If I had thought my previous devlog was a long time coming, then this one has been an eternity coming... a lot of things have changed and I'm currently approaching alpha. I'm making sure that all of the important features I want to include are in the game before testing which will kindly be carried out by the BTEC Games Art students.

In regards to things that have changed, shops have been fully integrated along with the cart assortment system that arranges the carts without the playing needing to worry about them. I am not leaning into resource management that heavily, more using it as a decision the player makes regarding their cargo whether to risk what they've got for a chance of reward or forcing them to make sacrifices in a tight spot.

The player now isn't an assortment of grey blocks anymore, I've modelled a placeholder to test out a rudimentary 'IK' system to make the character seem more dynamic. The character is split into 4 parts (Head, body, legs, and arms) so that they may independently look at the mouse cursor in a somewhat convincing way. I may consider animating these pieces on top of the 'IK'. IK stands for Inverse Kinematics which is the opposite to traditional animation where instead of telling the limbs how to reach a preset destination, you supply a target destination you want the parts to conform to. My 'IK' isn't as elaborate as most, I am just using look at actions to simulate this.

Other changes include:

• Player can pickup coal to refuel the train
• Player can replenish their ammo from metal cargo
• Previous enemies and subsequent system has been integrated into the game loop

Changes I'm working on:

• Allowing the train to turn around to return back to home base
• Home base mechanics (refilling the player's coal, rewarding them for returned cargo, etc.)
• A small introductory dialogue from a key NPC at the home base to help new players
• A melee weapon for the player