Devlog #11 Let's Go Camping!

First of all, I apologize for the lacking communication over this past month. Making a post like this only takes like half an hour, but I only get about an hour of work time every day, so... I figured it would be better spent doing production instead of communication. There should absolutely be a balance of the two, though, so I'm going to try to put logs up whenever I've finalized a new feature at the very least.

So, as of right now, I'm hoping to have a new content update to you guys in a week. That may change by a couple of days, but it's a safe general estimate.

Also, I'm planning to put in a patron poll once this update is finished to decide what my next course of action will be... normally, I'd move forward at my own discretion, but Covid has essentially sucked me dry and I don't have the time available to expand the game equally in all directions; like, guys, I'm dying here (not literally, though)... the wife works full-time from home, and I've been a 24/7 babysitter for twins who are a week away from being 3 1/2 years old for four months straight... and like... these two little demons are trying to kill themselves ALL THE FUCKING TIME. After twelve hours of screaming and potty malfunctions, sitting down at my desk and working on code is just so far removed from what I want to do (no matter how much I enjoy making this game), that progress is even slower that it otherwise should be. So I need you guys to let me know what you want most: more content along the lines of what this update will be, additional content for Marla or Bess, or revamping the first thirty days with more interactions and a deeper character scheduler. I will, of course, explain what all of those options mean in greater detail when the poll is added.

NOW! On to the camping!

So, the adventuring aspect of the game is directly tied into the stories for Lani and Zelda, as well as the greater macro story (but the macro story will also be available to other character plotlines as the game progresses). This next update will add in about a half-dozen (I'm not entirely sure yet) wolf variations, a better system to randomly generate quests (for future use), and multi-day questing. As you progress as an adventurer, the complexity of your adventures will greatly increase, and you will be required to collect supplies and camp in the wilderness with your party members. Initially, you'll be given supplies by the guild, and your first overnight adventure will be guarded so that you, the player, will not die. Every adventure from that point on will include the possibility of death. In the images up top of this post, I've included both a pre-production render of your campsite in the daytime, as well as the final base render of the campsite with the fire a'blazin' (there will be additional layers of images in the game to depict your party members and equipment (food, tent, etc) based on your level of preparedness, as well as to allow you to select who or what you want to interact with).

The campsite will be where most interactions with your party will take place (at this time, only with Lani), and where you'll decide on how much food to eat, what medicines to use, where to go the next day, etc. It's on my bucket list to create a lot of different campsites to better represent where you are at any given time (light forest, deep forest, plains, under a rock, mountains, etc), but that will be at a much later date. You will heal from the day's fights based on your choices, and the length and success of your adventure will rely on how well you prepare (though the quests in this coming update will all be basic). And, if you happen to run into a horrible opponent (some serious shit is being added this time... I've finalized enemies up to level 10 and included AOE skills, and while they won't show up at the edge of the forest, you can definitely run into them if you go too far), the option to end your adventure early at the expense of lost supplies is being added.

I've also begun production on dedicated battle backgrounds (mid-forest is added to this post). I'm going for a high-fidelity retro look, so there are visible texture tiles, but everything is rendered for maximum detail.

Other than that, I've been keeping myself busy by correcting past mistakes. This coming update should include bugfixes for a few non-game breaking error messages, some fixes to the soul box that was added in the previous version, a large amount of additional enemies, the introduction of player battle skills (right now I'm testing skill books that can drop from monsters and I hope I can get them working properly in time for this next version), the addition of potions (but not alchemy at this time), ability to run away from combat, ability to defend (if I finish all that, everything will be in place for the battle system and then it'll just be adding visual things), and additional campground scenes for Lani. When I write it all out, it's actually a pretty big update, so I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew.

Anyway, that's the state of things. Cheers.