Progress Report 30

Greetings. It's me.

This week, I've basically been doing the same work I did last week for Aster, but this time for Hero. Creating tree visuals, designing passives, and experimenting with different effects. I'm not worrying about fine-tuning numbers yet - only about how the effects themselves play out. Partway through testing, I got bored of my own game and decided to add that "variety" mechanic I mentioned in the last report. In short, it's a blessings and curses system.

Many players pointed out that right now there's no real punishment for losing in Delves, and that what happens to Aster while Hero is unconscious isn't clear. I don't want to communicate that (what happens to Aster) too directly early on, but I do want there to be reasons to try surviving Delves beyond just keeping loot. That's where curses come in - they might last for the Delve duration, or stick until they're dispelled. Hero can gain curses not only by losing but also by doing "wrong" things, for example stealing from merchants in Delves. So this week I've also been working on those effects - designing and testing them. Blessings and curse removal will be possible at shrine/altar/fountain rooms in Delves, and probably also somewhere in Town. I also considered applying the same system to weapons, but that might be pushing things too far for now - I want to avoid another 1.4a-style delay.

And, of course, Aster will be able to gain curses and blessings too. Not only battle buffs and debuffs, but also ones tied to eroticism in some ways. I don't really like it when corruption is tied to invasive things like curses or magic in games - be those "lewd" or "lust" curses, or even something absolutely unacceptable (on many platforms) like hypnosis or mind control. But I think that something more subtle, like slight "common sense alterations", might be fitting and not sound too illegal... It doesn't have to be exactly this though (Patreon don't ban me). I'll be thinking and researching what's acceptable for platforms and what's not when the right time comes. Just dropping a couple of my thoughts here to maybe read some of yours.

Next week I'll keep working on this system and probably return to the day-night cycle I started for 1.4 but didn't finish in time... And once the cycle is there, it makes sense to add some starter events tied to it. And if we're talking about events, then of course we can't ignore the keyhole peeking mechanic...

That's all for today. Thank you for your support. Until next time!