Unfortunately I haven't been able to work on TS much over the last few weekends and I won't be able to take any extra time off from my main job till the new year so it seems sensible to release TS start of next year.

So far in the last 1.0 Release Candidate I've added a load of polish tweaks to gameplay, animations and made sure all bugs are squashed. The game is now in an excellent state so I'm going to focus on finishing off the things I think are essential for launch:

- Improved controller support so you can pick from multiple controllers (i.e. I have one for analog and 1 with a better dpad but only 1 controller registers at a time) I also need to test a few controllers and maybe have some presets (i.e. 3 button, 6 button, modern controller etc.) I've noticed a button on one of my controllers doesn't register so need to look into that too.

- More Video options - resolutions for windowed mode (fullscreen just uses your monitor resolution), vsync toggle and fps cap.

- Master Gauntlet difficulty - I plan make this new mode as hard as possible for the ultimate challenge. Same as Gauntlet but with extra mobs.

Post launch plans:

- Horde Mode - I will work on this for a 1.1 update as it will take quite a bit of time. It will involve going over all waves and splitting them into small chunks that can fit together when randomised. They will also need to be grouped by difficulty so I can increase it over time and easily add waves to the pool with future updates.

TS has always been a hobby project I've been chipping away at. Once it's all done and dusted I might do a post mortem article on why TS has taken way longer than I expected, what I've learned from the project and most importantly what not to do in the next game :-)  At this stage I'm titling it "the longest short game in development!"

The summary version is:

Moving house multiple times is hard and draining!
Don't do alternative versions of everything. 
Create a difficult version of the game to begin with and don't keep going over it making harder. If you need an easier mode have a free play practice option / adjust number of lives etc. 
Plan the project out fully before you begin - I've done passes over this game so many times. Come up with a fully working prototype first then continue with the content for the rest of the game. 
Accept that your first game is not going to be a 100% perfectly polished experience and make sure each game is better than the last
Don't get stuck in tutorial hell. Learn a bit then put it to practice and experiment with what you've learned and repeat.
Focus on mental health and balancing. I was spending way too much time on screens and getting headaches. I've had to recently give up World of Warcraft too and cut down my gaming time further. Also cut down on all the little things you do that aren't important.
I have a regular full time job that's quite draining and find working at night tricky. So I need to plan getting non game dev related tasks finished during the week so I can just focus on TS at weekends. Reserve annual leave days for time off away from games and get out walking!

That about sums it up. Game dev is hard :-) There's always so many little unexpected things to solve even with a simple game!

Ramble over

EldTheZombie