Progress Report (November)

Henlo, my unexisting audience!

Still kicking, still cooking - though tangible results remain elusive. Don’t get me wrong; November kept me busy. However, my pace as a game developer leaves much to be desired, much like the quality of my work, if I’m being honest. I know I decided to overhaul the project to improve its quality, and objectively, this version is shaping up better than its predecessor, but it still has its fair share of crutches and employs from perfect solutions.

Anyway, let’s recap what I accomplished this month.

The settings windows are now finished, allowing users to change audio, display, graphics, and language settings anytime, anywhere. These aren’t the same settings windows from the previously released demo version - they’re more polished, both in logic and appearance. I started working on them back in October, but only wrapped them up in November.

As announced, I focused on redesigning the action buttons controller, updating the logic behind button assignments. The controller class is now cleaner, less bloated, and more intuitive. Some logic was streamlined, while other parts were discarded altogether. Hopefully, the new controller will give me more flexibility when assigning buttons to the action panel.

I re-implemented the logic for the left-hand middle UI panel and the systems behind it, which include map mode, time management, money management, and panel buttons management. The map mode code has been cleaned up and improved, addressing some questionable decisions I made earlier and never fixed. Basically, I’ve traded crutches for a wheelchair - it’s better, but still not faultless. The time and money management systems were almost completely rebuilt. While the fundamental ideas remain, the execution is now more robust. I even prepared functionality for multiple currencies in case they’re needed in the future. The buttons now become interactable or non-interactable based on various conditions, and non-interactable buttons display hints to explain why they can’t be used at the moment.

Since the buttons mentioned above included movement controls, I had to re-implement tile movement logic. I reworked the traversal system, covering the basics needed for movement and adding a few new features absent from the previous project version. This also included updating the player-tile collider interactions. On a related note, I updated the tool for constructing location areas - a utility that generates tiles and lets me move them around as needed, as well as rename and update them easily.

Additionally, I implemented smaller scripts essential for the systems above or meant to enhance the overall gameplay experience. For instance, I may decide against using scrollbars in this project altogether. I’m struggling to design a UI where scrollbars would look legit good. While I tried to shoehorn them into the demo version, they just didn’t work visually for me. To compensate for the absence of scrollbars, I added an icon that appears near the pointer when the player tries to drag something inside a scrollable area. Most players will instinctively try to drag certain UI elements, and if the area is scrollable, the icon will confirm it and show them the direction in which they can drag.

That’s everything I could recall off the top of my head. I don’t think I missed anything significant. In December, I plan to continue working on non-game-mode-related functionality. Immediate tasks include the music player, the location panel (the small top panel with the location name and music/location inspection buttons), and the right-hand middle UI panel (featuring the backlog scroll and reputation indicator). Once those are done, I’ll see what else I can fit into the month’s schedule. Ideally, I should start working on the dialogue mode and related scripts in January.

I’ll post a similar update next month. Until then, take care!