Overall thoughts and information on Project Horizon's DEMO

Hello Everyone!

Some great news, the demo for Project Horizon is finally live! After some major setbacks due to foundational build errors in the previous version everything was able to be packaged and released here on itch. This was one of the biggest lessons to learn from in the journey so far, setting aside more time to get everything prepared, and launch ready is essential. I did not expect the packaging process to take so long and is something I learned from. Making sure I set aside at least 2 days (Ideally more) before a big update/ release to test that everything is working before making overly ambitious promises.

However, even with the major setback I think that Project Horizon has come a long way since development started 2 weeks ago. Big thanks to Yehor Misko a programmer I hired to help me implement countless features into the game along with integrating the Third person kit from the Unreal Engine marketplace into the project. This has helped tremendously allowing us to prototype more efficiently and create more gameplay elements faster for the player to enjoy.

One of my favorite parts in this process has been creating devlogs, and videos about the game to show to other people whether that be to my friends/ family, or to whoever happens to see it on social media!  It has allowed me a place to express my thoughts (while sometimes not as clearly as I'd like seeing as I am new to video creation) but this really opens the door to a more transparent development process and as we gain more support and a larger community everyone will be able to check in on development and give their thoughts one everything being implemented on a weekly basis (Devlogs every Thursday on the youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@ProjectHorizonGames).

Project Horizon is my first game and far from complete, having a long journey ahead but I am hoping that people enjoy the short demo we have released showing off the foundation of the game. Hoping to gain support over the next couple of updates and fixes to continue development and polish the game! Several updates are planned as of right now and you should expect a full release sometime next year most likely late Q3 2024 (There are still planned updates after going gold).

A brief overview of the roadmap for the project is as follows (Rough outline of what to come subject to more additions as I hear thoughts, comments, etc from players and the community):

2023

Q2- 

Polishing the core game, fixing known bugs currently described in the Demo post description https://project-horizon-games.itch.io/project-horizon 

Adding more weapon variations, additional pickups, and a survival system (Hunger, Thirst, Stamina, basic inventory) A timer based respawn system for loot (This will be moved to a distance system in later releases, Example: When player enters a different town/area x distance away loot will gradually respawn)

Adding a menu screen, tutorial level, options menu, and performance optimization along with deletion and reorganizing of current assets to lower file size.

Start network replication to enable Multiplayer

Q3-

Finish network replication to enable Multiplayer up to 8 players in a world at once. (This will be increased, just need to learn more about how this will be achieved and keep performance high before I can elaborate more)

Armor system allowing player to find and equip different clothing types scattered across the world (Will eventually be able to craft most of the armor, while some will remain as rare finds) Backpacks which offer different bonuses (Extra storage capacity, Bulletproof plating offering more back protection to players, hiking backpacks which allow liquid items (ie. soda, water, other drinkable items)  to be automatically consumed incrementally as player thirst decreases, and more)

Vehicles (Bicycles first, lightweight cars added second, and finally heavily armored cars and commercial transport vehicles last), and  vehicle customization  (Customization will be Q4 and beyond), Gas stations and gas tanks will be added allowing player to refuel along with batteries that drain if lights are left on while the car is off etc making requiring players to use batteries. Along with more cars already being dead so batteries or a battery charger will be needed based on the decay of the vehicle and overall condition.

Q4-

To be determined, there is so much I want to add and Q4 is so far out that it does not seem right to guess what I will be working on then. This section will be updated in the middle of Q3 when I have more of a direct vision of what needs added, fixed, etc.

Thank you again for everyone that stuck around to read everything! I appreciate your time and would love to hear any thoughts, and/ or criticisms you may have. I look forward to the continued development of my game Project Horizon and creating a positive experience for more people to enjoy! 

This is a passion project, I keep busy with my day job and the free time I do have I spend working on the game whether that be in engine, marketing, posting to social media, or just brainstorming ideas. My budget currently is fairly low expending about half my monthly income but I am excited to see this project grow and with the addition of further support and funds look forward to adding additional skilled programmers and experts to the dev team! 

And if you have been kind enough to donate to the project, my biggest thanks goes out to you!

-Mahlon, Owner and founder of Project Horizon Games