Ever had a bug appear out of nowhere after you added something completely unrelated? Yeah, that's not fun.
THIS PAST WEEK
It took a lot of work, but I managed to finish up the cutscene code. A conversation can take place, portraits can be changed depending on who's speaking, people can follow certain paths, and it can transition cleaning into gameplay. There was a weird point where it somehow messed with the transition code, and I had no idea what was wrong. But after banging my head against the wall for nearly a day, I found a workaround that fixed the issue. In the end I was able to do what I wanted, creating an object that can manage all cutscenes just by changing various variables, though I suspect that I'll need to make tweaks down the line to accommodate more complex cut scenes. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, the current code is enough for the demo.
Popup tutorials are finished. Like I thought it was pretty easy, though I'm still deciding how long it should stay in the GUI. Currently it's 5 seconds, but I may make that a bit longer. The tutorials generally show up in safe zones, so it's safe to leave it up a bit longer. Besides, it's not really it doesn't cover that much either. I also made it so that if you leave the map before it disappears it'll still be there when you come back. That way if you move too quickly and miss a tutorial you can still come back and see it.
You may have noticed that "aiming reticle". I've decided to add custom cursors to the game so that we're not stuck looking at the default windows cursor. It was surprisingly easy to do, so I decided to make two: When you're in the gameplay, it's an aiming reticle so you know where you're shooting, and when you're in a menu or when there's a textbox it changes to a stylized cursor that looks like a spear head. I think it adds a little extra flare to the game, and I may see about making the cursor animated.
Lastly, the sprite design for the main character has been finalized, and the animations are in production. The walking set isn't done yet so I can't show the opening cutscene I want yet, but I can finally show you guys the sprite! It'll be smaller in game, but at this size you can see more of the details.
THE NEXT WEEK
I'll be taking a break next week, it's Christmas after all. But I don't want to lose the momentum of my work, so I'll just work on maps for about an hour a day. Something nice and simple to work on while I get some R&R. If the walking animation is finished during this time, I'll add it into the game and make a short video of the opening cutscene for screenshots.
SUMMARY/TL;DR
Completed This Week:
- Finished cutscene code
- Finished popup tutorials
- Added custom cursors
To Do Next Week:
- Take a break
- Do some simple map work
I'm glad I got one of the hardest parts finished before the break. There's one more hurdle left, but I can tackle that in the new year. This might be the last entry of this year, so if I don't see you guys again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!
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