It’s been another strange and hectic week.
First of all, I was genuinely happy to receive way more playthrough videos and feedback than I expected. Watching actual gameplay always brings up situations I never could have imagined. I’ve been analyzing the footage, sorting out what needs fixing, and updating the game by combining what I saw with the feedback I received.
Then out of nowhere, a player showed up and asked if the current UI was just a placeholder—and proceeded to redesign the whole thing. The new design is so much better than mine that I’ve been aggressively porting it over. It’s the first time I’ve received this kind of help from someone I’ve never even met. I’m starting with the HUD and will finish that first, then go back to gameplay fixes before wrapping up the rest of the UI.
There’s also someone who keeps playing the game repeatedly on different difficulty levels and sends me videos, feedback, and even bug captures every time. It’s honestly more help than I can put into words. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt this level of gratitude. And for the first time, I found myself wondering—will I ever get the chance to help a stranger like this someday? It’s been a strange and moving experience.
Last week, I felt like my brain had shut down, and I didn’t want to go through that again, so I planned to take it slow. But the UI overhaul threw all that out the window, and I ended up going full throttle again. And once again, I was reminded of just how terrible UMG is. It can do a lot of things, but not many of them properly. And a single misstep turns everything into a memory leak nightmare. If I ever use Unreal again, I’m pretty sure I’ll be building most primitives and widgets from scratch.