Devlog No.043

Still working through stuff for Kirizimi, but I'm getting pretty close to done now. I feel strangely stressed about it which I find really odd. I just keep telling myself that I should be done by now, but I worked on it nearly every day of the past couple weeks just trying to finish it off. Though I think the reason I feel that way is that I spent some of that time on stuff that wasn't integral to completing Kirizimi. And that is adding in some guards, each one having a slightly different sprite. Though I didn't give them portraits. There's about 20 of them so I won't show them all here, but I'm sure you'll see them soon.

Here's a few of them:

It really didn't take me too long to make one version for most of the races and then I also made a few variants including a few male guards. Above there are two male guards so you can have fun trying to figure out which is the second one. (Hint, it's not the elf)

Nearly all of the guards have a small bit to say. A few of them have just general stuff to say, but quite a lot of them comment on events that have recently occurred related to the main quest you have to do. None of them say anything critical to figuring out how to complete the quest though. You can just wander around the city and you should eventually be able to find the quest objective. You also don't have to start the quest to find the necessary item either. The stuff the guards have to say just 'might be interesting' is all.

Also, Li'leyna now has her captain of the guard, Slish, protecting her.

Maybe at some point I will give her a portrait too, but for now she has a blank portrait. (This is also the same blank portrait that all the NPCs will have for the time being. I might refine it later)

As for Poipoi, the gem exchange NPC, I'm still sort of working on her. Her side quest is fully done, but the way I set up the gem exchange system is rather limited. I'm not 100% sure I like how it works, though I will leave it like it currently is for now. Here it is right now.

The idea here is hopefully simple. You give 3 of one type and you get 1 of another type. It's also limited in that you can only trade certain types of gems for other types. I'm kind of iffy on this because I think a better system is letting you choose the gem type you want to receive and the gem type you want to exchange for it. Then I'd have to figure out gem value to determine how much one is worth compared to another. Really, I think that if I just keep it this way, the value of gems is then determined by the player's RNG and it becomes a bit irrelevant having to go to the trouble of programming that complexity.

In short, if there's demand for it, I'll change it, but otherwise, this is it for the time being.

As for mapping, I still need to do the underwater segment and one single wharf area. I have one enemy type I still need to make, but the bat enemy is completely programmed and art done too.

Another thing that I probably could've skipped for a short bit was that I went ahead and added in a side house with Parfait and her master. Parfait isn't programmed, but her master, Dizzy Duluci, is mostly done. (She's done until I do the NPC tf system I should say) When I do the NPC tf system, Dizzy will ask you to tf Parfait for her and act as a kind of soft introduction to the NPC tf system (If you find her). She may also give you a free catalyst item (but not any gems). Parfait will likely be the cheapest NPC to tf as well.

Well, something that eventually needed to be done is done at the very least.

Also I did spend some time improving and adding more art assets in general. The center of the city looked just a bit too plain so I added more cart variants.

Each of the carts has a little flavor text to go with, but you can't buy anything from them. There's a few others and not just these. I also plan to add a generic shop keep for each one. Right now the (well endowed) Tarradarian wizard is the only one tending her cart.

The blacksmith is still coming! In addition, I realized that the player didn't have a way to get spells easily so there will also be a wizard. Not the above wizard though. Instead you'll have to find her. (Shouldn't be too hard)

This 'yet unamed abysser' filimuri will provide the 'spell' equivalent of the blacksmith. She'll sell you spells that you've discovered so you can decide what spell you want to use without having to hunt it down in previous areas. I was also considering allowing you to donate some symbols to her for her 'research' and an unlock item sidequest too. I even thought about adding the ability to give her a different outfit just to test some systems. (That top barely fits her!) I think I'll pass on doing those for now though. I just wanna get Kirizimi done so everyone can play it first, then I'll think more about the extra 'fun' stuff to add.

Once I have Kirizimi done and out there for you to play, I'll start considering adding in some small extra things before progressing into the next area.

Something I completely forgot during the last devlog, but I didn't mention that I planned to have another brief storylet with Milan and Illaria when you are traveling to Kirizimi. It's weird that I'm about to have another boat segment with story stuff added. Hmmm... I used to think doing that was just for hidden loading screens. Well, you can get off the boat this time and just jump in the water if you want. (The storylet will still play) Hopefully the story doesn't get in the way of everyone having fun.

One last thing to say is that I will be delaying doing the NPC of the month until I finish this build. I am going to just focus entirely on it until it's out. Then I will go back and I will do the NPCs.

But that's all I have to say for now. I am hopeful to have this next build out soon!