Week 2 - Hopefully Half Done

I'm honestly surprised I got anything done this week, much less all of the stuff I did manage to do.

- More Timeline Events -

I don't remember if I talked too much about the timeline system in the last post, but quite a lot of new stuff has been added. The timeline system lets me define different objects that can occur at specific times and locations. Initially the only events I really had were generic animation events that just adjusted a motion time variable and determined which animation each sprite was playing at a given time, or events that moved a sprite from one position to another. However, this past week I added a bunch of different types. Now I can control the scale of sprites, can formulate different conversations characters have with each other, and let the player choose different events to happen.

- Branching Choices -

Talking more about the choice options, the only real way that the player interacts with the game is by selecting one of 2 or 3 choices at certain times that they highlight. In the barracks you have the choice of whether the adventurer wakes up on the right side of the bed or the wrong side of the bed, and then whether he choses to wear armor or a cape. In the market the adventurer can choose to buy either a key, a lucky charm, or nothing, and then when pressed to pick a vice, can choose whether he wants the small "Magic wand" or the large one. Some of these choices have more impact on the day than others. The armor versus cape choice changes the adventurers sprite for the rest of the day, while what side of bed is chosen has no visible effect. Regardless of the visible effects every choice made will have grand branching impacts during the trial.

- People Love to Talk -

I made a fairly simple talking system for the events of the day (Most of the real talking will happen during the trial). Letting the characters converse was just an easy way to help the player gauge their personalities early on as well as feel like they are actually having an impact with their choices. The system currently just takes whatever I message I input and then splits it into smaller chunks that display above the heads one after another. I made both a generic message event (for one off messages), as well as a conversation event (which strings many messages after another).

- I Did Art -

While I much prefer talking about the actual programming, as with every game I make, I spend much longer making the art. Art takes patience since its a lot of repetition (especially when animating) and can't really be rushed like code can.

This week I did art for the Market Stall, The Gun Seller, and near the end some art for the next major character and area, the sheriff and the tower, But I will talk about that more next week.

- Goals for Next Week -

I should have a lot of extra time in the coming week and have some pretty lofty goals. I want to finish working on the entirety of the main events during the day, and get started on the court scenes.

Wish me Luck

-Tadomite