I have been having trouble sleeping the last few days, I wish I knew why. So today I was awake a lot longer than normal and had some time to waste working. I added some of the code that highlights and recognizes user input for the menu system, but I still have to break out each submenu, and since each of them is a new branch of the game on their own, it’s going to be a “fun” task. For some unfathomable reason, I didn’t dive into it just yet, and spent a lot of time on map artwork.
Now here’s the thing, I got myself pretty discouraged by seeing a supposedly similar engine on youtube that does exactly what I wanted a game to do in 2d since… well since 1995. We’re talking like real functional weather that accumulates precipitaion and real lighting effects for day and night… it’s just scary. I am trying to figure out how to program something similar but as it stands I’m already afraid my engine as-is is at its limit, I’ve been noticing frame rate drops while I’m adding more and more detail. So, I have to figure out what is going on and how to speed things up. I just want this game to look as good as it plays, but art takes so much time. And I have a feeling there’s some fancy trick using alpha channel overlays to emulate light in 2d similar to the layer blending in Photoshop. I’ll get over it I hope, I’m just still having problems nailing a look for the game and I need some sort of “in” to make the game appealing to others.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the additions at least to the map objects, the more I add the more I can rethink how to code them to make things more versatile AND efficient. I really didn’t want to have to make rocks and other “debris” part of the tileset, I probably just need to figure out another algorithm for checking which map objects to draw to speed things up.
gogo ^^ i like the art on the displays for the menu kinda rock/grain type of window so its easy to see. I’m thinking that the Journal option is main story like points that she records herself so you can refer back to them, or do they also include quest logs? also for your heighth issue with objects wile placeing them have like a mock up of Arashi to mesure for deapth. Thats my idea anyways.
Yeah I had to rethink my menu design from the previous entry, I like how it stands out now. I may have an option for the user to just select icons to condense the menu further without the option names default and it being a more graphical representation (like in the Tales of series with the battle menu), to add less distraction to exploration.
The Journal is exactly what you said, it’s not an original idea, many RPGs use it, but it’s a smart game design element that lets players keep up with where they left off. Especially in a game that allows a bit more player-driven story like this one, it can be easy to lose track. The current main objective will be listed and you can review what has happened before from Arashi’s experience, also I may use this menu to show the full map since they are kind of related.