The Fool's Path | devlog 4

It's only been 11 days, not 2 weeks but I have added a lot and need to write it down. 

I started working on level 6 which is called world 1. The ordering is all out of wack and I need to rename things but that might just add to the confusion. I wanted to add some variety to the levels so this one is set at night in a graveyard. The look of the game is drastically different. I turned down the lighting and changed the tone map of the camera so shadows are darker. It makes it hard to show off because the level is so dark but it looks good in person and that's what counts. I added gravestones to the level as well. there are 2 different tombstone models that I flip a coin to pick which one, and then flip another coin to see if it's rotated or not. So the graves are varying in style and rotation. I also added some triggers to this map so skeletons will spawn in behind you. There are paths you can skip and avoid combat in this level. You are also encouraged to split up your units. It makes wondering around in the dark difficult but hopefully still fun.

I added 2 new characters to the roster. Both NPCs. A farmer who carries a pitchfork and can attack and be attacked by enemies, and a peasant girl NPC who gives missions. The model of the girl was named Elsie so that's what I called her in game. I realized I didn't have any female characters in the game so this takes care of that. I think I might make her a playable character for one level where you need to escape a dungeon or something. Right now she gives a mission on level 2 that teaches the player they can drop potions on the ground. She gives you a mission to find her lost potion. You fight a slime and have a choice of giving her the health pot, or keeping it for yourself. If you give it to her she keeps it and your out one health pot. I also put a explosive barrel near by so if your an asshole you can blow her up and take your health potion back. 

The farmer character's model is way better than the rest. I like it a lot and wish my other characters were in that style. I guess now if I ask someone to make me some characters I can give them an example of what I want. The Farmer NPCs turn come after the enemy turn and before the players. They will run at enemies and attack with a pitchfork. I use them in 2 places in the game so far. I want to add a mission where you need to save as many as possible, while they are being slaughtered by skeletons. 

I added dialog boxes to these 2 new NPC characters. This was way harder than I thought it was going to be. Just putting 2d text into a 3d world without it looking wonky was challenge. I asked chatgpt and I guess it's normally done with a viewport. I've never messed with viewports before, but I got it working in the end. It always faces the camera and scales with the camera zoom. I still want to work on the look of it some more. Now I can use this speech bubble scene at many places in the game. Like in level 5 where the NPC warns you that skeletons are ahead. 

I added a chest at the end of every level that shows a button to go to the next level. So you can now play all the maps in order. Some one on reddit actually took the time to play the game. They said they liked it a lot. They found just about every bug and some ones I forgot about. It was really good feedback and highly motivating to hear they thought the pacing was good. It starts out with tutorial text to teach you the controls and then slowly adds new things each level and I'm only up to 5 levels there lots more I want to add. 

I just uploaded the newest version of the game to itch. It has the new farmer NPC and the mission with Elsie. I'm sure there is more I'm forgetting but that's the big ones. Next I want to get a new enemy in the game. The goblin sapper. I have someone working on the model right now and it's looking pretty good. I think the game is worth playing now. I timed it and it took me 17 minutes to run through it. I know where everything is and I know all the puzzles so I think the game could take a lot longer than that. 3 months of work for 17 minutes of gameplay. Not to shabby. Now that I have everything set up it will go a lot faster. 

https://jhyde.itch.io/thefoolspath

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