DevLog: July Update Progress (Shop System, Enemies, and More)

I’m currently running into problems with a lot of the UI and other features coming in this next Nova Impact update.

One of the biggest challenges right now is coding and implementing the new Shop system. This update introduces a way to unlock abilities and upgrades, which means building a full system around currency conversion, purchase logic, UI flow, and making sure everything actually affects gameplay correctly. It’s a ton of systems all needing to talk to each other, way more complicated than it looks on the surface, especially when you're solo-developing.

I’ve also been working on modeling and animating new enemy types, and creating intense explosion effects, especially for a new boss fight that’s going to be unlike anything else in the game so far. I’m keeping its name and mechanics a secret for now, but just know... when it appears, you’ll know you’re in for something serious.

The last few weeks have been nonstop progress, late nights, constant debugging, refining animations, reworking UI layouts. On top of that, I’ve just pulled nearly 48 hours straight trying to get this all functional and polished. It’s hard not to burn out sometimes, especially balancing everything alone. But I’m still pushing, because I want this update to hit hard and feel like a major step forward.

Thanks to everyone keeping up with the project. This is shaping up to be the biggest and boldest Nova Impact update yet, and it’s getting close.

If you’ve got any ideas, advice, or know how to solve some of these problems, I’d genuinely appreciate it if you dropped a comment. Whether it’s code tips, design thoughts, or just general feedback, it helps more than you know.