Damsels and other Progress

Damsels continues to get most of my focus.

The big project for 1.03 is refactoring the code. For those not familiar with the term, refactoring involves going through code and finding places where it could be made simpler and do the same task, or more readable, etc. Part of the purpose of refactoring is to make it easier to add things in the future, because the code is easier to modify if it's easier to understand. This can include things like renaming variables to make them easier to understand, turning code that's repeated into short function calls, or simply solving the same problem in a more elegant fashion. I've grown a lot as a coder and there's a lot to improve.

In the process, I'm finding bugs and fixing them, and changing functionality here and there in small ways. I'm also adding things to support modifications in the future.

I've used a number of workarounds to avoid breaking saves in the past, and some additions to the game I simply haven't made because there wasn't a reasonable way to do it without breaking saves. 1.03 will break previous saves. Some of my previous workarounds are being changed to work more elegantly, but I'm also putting in place things that will support the changes I might make for several future versions, so that I won't have to break saves again for a long time.

I expect 1.03 will be released on August 13. I have some ideas for new content, but I won't know for sure until I get done with the refactoring what will make it into this version.

The Bard class is still on target for 1.04. 

Strange Gift: As I've been working on this game, I've had a few misgivings about it's direction, and that's frozen development for a week or so. I've just put the effort into Damsels instead, so no time wasted. The conclusion I've come to is that the plot is too complex for the development path I'm taking -- that the way the game was, I felt like I practically had to develop the whole thing for any of it to make sense. I've been plotting out ways to simplify that so that I can release enjoyable chunks of the game without it feeling like you have are building a jigsaw puzzle with some of the pieces missing, and that has restored my enthusiasm for the project (and the likelihood of an August release that's fun to play.)