My development system outage last month really screwed up with plans. To my (sometime) amusement, first the power supply of my PC went AWOL. When I got that replaced (took a week since it was still on warranty), I then found out that my graphics card was entirely shot. So that went back to the producer (under warranty too), and since I did not want to waste any more time, I immediately purchased a replacement. Unfortunately, this brand new graphics card was itself defective… Finally, after a good deal more back and forth and lots of work on my PC and yet another new graphics card, I finally got everything working again.
The bottom line was that development stood still for about two weeks, which means I am that far behind my planned schedule. It did give me time to do some design work on a new project I would like to do (more on that when I have something to show), but everything else (i.e. Imperium) is thus pushed ahead in time.
Before I turn development effort to other things for a while, though, I intend to complete the Port Attack feature in Pirates and Traders. I am also looking to release a “Gold” version of Pirates and Traders. Currently, I intend it to be the same as the free game, but without ads and with a larger choice of starting ships for those who want a challenge (e.g., try starting with a pinnace). If you have anything that you wish could be included in a gold version (that does not hugely affect game balance), let me know. And lest I forget – thanks everyone for helping the game become such a success as it has been (passed 100,000 downloads about a month ago). I hope that I can continue to make the game worthy of its fans.