itch.io

sorry for the late. reviewed the font. i used to think it looked really good `til i tried opening the page on a different PC. now the font is readable and looks actually good

thanks for the feedback
<3

About the windows. I don`t suppose it`s possible to move them around the screen (but this function is feasible). At the moment i`ve two variants of this window



I'm more inclined towards the first variant. The second one has a bar showing the timer before the automatic closing, but i still need to find a better solution for that. If i can do it in a simple way - automatic closing will be available.

The name of the status is written in large text. Below is a brief description of the changed status. Yellow text about important information, for example: critical stat changes, increased chance of encounter, etc.

About how the game calls on functions. The structure of any Ren`Py game is built on labels. Each label can display images, music, windows, text, and more. 

Let's take clothing changes as an example. We're at the location label where we are now. By selecting "Wardrobe", we are taken to the clothes changing label for this location, which has only text about how Tessa changes clothes and call the wardrobe function.

Wardrobe function contains only the character's output in a larger scale, clothing selection and changing the character's status depending on her clothes. When you finish selecting clothes, the game returns to the previous label, from where, after the text about completing the dressing, it returns to the selection label
So it works like this:
selection > dressing > clothing change window > dressing > selection. 

To the player, it looks normal. To the game, it looks like the player has moved between locations and then returned to where he started.

I hope i`ve answered the question as detailed as possible <3 I'll also try to take more screenshots for future devblogs/release posts. I realize that images and text are much better than just text

a thread for suggestions for changing or adding new content to the game. Totally free form posts, i know how to read, just please make your posts in the correct subforums

Responding to your hopes. Creating all the game systems makes me happy, so i assume i won't have to be overwhelmed. The only thing that might take a while and load me up quite a bit is figuring out the balance. For example this morning i realized that i should split my NPC wallet into two different wallets. One wallet containing a small piece of their money that the NPC carries with them and a second wallet containing the rest of the money that is stored in the NPC's personal chest, bank etc. This is an important piece of balance that will prevent the player from skipping ~months of gameplay and then stealing from a rich merchant getting too much money while destroying the econ. system.

skill name, level, description and a list of available abilities are displayed in brown color

On the subject of skills. Right now it looks like this. You have a general skill level that grows with the character's training. This learning can be in the form of just using the skill or actually learning from NPCs. On top of that, you have the abilities that the skill unlocks. 

Using the unarmed combat skill as an example. By using the abilities of this skill during combat, the overall skill level will increase. This will affect the attack modifier of that skill, making your hit simply stronger. In addition, it can unlock a new ability, for example your character will learn how to hit more correctly and have a better chance of dealing critical damage. In addition, a high level of unarmed combat skill will allow the character to learn new attacks from NPCs. In this case, the game will not put a restriction such as "Reach level B unarmed combat to continue learning the skill", the game will simply show your character's attempts to learn, which will fail, and roughly hint at how far you are from mastering a certain skill (for example, you will see text that Tessa is not at all ready to learn this skill, which would mean a very big difference in the required skill level and actual, or text that Tessa is almost there, but needs some more practice - so the skill is almost at the right level).

There will certainly be many different jobs available in the game for different ways. I'm also considering a scenario where the player doesn't have to work at all. For example, begging on the streets, stealing, exploring the world and finding things to sell, trading, etc. 

Regarding the optimization of the game. One of the reasons for choosing Ren`Py to create this game was the spaciousness in optimization. The game takes almost no resources for rendering, because the picture is just a static background with possible other images on it. This allows me to add an immeasurable number of features to the game, because even if the calculation of each of them will occur after each transition in the scenes - it will not be noticeable. But anyway, right now the game constantly updates only the character's personal stats. Even the NPC inventory is updated once every 1440 game minutes. 

Regarding the rumor system. There is already a fame system available in the game that will be the basis for this. Unfortunately, i can't promise that every action of a character will be directly reflected. What do i mean? Let's use an example. You rob a tavernkeeper, he notices it, and your fame as a bad person grows in a certain zone. Characters in that zone start treating you worse, but they don't point out your thievery specifically. NPCs just say that Tessa is a terrible person, but don't call her a thief. But, important story elements will definitely be fully rendered in the game. I think it's no secret that in the future in the game there will be an opportunity to become a queen. In this case, people around will start treating Tessa as a queen. This will affect dialogs, random events and even gameplay.

I'm thinking about limiting the carry weight in inventory, but those are just thoughts. For now, the game is built on complete player freedom, though i realize that adding an weight restriction would increase the immersiveness of gameplay by not allowing you to carry 50 apples, three swords, and a few logs. I'll try to think more about this and maybe add it to the game, but it's important to realize that the weight balance will change very often. It's very hard to even roughly realize what the weight distribution of items should look like. It's even harder to estimate the player's carrying weight and to estimate what stats it should depend on.

Absolutely. In this development blog, i've talked about stealing as if it would be very easy. In fact, in addition to learning the skill, the player will have to learn NPC schedules, possibly find special ways to steal, and even more so, will have to find a way to escape immediately after stealing. Catching a character while stealing will mean not just failure, but time spent in jail, loss of stolen items and even own coins, in compensation to the victim of the theft. 

Thanks for your feedback <3 I hope i can meet your expectations in the next public build

In any case, the game engine allows you to return to the any selection at any time. I spent a long time choosing between Ren'Py and Twine. both game engines - allows to create a text-based game and both engines allow you to return. I settled on Ren'Py because here it works better. Having reached the ending you can rollback (button in the bottom menu or on the mouse wheel) to another choice or easily load a save. And also, Ren'Py saves have not only a large number of slots, but also a screenshot on them <3

And besides, i want to add secret content that is only available after achieving some endings. The game already has code that tracks endings and in the next patch of the game an achievement window will be available where the player can track this

thank you for your feedback. i think the kinda demo version will be out pretty soon. I can't give exact dates, but it's definitely in September. Of the available features will be the first act of the story - the entire Eastern District with the available story within it. The first act will end at the moment when the main character is ready to go through the Lostgate inside the city.

I`ll post more about the development plans in one of the dev blogs soon. either this evening, if i`ve some free time after coding, or tomorrow <3