Day 17 - Apothecary & SRPG Studio Developer Talks Resolution

Another day where I was not all that productive. I'm really going to buckle down and get moving over the weekend through next week. Part of this has been due to IRL stuff that cropped up unexpectedly but also I just needed to slow down as to not burnout completely. I've never done a jam like this and I might have gotten a bit too enthusiastic with how much work I could reasonably do each day. Any way, you don't really want to hear excuses or anything so let's get into the more important stuff.

SRPG Studio Development Update

Yesterday I discussed how I was talking to the folks who brought the English version of SRPG Studio over and we were able to get the fullscreen bug completely squished. That means you can play Hiro's Ascension in fullscreen when the next update drops at the tail end of the competition. I don't know about you, but I find being able to play a game in fullscreen if I want to adds a world of difference  in my opinion of said game. This means that the game will now default launch fullscreen and have overall better presentation. Yay!

Of course, that wasn't the only thing fixed but as far as you guys are concerned, that's all that is really relevant. However, knowing that the devs for this engine are listening to its community is very positive. I hope more people decide to look into the engine a bit, especially since the demo is really good, because more people developing with this means better resources for everybody. Right now I am having to do a lot of magic just to get this to feel different from other developers using the same engine, most people only really use the stuff out the box and this project is maybe using 60% (character sprites, animations, some icons, and a few backgrounds/map tiles). However, even some of the stuff out of the box still requires a lot of work to actually use on my end so don't think that I have things too easy!

Apothecary

I did fully implement The Apothecary today. It is run by a grandma like character who sometimes speaks in puns. Why? Well, why not?!? Any way, she currently only sells potions but will likely carry some magical items as I move through the project. If anything, she's easily expandable. Here's her current inventory list:

• Healing Potion - Heals user for 20 HP and may be used 3x (cost 125). Currently the most efficient low-level healing item.
• Healing Potion+ - Heals user for 45 HP and may be used 3x (cost 250). Double in price but much more efficient, a mid-tier healing item.
• Antidote - Cures user of the poisoned condition and may be used 3x (cost 120). Limited usefulness as most enemies do not cause this state but I may expand the item's range in terms of what it can cure. Right now this is largely a placeholder item as i flesh out the themed areas. 
• Resurrection Potion - True resurrection of 1 dead alley and is single use (cost 1,000).  Most useful in hard mode where characters are lost on death (normally). On normal, they come back a map later so this item isn't as useful then. There is no way you will be able to afford this at the start of the game so I'm not worried about somebody thinking they have to buy this item like I am for Antidote. You have very sparse funds at the start of the game (ranging anywhere from 100-500 depending on choices and random events) so it would be most wise to purchase actual gear than potions anyway.

Things that are important to keep in mind regarding these potions:

• Using a potion takes up an entire turn in combat, so it is much better to have a dedicated healer in your party (which is the first party member you are offered).
• Each potion eats up 1 inventory slot but offer multiple uses as opposed to other healing items you may find early in the game, say for example, Forest Herb which are single use and heal for a little less. Raw materials are always worse than refined ones, the idea is that this communicates a resource chain. Any way, I generously gave the player 10 inventory slots as opposed to the default 4 since EVERYTHING eats at least one slot. Don't worry though, you have a convoy (default name, likely will rename) you can send extra stuff to but you can't pull from in in combat.

While I was added I modified the other shops a little bit. Stuff like The Smith selling armor now, instead of just weapons.

Be sure to take breaks as you continue to work on your project, and I can't wait to see how everybody's work turns out!

-JS