Some very small updates, just so people can see what I’m doing. Not ready for a new release yet.
- A UI. I was resisting this on the grounds that it seemed like it was breaking immersion, but I don’t think I can push back on that any more given the next couple of things I want to include. For the next release, it will just show how full the character or how close to popping you are.
- The main character model’s hair was higher poly than I realized, so I changed that which should help with performance a little bit.
- I added render portals (not in-game portals; it’s just a developer term) which should greatly improve performance at a cost of a slightly longer start up.
- I started modeling the fairy jars, but I’m not happy with them. Going to block in the behavior to see how it feels.
- Crafting, which was originally going to be part of the project, then got removed, is going back in. This will probably mean some tweaks to how quickly the player blows up. It adds more depth to the gameplay. More on this below.
- Dialog and dungeon NPCs to satisfy the weight gain angle. This is another thing that was available at the start but got removed. UI means this is okay.
- Animations are terrible still, but this is lower priority. I have a problem here because it’s really distracting me but every time I go to fix it I lose hours and am still unhappy with it.
Going into more detail on number four, there are a few components that need to go into a good crafting system. The crafting loop, search + collect, build, repeat, needs to add to the gameplay. Things you craft should let you have an easier time finding things or let you explore more areas. It needs to be minimally grind-y and maximally fun, and there has to be a diversity of items. I was/am having problems thinking of ways that crafted items could make it easier to unlock regions or find more stuff. Maybe I don’t have enough mechanics to support it yet.
My thinking was that I’d have a small set of items that you could find in the dungeon and a medium to large set of ways to combine them. I started working on a crafting table where you would draw alchemical symbols to transmute stuff into other stuff. This way, you’re not really bottlenecked (pun!) by what potions you find but you still have to explore and read to find what you need.
I need to prioritize these a bit instead of working on them at random, but also I like working on what I feel like.