about The Awesome Theory of old. Here's the link https://discord.gg/WfgRppGKT6 - I just made it today and am all alone in there as I write this, which is fine. I'm just using it for notes and to do lists and such for now. The last thing I have for you today is a screenshot from the game. The final product will probably be vastly different, but this shows that, yes, there is a thing!

Stay awesome!

	Learning to do things to make a thing... for reals
	This time a thing actually exists
	Thursday, October 22nd, 2020 - 9:34pm

When you've already been "working" something without making real progress for over 11 years, what is another 6 months, right? Exactly. So here we are, 6 months later, and I don't have much to show for it. I did zippo for 5 of those months. For the last couple weeks I did more Unity Tutorial stuff and then just today I created the Awesome Theory Idle game project in Unity and started setting some stuff up, hence the reason for this post. So I can, again, say that I have begun actual development of The Awesome Theory 2.0!

One thing that has never stopped is thinking about the game and doing some mental design exercises and just what I want to do exactly. Most of the list provided below is still true, though perhaps a little modified in my mind from that version of my vision. I intend to implement basic versions of stuff and then integrate into more complex versions of things as I go. I'll get there. Keep an eye on this space for news on development, as well as the link to the game itself once it gets to a playable state. I hope that won't take too long. Thanks for reading!

	Learning to do the things to make the thing
	Well, that last post was embarrassing...
	Sunday, April 26th, 2020 - 7:03pm

A little over 2 years ago I posted about how AT 2.0 dev had begun... and nothing since. As you might have guessed, not long after that post, progress ground to a halt and that effort died. Partly due to the increasing technical effort that it required and partly due to other demands on my time (a Master's Degree, mostly). It was not a total loss as I learned some things and continued to hone my vision for the future of the brand. And here I will share what that future actually is, for total actual 100% really realz this time.

A couple of weeks ago I started a course that I purchased four months ago on Unity and C# 2D game development. The Unity C# platform is much better suited for the game part of AT than HTML/javascript over HTTP ever was. The vision of what the game is going to eventually be has changed as well. Here is a basic rundown of some design points:

It will be an idle dungeon diving RPG
Your characters will perform a variety of tasks 24/7 whether the game is open or not
Daily management of those tasks will help progress go faster
An active component, dungeon runs, will be the core gameplay loop
base construction and resource gathering will be big parts of what your characters do
There will be many other things to do like expeditions, quests, airships, pets, hunts, and lots more

You might immediately notice that this lacks any sort of interactivity that made the original Awesome Theory so much fun. This is true. Phase two will be to build back up this site with some of those features and have it benefit you in the main game somehow (maybe through codes or something - the technical details will need having out). But trust me, that stuff is on my mind, too. I don't just want to make a game, I want to make a community.

But, first I need to get there by learning the Unity editor and polishing my C# skills. My previous experience with Visual Basic is definitely helping here. Once I have something that runs and has at least a tiny bit of gameplay, I will post a link here so you can check it out if you like. This time it is FOR REALZ!