Written October 20, 2026
Finished Enough to See What Comes Next
A playable chapter and a working asset pipeline, with combat and the larger campaign still unresolved.
Looking back: October 20, 2026 to October 20, 2026
Today, October 20, 2026, there are two things I’m especially proud of.
The first is that Wasteland 2x86 has a fully playable opening chapter with three missions. It has a beginning and an ending. There is a sense of completion, even though it is short. My rough description of it is a fifteen-minute chapter. That’s my rough estimate. I haven’t measured an average across players.
The second is the asset pipeline. An idea can become a sprite or tile, go through visual review and find its way into the game. I’m proud of what came together to make that possible. Requirements, editable artwork, exports and conversion are all part of a process I can use as I continue building.
At v0.5.25, the chapter takes the player from the mountain pass into the settlement and out on requests to restore water, power and radio communication. The missions are the relay yard, substation and radio tower. Coming home means returning to a place that changes as those requests are completed. The score is out of 300, and the chapter reaches its conclusion.
There are smaller parts of the world alongside that sequence. Moose, Mona and Merlin roam outdoors, and Scout wanders the trading post. The huts have distinct interiors. The graveyard can be unlocked and explored quietly, although its family tributes and mausoleum entry remain future work.
The latest baseline also has a warmer shared interface palette and a development menu that makes it easier to reach particular areas and progress states. Those changes make reviewing the game easier. I can get to the place or state I need to inspect without playing through the preceding requests each time.
The v0.5.25 release passed host checks, ROM checks and a full automated PyBoy campaign, including twelve timing variations. The recorded ordinary-frame maximum was 14.576 milliseconds, with no over-budget ordinary frames. I also verified the baseline in SameBoy. Real-hardware testing is still pending, and there’s no save system yet.
I’m still thinking about combat encounters. I want them to be fun and tactical without becoming mundane. I also don’t want a high score to feel like it depends on the RNG gods favoring the player. The system works, but I’m still figuring out how to make the encounters fun.
There are already systems to work with: facing, patrols, awareness, limited ammunition, movement costs and ranged hit chances. Their presence alone does not tell me whether an encounter offers satisfying choices. I need to play more and work out what holds up. I haven’t chosen a solution yet.
The other question is how to grow this roughly 15-minute chapter into a 5-10 hour game. That is something I want to work toward. The chapter shows that the pieces can form a complete sequence. It does not yet establish what a much longer experience should contain or how it should hold together.
Even at this size, I can see how the game wants to live and breathe more. There is a larger purpose waiting to be discovered.