Posted June 03, 2026 by Drunkiel
Hello again, long time no see!
It's been a year since the last update, and pretty much everything mentioned there is now irrelevant. Due to changes in the lore and my overall approach to the game's theme, a lot of the previous ideas simply no longer made sense.
Now that I'd like to fully return to sharing progress on this project, I'll try to post regular updates about what's happening and what has changed.
One of the biggest changes is the map system, which now uses my own grid-based terrain solution. The obvious question is: why not use an existing system or Unity's built-in terrain tools?
The simple answer is that Unity's terrain system doesn't support RuleTiles, which I decided to use as the foundation for world creation. This greatly simplifies the process and significantly speeds up my workflow. Unity's terrain system relies on materials, which made it difficult to achieve the pixel-art look I was aiming for.
Since I already had experience working with RuleTiles in previous 2D projects, I started looking for a similar solution for this project. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything that met my needs, so I ended up creating my own system.
In short, it works very similarly to Unity's terrain system, but uses RuleTiles instead of materials. It gives me enough control over the world-building process, although it's still far from being a fully polished solution and many things have to be done manually. Fortunately, that doesn't bother me, so I'll leave it as it is for now.
Of course, it's not perfect. There are still some terrain rendering issues, but they don't affect gameplay or navigation. At this point, I've spent enough time working on it and I'm satisfied with the results for now.
Another important change is the redesign of the dialogue system. It now uses a graph-based structure, making it much easier and faster to create both simple and complex conversations. I've also added support for triggering actions directly from dialogue nodes, which is a significant improvement over the previous system.
One feature that's still missing is support for conditional branches, such as checking the player's level and displaying different dialogue options or text based on the result. This will be especially useful for things like shop offers that change depending on progression.
The last thing I'd like to mention is the lore. It has gone through many iterations and revisions, to the point where it barely resembles what I had planned a year ago. Hopefully, that's a good thing. I don't want to reveal too much just yet, since it's still not in its final form.
That's all for now. I'd definitely like to talk more about the lore in future updates, but first I need to sit down and put the finishing touches on it. Good luck with your own projects, and see you soon!