I managed to design the 50(or so) buttons, their hover animations and the descriptions associated with them. Next week is march break for me. Aside from a job interview and a ski trip, I will be spending most of my time on this game.
This week will be focused on assigning prices, defining and balancing equations and defining return on investment. My first game had the problem of advancing too slowly and too monotonously. The second game had the problem that it was advancing too fast. The algorithm used was the same in both games, but there were many more ways of gaining resources in the second game, which made it too easy.
The third game has roughly five times as many ways to gain resources as the second game, so using the same algorithm is not an option anymore. This is probably the hardest task, but thanks to a Reddit user's suggestion, balancing will be a smoother experience.I won't go into details, but his suggestion can be found here.
After the game's variables are created and balanced, hopefully at the end of this week, I can begin integrating the system into actual graphics. As it stands, the game looks like white squares on a black background and a whole lot of text(except for the beautiful buttons I just made). The assets are made but not integrated into the system. Once the assets are integrated, value testing will be significantly harder. I mentioned previously that the game's interface will be more dynamic, and not simply a set of folders. Well this 'dynamism' will make testing a pain, if I have to run through the same hoops a thousand times; therefore, testing has to be done before the graphical implementation. This process should take a week.
After the interface is integrated into the system; the music, menu interface and story logic (choices, etc.) need to be integrated. This will take one to two weeks. After that, I will be ready to launch. I'm estimating launch to be around the 17th of March, 2014.
Cheers!