Like with previous milestones, builds for Windows, Linux, and Android can all be downloaded and the game can also be played from the itch.io page.
To bring the game to its proper release, I dedicated the final semester of my college career to add one last layer of polish. I wanted the game to be in a state that I could call complete and look back on in full confidence. To that end, I added some final visual touches and 16 new challenge levels to fill any content holes that existed with the 16 initial levels. I also made some improvements on Android.
One of the things that bugged me about the beta of this game was how empty the level select screen felt. It really just functioned as a simpler version of the sandbox menu. Nothing else about it really stood out - so to resolve this as well as add additional content I felt the game was lacking, I added an additional 16 challenge levels (on top of the existing 16 main levels). Each challenge level would unlock whenever you won the corresponding main level, and would expand upon the concepts presented by the main level it corresponded to in a much more challenging and engaging way.
My favorite of these challenge levels is "14. Dizzy", which requires you to follow 3 or 4 movement rules quickly which can send you several squares away from the initial square you were told to find by the first rule.
I also took the time to improve the Android app experience. I added a direct Android download link to the front page of the website, changed some visuals in the app, and made the location where custom levels are stored more accessible (/Android/media/com.mathgeniuszach.oncommand/levels instead of in the normally inaccessible /data partition).
Most of the work done this semester was on research and improving my portfolio, rather than on the game directly
I spent a significant chunk of time this semester researching C++ and Godot 4's extension format to hopefully make the game capable of directly loading YAML (instead of having to convert YAML to JSON to load it in-game). While it wasn't necessary, it would have eliminated a step in the supply chain process. After weighing all the options I had available I determined that simply converting them to JSON with a Python script is the best and most portable option available as of April 2024. The most valuable thing I learned during this time was C++ smart pointers, and they completely changed my opinion of the language from slightly negative to slightly positive. I used C++ during this semester to build a macro script to easily repeat repetitive actions on my computer which has dramatically improved productivity when working on the game and other projects.
I also noticed I had a large portion of old music I had written for Minecraft and other random projects around 2018, and I wanted to rework/remaster them into a complete album as an additional portfolio piece. The album is called Timely Music and you can find it on SoundCloud here.
Overall, I really enjoyed working on this project. There were times when Godot presented several challenges that significantly increased the amount of work necessary to complete various tasks, but through perseverance and effective problem solving skills I was able to overcome each one of them. I believe the experience I gained working on this project will remain useful for my professional career for many years to come.