Devlog No.024

I've been working steadily on expanding the new candy areas and there's still a bit to be done. I need to program the enemies and create a couple more areas.

New this time around, I added a couple of NPCs for the boat that you can talk to before and after the boat scene. (They're just props while on the boat though. This is because there is intended to be Illaria and Milan talking) Anyway, they aren't meant to be super important NPCs, but they still have some things to say if you want to talk to them.

  
  

There is one more NPC that I will add in a similar vein to these, however I am keeping that under wraps as I want it to be a surprise.

In the news of other things, this area will have the first max mana gem you can find. I'm going to limit the max MP you can get in the game to ten total (so four mana gems in the world). This is mostly because I don't want spells to become too imbalanced and also because I don't want the MP HUD to go off screen.

In regards to that, previously I'd used a set of raw UI elements and it was very inefficient. Effectively having three separate sprites for the hud, then several different sub images which were all huge. So having tons of empty space taken up on a sprite sheet by just the MP HUD segment.

Now the HUD is a lot more dynamic and the MP and spell cost sprites are tiny and thus will take up far less space on the texture sheet. The only drawback to this is that I increased the number of HUD images for the raw spell frame. I could probably do this one dynamically too so I might adjust it later, but for now, the trade off is fine I'd say. Much better than previously where I would have had to add effectively thrice the sprites and take up thrice the space on the texture sheet.

You shouldn't be able to even see a difference in the new HUD to the old one. Just that now you can extend the bar when you get a mana gem.

Finally, I finished up all the story elements for this particular part of the story. Realistically I should say that the next portion of the game is mostly story with light enemy presence to start, then builds back into normal gameplay.

I have also started on the visuals of the enemies for this area. I decided on something fitting to the zone, though I'm going to keep it semi-under wraps here. As I had previously said, I wanted to avoid heavy complexity for these enemies. Instead the environment is more so meant to be the hazard here with the enemies being more of a hindrance or slightly harder to hit.

Though I suppose I could say that I want to add something of a mini-obstacle enemy type that you have to inflate by pumping them up. My only issue with this is just that I haven't fully figured how to do this in a fashion that is fun and not just hitting a button and FWOOMPF enemy puff up. As suggested by a patron, I want to have an object that inflates anyone it touches which would include Aria. So I figured that I could introduce this, then have an enemy type you have to hit with this object multiple times to defeat them. I just want to figure a way to make it fun to do is all. (I mean, of course inflating them will be fun, but I mean getting the object to hit them)

Worth noting, but this first object would only have the regular inflate effect for enemies and Aria it would do her boob inflation form, but if you get hit by one while boob inflated, it would make you swell into the full body inflated form. So I will be working on some animations soon to allow her to puff up between those two. (I also have to adjust the current full body inflation animation to account for boob sizes) I'm still considering allowing Aria to pop, but good chance I will do it and make it a simple non-lethal quick pop that just does a lot of damage to Aria. So you'll have to be careful not to get hit while full inflated, but also not to touch another of the inflation objects. (I'll also have to add in a brief inflation immunity afterward to avoid any potential future inflation locking that might occur)

Though for now I am not going to go back and add different inflation types for enemies. If we're finishing up the game and I can continue to sustain development, I'll ask near the end if adding in more inflation forms for pre-existing enemies is desired. (Obviously this would extend development to do so)

Finally, I forget if I said anything about it, but I added zone text that pops up briefly when you enter into a new area. This is affected directly by where the players has and hasn't been already, so it'll only pop up in an area until you hit the next zone progress area. Then you won't see it pop up anymore when you revisit that area. If it's desired I can change this pretty easily of course. I'm not sure if it's more desirable to have the popup show up every single time or only to let you know the name of the new zone with a little flourish. It's mostly just flavor though, but might help in recognizing where you are.

Which I may add something to the menus to tel you where you are currently located. I'm considering adding a 'status' menu option and then moving extraneous information there such as zone info, time of day, playtime, times inflated, etc.

And that's all for this devlog! Thank you all for supporting me! It means so much that I'm able to work on this game thanks to you!