Dungeon TF Progress report (2023-03-08)

Hey folks and happy world's women day!

Quite a bit has changed, since my last prototype, about 2 weeks ago, but I am not at a place, I want to share things yet.

So, what is holding me back?
Mostly mobs. And there it's fights.

Also some detours into other, nice stuff, a lot of refactoring of code, to make things prettier/smoother and easier to maintain.

Some features and changes:
- sprites for all cardinal directions *also reduced movement, but I think it's a bonus)
- GB mode! (yep, you can make it so, that things look like on the old gameboy)
- massively revamped shader control + turn phase control (nothing you can see, but it's way easier to maintain now)
- proper mob behavior (like kobolds get alerted, if you want to take their shinies!)
- combat! (but here also lays the issues)

Combat is working, except when it's not. Those cases are more than 1 mob attacking and also some other edge cases.

I'm thinking of experimenting with other combat systems (more Final Fantasy [the round based one]/Pokemon style, than in world), without committing myself to a specific presentation style for it.

Just, I think the current system might be a bad end. Yes, I can probably patch the issues up, but ultimately, I am not sure if it's the thing I want and there is always the issue of new problems popping up.

Oh, just a heads up, there won't be random encounters. You will always see mobs in world, and avoid them, but this is more when actual combat happens.
At least, that is the plan. I don't like random encounters myself and will only go for them, if I feel they're absolutely necessary. (But I doubt they will)

So, what's the plan?

Well, experimenting with combat systems, see what I like the most, implementing it and then moving on.
There is also the question of game over screens and progress of course, then a whole lot of other systems.

About the game over screens

I made a decision here, that they will be simpler as originally planned, but for that the TF theme will be integrated in the game more generally.

The idea here is, that you won't get long winded TF animations, but rather see the end result with a lot of teasing.

And, for that, you can change, while the game is running, and deal with TF shenanigans.

Like being turned into a kobold, and now you are faster, but not as strong. Or similar fun scenarios.

Just as a disclaimer: There won't be chimeras. TFs will always be full.

These changes help me with content (as long TF animations take a lot of work) and thus the game. Also the in-game TF picks up the theme a lot better. Because otherwise it's really just the bad ends and that;s... good, but also boring.

This allows for more variety!

If you have any questions, please ask me here (in comments, or via notes) or on my discord server!

PS Attached will be two scenes, I created for the kobold TF. As they're not going to be used anymore anyway, I thought I just share them with you.
They will be going public in about a week.