I’ve worked on a second dungeon this weekend; the Bandit Camp, with its bosses and puzzles. I’m almost done and will be able to start working on more of them. Dungeons go fairly quickly so I should have a new one done by the end of the week as well. That being said, I’m feeling kinda sick at the moment so things might slow down…
Time spent on the project so far: 72 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
The world map is ‘done’! And by that I mean that all the tiles are there, enemy spawns are placed and entrances are also there. I still need to work a bunch of side quests and item mechanics and the dungeons are still a WIP. But hey, the world map is done that’s something!
Time spent on the project so far: 68 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
I've worked on the Blood Plains a bit in the last few days; Adding the Ancient Cannon that you can move around and set to fire at will on the two factions warring over this region. You have to do this in order to unlock the Ancient Battlefield, which is where the Seal of War is located.
In the last few days I've done a bunch of work on the world map; adding new enemies and map tiles as I almost complete the whole overworld area of the game. There isn't much left to do, most of the Blood Plains and a big party of the Crystal Sea, but otherwise the other areas are done. I still have one NPC left to implement and a few more tricks here and there, but I'm also pretty close to adding all the remaining dungeons!
Today I worked on allowing the player to walk on water - and properly drown if you unequip the means to do so while above the blue waves - and I tweaked the pathfinding for some of my enemies. Next up are more maps and other challenges and foes. I only have one NPC left to design, technically, and a bunch of dungeons, so things are going well!
Today I've made the first thief challenge where you just need to figure out which box contains the Bracelet of Water in order to win it. It's fairly easy, but that's pretty much the goal with first challenges for each NPCs. Then I implemented the Healing Flask - an item that revives you to full health if you die. It's fairly powerful, but there will be a limited number of them in the game. They are also the first way I've added to heal Empty Hearts. Then I started working on the 'walking on water' system, which works fairly simply, I just need to make it so you drown if you un-equip the bracelet, and everything will be fine!
I was thinking about retooling some of the work I've done on Talk || Take to create a small Boyfriend Dungeon fangame and now that I think about it, if I need to create a procedural dungeon for the Seal Of Chaos, that's work I could use for both ideas. Hmm.
A lot of things were done since last time! I kept working on the world map, added a few more items and NPCs and started work on more enemies and stuff! You can see the status of the world as it is right now in one of the screenshots below, keep in mind that the lower left half of the world isn't started yet because you need a way to walk over water in order to get there. I'm currently working on that very specific item, which you can acquire from Pilf, the Sneak NPC. If you TAKE it from him however...
I've been working on a few things the last couple of days, mainly the challenge you need to pass in order to get the first shield. I've also added squares on the map and worked on a few new enemies and NPCs. I'm currently working on a bug that occurs when you exit a dungeon - the camera kinda goes crazy if you try to change locations. Afterwards I'll work a bit more on the world map.
I managed to get music that I kinda liked, so I went back to working on the world map and game content. You can now start exploring the graveyard, but the thick trees around it make it impossible to see if you don't have a lamp. You could always TAKE one from the gravekeeper...
Today I finished my work on the Seal + Empty Heart you can get at the end of dungeons. Like other parts of Talk || Take, there's a decision involved. You can explore optional parts of dungeons and fight optional bosses in order to purify the Dungeon Seal and get the Heart Of Gold, or you can just skip those and get the un-purified seal and some Empty Hearts. It's a choice! Now I'm going to start working on my procedural music system! It might take a little while (mostly because I need data to feed into my Markov chains) but I have to do it at some point!
Almost done with the Swamp Hole dungeon! I'm working on the last of the three bosses you can fight there, and then I'll have to implement the life upgrade mechanic and the Seal mechanic! Afterwards I suppose I'll move on to some more bits of the main overworld, but that's for another day!
I've been working on The Swamp Hole for the last few days - and I had real-life events messing up my work schedule. Now you can open golden doors in order to find some special items in the dungeon. The question in dungeons is either you TAKE the golden key at the end and grab the Seal and Life Upgrade or you continue running around and fight more bosses in order to get the purified seal and a weaker but more versatile life upgrade.
Talk || Take indeed!
I've worked on the minimap for dungeons lately (it was a bit more trouble than I wanted because I'm still using the 8x8 map to show dungeons that span on a 12x12 grid) and more basic dungeon stuff. For instance, if you enter a dungeon and quit/die, you restart the game at the entrance of the dungeon while if you quit/die in the overworld, you just restart in the starting location.
I also implemented chests that open only when you defeat all enemies in a room. You can now get a key from one of these chests! Keys do nothing right now, but that's next on my list. Dungeons in Talk || Take are a bit of an oddity; There are seals and life upgrades to grab in them, but just TAKING them might be a bad idea in the long run!
I've been working on the game's dungeons in the last few hours, mainly designing them and thinking about how they'll work. I've also implemented the bow mechanic and now I'll make the 'first' dungeon, the Swamp Hole. It's not really the 'first' dungeon because you can tackle them in any order, but it's the first I'll implement!
I'm working on plenty of new map tiles, mechanics and other NPC interactions. The current one I'm working on is Linke, the Fletcher. She resides in the Gloom Woods and can sell a variety of bows to you. You can also try and steal her bow, but she's the first NPC to fight back. These 'challenges' wont be actual fights but more like mini-events where you have to do something specific. For her, it'll be to dodge her arrows and get to her position without dying. You could try doing it on your first go, you could try getting a shield, you could try coming back with a lot of hearts...
Or you could just not TAKE her bow and buy it instead, you monster :D
Almost done with the world map! Well, the map itself. I decided I was better making a map of the world before creating it all in-game. Now I have at least a general idea of how the world will look.
As you can see, there are a few areas in the world; Forest, Castle, Mountain, Swamp, Beach, Plains, Islands, Sea and Graveyard.
I've worked on the world map lately and specifically the map item that lets you see a more detailed map with some descriptions. I'll also have to code the upgraded one that lets you teleport to certain locations, since you can TAKE it from the cartographer NPC as soon as you see her!
I'm still unsure about what happens when you die. I was thinking about half your money dropping and you could go and pick it back up. This seems like a good compromise between flat-out losing half your money and not having any consequences for dying!
More NPCs! More enemies! Chests! Pausing the game properly! Next thing I'm working on is the Cartographer NPC, she can give you a map to help you with your travel and even upgrade it to a magic map that allows to fast travel... You could also TAKE it, I guess.
I've worked a bit more on combat and the world map at large, building the map in the order that the player could go to it. 9x9 tiles seem fine, but I might need more than a total grid of 9x9 to fit all dungeons. I'll try adding more NPCs and items and quests now! You can also now continue your game and start a new one if you wanna overwrite it.
