So, what's next?

I don't think I'm going to win any prizes with this 7DRL entry, and that's okay. My main hope was to develop an isometric game engine that I could use as a platform for further games, eventually, perhaps, a fantasy tactics RPG. SIMILAR to Final Fantasy Tactics, but NOT using those sprites.

The first time I participated in 7DRL, back in 2010, my goal was, again, to develop a RL game engine that I could use to make better games. In the end, I had a bad experience and never went back to it. Though looking at it today, I think I did pretty well for starting from scratch. THIS time, I was working on the engine for a few weeks before 7DRL even started (and I could have used more time). 

Back then, as with this year, I developed in Python/Pygame. Then, as with this year, I knew it was going to be a risk to develop something that would not be one-click playable, either through the browser or through a simple install. This time, I'd set up a version of the game on Trinket.io, but that has stopped working and the tech there is as mystified as I am as to why. So, my solution to let people get a sense for the game on the browser without having to get Python/Pygame working, in the end, solved nothing.

My short term goal, then, is to get my RL engine working natively in the browser. Moving to Unity is a possible solution as well, but at heart I am a tools developer. I want to do the work that makes things work. I want to do the A*, the coordinate transformations, the caching, the integration with tools such as Tiled, and so on, and so I think I will just rewrite what I have now, stolen FFTA sprites and all, into JavaScript or ClojureScript, and prove that my game-programmed-in-YAML will need no changes when the engine on which it runs is entirely rewritten.

Once that is done, I will probably start work on a new game. I have a couple I want to try. Maybe the timing works out such that I can try one of them for 7DRL 2023...