Quest Failed: Chapter Two - Dev Log #91

Hi hi! How are we all doing today? I hope the warmer weather is treating you well and the gloom of winter is finally melting away!

First of all--I want to apologise for how late this dev log is, several days off of its intended publishing time. I wanted to make this particular dev log feel special, so took an extra day or so just to finish polishing up what I'm presenting to you today!

And what better way to do that than with a fancy video? As it's been a while since I last uploaded something more tangible to show you all, and felt this worked way better than a series of narrated pictures like usual.

As you may recall in my last dev log, I was giving a brief, technical overview of the shop system I was fleshing out, and what I intended to do with it. Well, I'm happy to say that the shop feature is now complete and fully functional! All I have to do now is slot items into the system, whether it's buying new items, or selling existing ones in your inventory--and things are fairly simple to continue implementing.

The video attached above gives a good overview of both buying an item and selling one--showcasing what I feel was important: adding a whole bunch of fun flavour dialogue to each item. Since having a boring dry menu where you click something and instantly sell it or buy it didn't necessarily fit a visual novel where I over-narrate every last little detail--so of course I decided to go all out with the little interactions between Matt and Claire here.

There are several points I'd like to expand on here, too regarding how the dialogue works:

- There are several randomised lines Claire has whenever you hit 'buy' or 'sell'--basically amounting to some kind of bewildered reaction that Matt actually wants to shop at her store. Because, yes, business really is that bad! Additionally, not all of the lines here are final--and I may revise some of it as I'm not quite happy with it all.

- Whenever you first present an item to her, or ask about one, there'll be a brief intro scene detailing the item. Once you get this bit of intro text, it won't repeat if you come back to the store, meaning you can go right to buying the item, since he already knows about it and its price. This lets me keep both my longer narrations, and keep things brief after to avoid you having to hammer through repeat text--so best of both worlds, whoo!

- The way the icons fade in and out of view is placeholder for now and I'm still debating the best way to handle showing them, if at all right now.

- The gold values you see in the attached video aren't set in stone. These are pulled from the top of my head while I continue to balance and test things. I want to try and strike a balance whereby you can earn a good amount of gold, and spend enough to make the decisions non-trival. I'll just have to see what other sources of gold become available down the line!

- I'm considering having buying/selling add to Claire's affection for you as you become her favourite customer. Meaning to unlock her more intimate scenes you would have to first slowly gain her trust by buying and selling a ton of stuff. Either this or by simply talking to her each day. Or maybe I could mix it? The possibilities are endless!

So with Claire's store fully functional, and the ability to buy items at your disposal now--I'm set to work on the remaining h-scenes that will be part of the next alpha build. There may or may not have been a small hint as to who will be involved in one of the new h-scenes based on who Matt was buying the ale for, huhu~ It's a mystery!

Finally--since the dev log has been about the shop two times in a row now (because I was that excited about implementing it!) let's mix things up and cap the journal off with a cute lil chibi of a mischievous fish.

Dawww, look at her! With how cute she is, you'd almost think she WASN'T some kind of horrifying nightmare fish flopping straight out of your worst dreams! Glub, glub, glub~

So, what do you guys think of the shop? Is it a fun touch, or pointlessly wordy for something that should be swift and basic like buying items? Do you enjoy Claire's character? Do I ask too many silly questions? Am I really going to be able to release alpha 0.9 this month, too?! Ahhhhhhhhh!

(I'm sure it'll be fine. Until next time, guys~)