Afternoon gents.

Writing this developer log pretty early within the day, so I am quite groggy. However, I guess that's not stopping me from showing what I've progressed on so far.

Honestly, it's not too much. I promised myself that I would be about... 70% done, but now it just feels like its 65% done. Especially with a deadline approaching within my time, this is getting stressful to work on with more class work and colleges. Oh god, I hate colleges.

So, begging the question of: What changed?

Here's the few answers:

- UI Clean up with a few areas

- Balancing for a few equipment (Or at least my damn best try at it)

- Included a new point system for upgrading Heat

-"Boss" levels included

Let's go over all of these quickly.

In terms of UI, there's mainly one HUGE change that I made...

Blamo, the area where you upgrade Heat now is almost all completed! Except for that small, normal-looking-ass exit button, everything has been cleaned up and made to be "not normal". I understand that the developer log before this was basically the same, but now there are points to invest in, and points for your skills! Maybe I plan to also add in a "reset your skills" option so you can invest your skill points back to some degree, but otherwise, this is how it is.

I am quite proud of how this turned out in the end, but I'll continue to tweak this and work on the looks of it, especially with that skill screen, because it's still not completely working. However, my plan for it to work by next week is absolutely possible.

Next, well. Balancing. I've found it really tough to balance out defense and agility, especially with the fact that the clouds and swords have managed to give you a crap ton of health and defense, essentially making you block almost every time with a 50% chance. I did reduce this a lot more, so this isn't likely to happen as much. However, balancing has always been a difficult endeavor for me, so I'll probably continue to tweak around with these concepts.

But, back on that main UI screen: Points!

Yes, instead of infinitely feeding Heat points now, you start with 30 or 60. Not sure which one. But you start with some points to initially invest into Heat, whether that's your attack, defense, agility, defense, or even crit. Every level up, you will gain about 10 uses of these points to be able to manifest your choice. 

I have also tried to tweak around with the skill points, because I've set it as every 2 levels to allow Heat to gain 1 skill point, but I'll also have to tweak around with this one. But yeah. I actually have a "balanced" way to get Heat stronger through every level and kill what he obtains!

And lastly, BOSS FIGHTS!

Don't get too excited, it's just a simple sprite change for some of the enemies. Perhaps I set a way for them to do some kind of special ability, depending on who they are. However, for the time being, they are just simple changes to the sprite, maybe I add a little crown..?

Ovatrulant in this picture simply just has a massive sprite change, so it's really nothing different for now. However, I plan to maybe give him a chance to crit as one of his "boss abilities", but for now, I'll leave it as it is and continue on.

Annnnnd I believe that's it for this week.

It's really funny how I continue to make more updates and have more to talk about the more I do these developer logs, but maybe that's just a call to action that I need to stop being so damn lazy with a deadline. 

I'm saying it. I've tried to abandon it, but this game already just looks great, as I thought. While it could use a lot more work on art and UI, I'm still quite glad of its finishing line, and want to see how far this'll go. 

So, there's that. And, since it's been a while, I shall post you one enemy that I've been working on. I have about 6 more left to draw, but I'm being slower with them, because it's so unlikely that the demo versions may even have access to these monsters...

This guy is massive, but I'll also be impressed if anyone could guess right off the bat what this was mainly inspired by.

Otherwise, I'll wrap up right here. I'm getting a bit busy, so perhaps it's another good week to relax and do more work.

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Come support my growth by following me on Reddit or YouTube. Reddit just has several inquiry questions that I made and promotions, and so does YouTube. YouTube supports more content-related issues, such as sneak peeks and trailers. Hope you find those interesting. I'll plan to have a Discord soon. Not sure when, but soon.

Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/Daq_Vid/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Daq_Vid

Instagram (Oh wow its new): https://www.instagram.com/daqcodevid/

That being said, I'm glad if you read this far, and wish me more luck with my programming skills and game development skills even more. Gooood bye!

-Daq_Code(Daq_Vid)