Progress Report 2021-04-05

Hi friends,

Happy April! Progress on the game is still going slowly as I’m having continuing issues with dry eyes and screen time. I have taken time off and have radically reduced the amount of time I am spending at my computer, but unfortunately that means that I am not able to get as much done as I usually do. 

I am hopefully seeing my eye doctor this week and I am trying to write some segments by hand (just so progress doesn’t stall completely).

Game Updates

I am almost done the UI updates for the public build. This became a much more all-encompassing process than I had originally anticipated. There are a lot of small CSS adjustments for polish that aren’t noticeable unless you know where to look. You can take a look at some screenshots of new materials above. Here’s a list of new UI changes:

• Removed the Font-Awesome icons next to Saves and Restart that are part of the base SugarCube stylesheet
• Created a custom Toggle button for the sidebar (pixelated on mobile; working on figuring out how to clear the image on smaller viewports)
• Added box shadows to all passages to add more dimension against the background
• Added a header box on the Journal pages
• Moved the Guide to be accessible from the sidebar right away, rather than from the Journal
• Adjusted the sidebar for Combat screens (new combat icon and new background)
• Updated the header image on dialogue boxes (Saves, Restart, etc)
• Made significant progress on mobile optimization. It’s not 100%, but fonts and headers should resize for smaller viewports. The UI bar cannot be resized without destroying its functionality (not sure why), so it must be collapsed if you’re playing on mobile. Dropdown boxes still do not trigger on mobile (tried a new JS solutions, nothing worked on my Android phone at least).

Some other changes:

• The Settings pop up launches on one of the opening pages after you click “New Game”. This is to ensure players don’t skip over elements that may be helpful for their particular playstyle (according to my data from my Chapter 1 feedback poll, the vast majority of players do not click on Settings)
• Skill Game and Action Key now default to being “on” rather than “off”
• Added a tutorial popup in the Prologue that explains skills and skill checks

I also made a significant change to skill and skill check mechanics. After bashing my head against percentages, my partner helped me out with a skill formula and I have completely redone the way the player’s starting skills are handled.

The player now starts with a base skill level of 5. The Prologue / Quick Character Creator still gives the player 9 skill points across all choices (2 from your origin, 4 from your Wayfarer master, and 3 individual choices) to increase their skills from the base level.

Dice rolls and the number required for a successful pass are all higher than they were before. It is now impossible to 100% fail OR 100% succeed a normal skill check (there are still some skill checks that are purposefully easy or difficult than average). There is a level of risk across all choices.

In general:

• Level 5 – 40% to pass
• Level 6 - 45% to pass
• Level 7 - 50% to pass
• Level 8 – 55% to pass
• Level 9 - 60% to pass
• Level 10 – 65% to pass
• Level 11 – 70% to pass

This new system allows for more flexibility as the player grows their stats. I found the system before encouraged players to continue to grow the stats they were already good at, which would eventually lock them out of choosing certain options entirely because their skill level would be too low. If I am committing to the idea that EVERY choice is a risk, then there cannot be 100% chance of success or failure.

The player will not be able to see their chance of success before they select an option; however, I am planning on including that as an unlockable trait down the line.

If you have access to the Alpha Build, these updates are now available. You will have to start a new file for the skill check changes to take effect (playing on an old file will result in an immediately loss of every skill check). This will be true of the public build when that updates (hopefully later this week, I want the changes to sit for a bit first).

With the UI updates and optimization mostly done, I am finally moving on to editing the Viridian Lady sequence. I have attempted to edit it by hand, but it’s a little difficult and slows the process down more than it helps. Because of my decreased screen time, I’m not sure how quickly I’ll be able to edit and code and check for issues. Thank you for your patience!

Patreon Content

I am slowly drafting April’s Patreon content by hand. I started writing the Ren short story, but it’s still very much in it’s early stages. I am still planning on getting the writing tutorial out this month as well, but it will depend on how much screen time I can manage in the coming weeks.

End of March Check-In

This is my progress from March. 

Not all of it was game-related in terms of writing, but I am pretty proud of myself for reaching over 50k this past month.

Misc

If you’re part of the Discord server, you probably know about the April Fool’s joke we did for the server. My partner (who also helps mod the server) recorded a joke playthrough of the Kane fight in Chapter 1, in character as “Professor Warblesnatch”, an uppity, over-the-top professor of archaeology who started as an off-hand joke. If you want to take at least a couple points of psychic damage, you can watch the video here (there are no jump scares, loud noises or other such things associated with April Fool’s).

Have a great week!