Eeeyyy everybody, it's yo boy Angry Game Developer aka Game Playa aka Eigen and back at it again with another devlog. It's been what, a millenia since I last posted anything? Writing these posts takes a while and I've been lazy like that. The summer's passed and it was pretty busy. I didn't have much vacation time but spent most of the time I had on the game. Rewriting, refactoring, fixing and tweaking. Gotten into a groove lately but some days are really tiring. I get home from work around 6 .. 6:30 and the last thing you wanna do at that point is programming. But I've been trying to push myself to work an additional hour, preferrably two, on the game every day. It's got nothing to do with motivation but rather discipline. Been also trying to share more images and stuff on Twitter to motivate myself at least a little. Thanks everybody for the comments and retweets. It really means a lot to me.
Just catching up on the devlog. I really like the idea of not having to control party members individually. Doing so seems a bit like busy work. I think the game will really benefit from this and the other streamlining action.
Just want to say thanks for making such a fun game. It's one of those games that really add to the quality of life for the players!
Thanks, I think so too. There are benefits to being able to control individual characters but it also complicates everything. I really like the current system although I'm not entirely happy with how some proficiencies (previously skills) play out. Like only one member having a climbing skill but still being able to climb up cliffs with the whole gang, albeit more slowly.
Shiieeet man, the art style is awesome.
So, what is new? What's happening?Warning: lots of images!
Been spending a lot of time rewriting current systems because things were fast becoming unmanagable. Just finished rewriting the tutorial into a proper quest script, it was a very ad hoc solution previously. Works a treat now and is easily extendable to include new steps. The quest script is completely self-contained, so it makes all the modifications to the world it needs (adds some objects, changes tile properties) and manages player progress.
I've been adding indoor areas. These include caves and temples and other special purpose rooms. Room persistence is on my plate right now. It means whenever you discover and explore a new cave its tiles and objects are saved whole, so whenever you go back to it all the resources you've collected and dead bodies left behind will still be there.
Added hunting and fishing. Nothing special, just a little minigame.
There's also basic crafting now but it's too incomplete to discuss any further right now. Basically you'll be able to make simple tools, weapons and other items. Things similar to what you can buy from the store in towns but a lot more cruder and less efficient. I'm guessing I'll add recipes basically which you have to learn to be able to make something. And even then you get better at making something the more you do it (getting better completes items faster and uses/wastes less material).
I then completely changed how you interact with the world. Previously you would right-click and select actions from the context menu but there were issues with it, especially being able to right click anywhere away from you.. sometimes you were able to traverse there, sometimes not, and it made things too complex. Now available actions are populated as you move. There are actions you can perform on your current square and squares next to you. To see the action you just move your cursor over the square and it pops up next to the cursor. When there are more actions available you scroll through them with the mousewheel. Basically, if you
can move onto the square its actions are only available if you move there. If the tile or the object on it is not directly reachable you'll have to be next to it to engage.
That leaves right clicking available for other interactions. Right now it serves as an "examine" button. You get a little text prompt and a small graphic to describe the object.
I also experimented with showing actions in that window but it felt too much like the old right-click context menu.
The sidebar action buttons now work as well, all implemented in Lua. There's a new action called "survey" which takes a while to perform but essentially opens up large chunk of the map around you, given trees aren't blocking vision. The higher you are and the better survey gear the further you can see.
That brings me to Action Points. As you would expect these are used to perform actions. Most actions take 1 or 2 points but some, like the surveying, takes around 20. Each character in the party has 3-6 or 7 AP which are then all added up. So if you're trekking alone and have 4 AP to spend you take 5 turns to complete the surveying action. So the more members you have, the more you can do each turn. AP are reset every turn. The number of points for each character depends on their attribute points. If you're boring and set all attributes to being pretty much equal you get a bland character and like 3 AP in return. If you set some attributes low and max out others your character is considered being talented/more interesting/capable and rewarded with more AP.
Adding AP was one of the change done to player characters. There are also now portraits to choose between. No customization yet, but pretty faces like this:
So, all of that put together makes the game look like this right now. Here I am playing the tutorial quest and Takoda and I just reached some water we need to swim across to reach Oldden after survining the shipwreck. Since the game is now fully party based, Takoda can temporarily be a member and there's no need to implement any following logic like previously..
(Thumbnail)
Towns have also gotten a little overhaul. One of the more common feedback from players was that towns felt confusing as you just clicked on buildings and the characters didn't move around even if they were visible on the pier. I addressed that by using the same interaction logic as described previously. Unified as frick! You click anywhere and the party moves there. When near to buildings and objects actions become visible. Also made the towns larger to fit more locations and special things. Like so (pretty much full image. Not visible like this in game):
(Thumbnail)In game it's more like this:
(Thumbnail)Since Halloween is coming up soon, here's a spooky crypt I've been working on. Sidequest sort of thing. Expect spooks.
Sample of music composed just for this area
Anyway, that's about it for this time. No ETA for next build yet, sorry.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading. Until next decade!
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