Dungeon tileset + new tutorial writing

Working more on the models for the dungeon tileset. I think these will be used heavily in a whole bunch of different contexts so I'm trying to get things right so that they're easy to use. It's funny I kept running into rooms in the frog dungeon where I needed a specific piece that I just didn't have so I'd have to figure out what would fit there, how it would look, and how it would fit with everything around it. And don't get me started talking about making arches. So many arches. And they meet at all these different crazy angles.

But yeah, I just wanted to show the current pieces. The cobble stone tiling texture is new this week and I've been building the rest of the pieces here. The gray image at the end is a screenshot from Maya showing me trying to figure out the scales and how all the pieces snap together.

Other than that...

A new tutorial?!? Or, well tutorial and game intro. The plan is to eventually have a selection of background the player can choose from that define starting attributes and skills. Pretty much directly inspired by Arcanum's character creation backgrounds.

Then plopping the player down into a starting scenario that works for those backgrounds and can act as a tutorial. But at the same time not force the player to go through a lengthy tutorial and initial dungeon every time they want to start a new play through of the game.

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So... now...

Spoilers ahead!!!

(And the usual disclaimer: this is all subject to change during development but this is the blueprint I'm starting with)

The player wakes up in a mostly empty and bare cell. (But it isn't a jail cell - yeah some tropes are tropes for a reason though). The door is unlocked. When the player ventures outside they quickly come to a courtyard, some sort of walled garden. It seems that they were discovered on the road by passing monks and brought inside this monastery to recover (this will change slightly based on the origin story the player chose). The player is free to do as they please but they aren't allowed to actually leave the monastery. But they have access to food, a clean warm place to sleep, a garden to tend, and a small shrine to worship. Just don't go to the other parts of the monastery. And don't bother any of the people in those red robes and pointed cowls.

The monastery is a relatively safe place for the player to test out different mechanics in a relatively safe space.

There's another novice that is tending to plants in the walled garden. They've been here for a while and will help with info about how to use the gardening and placement systems. They'll also offer their perspective on work and life within the monastery.

There's the novice master. Who is a bit absent minded and can be stern but ultimately means well. He'll help out with other tutorial info like sleeping, items use, and warnings about leaving this section of the monastery.

The kitchen cook. Who will be a bit distant to the player at first. She has been instructed not to speak with the novices. But she will talk about food, cooking, and the status bonuses from eating well.

The walled garden. This area is a small open air courtyard. There's a well for drawing water, crate that contains seeds, a bin for placing harvested crops, and some tools to help with all those things.

There's a small shrine off of the courtyard that the novice master encourages the player to use for prayer and contemplation.

Deeper into the monastery is patrolled by inquisitors. If they catch the player there will be an escalating series of encounters. The first time is a warning. The second is a light punishment. The third time is a "proper" punishment.

The inquisitor patrols and deeper sections of monastery are to let the player mess around with stealth mechanics, lockpicking, stealing, and possibly pickpocketing.

Then... night time... even more spoilers!

The novice master will warn the player about falling prey to temptation... especially at night. There will be encounters at night - probably dream sequences? - that will wake up the player and then different creatures will try to seduce the player. I might limit this to a choice of low level creatures? Imps + goblins? let the player choose the first night then each night that same character will visit in an escalating series of nightly encounters.

So...

If the player wants to test out systems they can run around and have basic items at their disposal.

If the player wants lewd scenes all they have to do is go back to their room and go to sleep.

And if the player wants to leave...?

This part I don't quite want to spoil - but - I'm planning multiple options for getting out. There will be a simple option for people who want to leave and skip over this section entirely - but this will be aimed at people who have played this content once before and already know some of the tricks. But the plan is to offer a way for the player to fight their way out, to stealth their way out, to persuade (seduce?) their way out, to fall to corruption and then stumble their way out, and then I think one or two others that don't fit neatly into those categories.

I think I have all the necessary mechanics in game and working and the heavy lifting is putting everything in and doing the extra AI pieces.

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End of spoilers!

So yeah, that and I'm still working on the frog temple, the skeleton, the female frogs, the femshrooms, the imp cave, Redtree content, and everything else :)

Alright that's enough typing. But let me know if you want to see more of this stuff or less of this sort of stuff? I tried to give a decent spoiler warning for anyone that wants content to be a surprise but it's also there are weeks like this where I've done a ton of writing and design on this stuff and it's fun being able to share that too.