[All art and design is placeholder]
Video: https://my.mixtape.moe/zjtnnr.mp4
(Apologies that this isn't embedded - Itch's community editor is terrible, I'll be moving to a new platform for devblogs in the future)
Anyway! It has been a little minute since I've posted a devblog and as you can see in the video above there's a lot to show for it!
Menu
There is a basic menu system implemented, right now this is all just default unity UI stuff but it sure makes everything a lot nicer to work with. Once we get into the beta stages of the project it'll start looking a lot prettier. There's also currently no way of accessing this once you're in game right now (The procedural level or tutorial level).
Tutorial
Speaking of the tutorial level, that exists now! As mentioned in every devblog, the art and design is placeholder, but it demonstrates the controls and the basic structure of the game. There is an artifact, which causes an effect, and a basic "puzzle" that can be solved. The back end for this is what took so long, in fact, let's talk about that...
Shaders
These were the bane of my existence for a while, as seen in the video/tutorial level when you pick up the artifact a color-invert shader is applied over the screen as a post-process effect. Getting this set up in a way that worked with the modular artifact system was a major PITA and took quite a few iterations before it worked as expected. There are a few quirks still not related directly to shaders, but it works very well for what it currently does. I've implemented about 6 shaders, however only one is accessible in the game currently (through the tutorial). These aren't just limited to color effects either - there are quite a few fun things shaders can be used for and I plan to explore their potential as much as possible. Other types of effects from artifacts will also be here soon, things like changing the world rather than just the rendering.
HUD
A basic HUD has been implemented, along with a simple hotbar to show what puzzle pieces you're currently holding. I'd like this to be a dynamic thing and not always be on-screen in the future, but this is a good stepping stone. I've also made some improvements to the yellow "Alert Text" for picking up and placing items. It's much easier to read, but still placeholder. I'll be moving it closer to the hotbar and changing the color to something less obtrusive as well when I do a polish run on the UI. Right now it's serving its purpose (prototype functionality) very well.
Puzzles
As seen and mentioned, basic puzzle structure is implemented. there are puzzles to complete and doors that only open when they're completed. This is the building block for much more complex systems that involve procedurally creating unique puzzles during level generation, and will be quite fun once they're ready. For now though these will be limited to a basic color-matching system, but at the very latest this will be majorly expanded during the beta phase, and I hope to have at least a few more types during Alpha.
Inventory System
The back-end for the inventory system is complete, and the player will be able to talk to the game controller about it. This right now is limited to puzzle pieces, but the infrastructure is there for this to be expanded to artifacts once procedural levels are populated. With this done, it's just a matter of adding the items to the levels now.
Deferred Rendering
I've made the jump from forward to deferred rendering, this has made lighting a little bit better, and will make things relating to lighting nicer in the future. Along with this change I've fixed a lot of problems in the old lighting, the banding is still there but not nearly as bad and distracting as it once was. With some adjusting I think most issues with lighting can now be squashed though, so that's a good load off me worrying about fixing Unity's poor lighting system.
And that's all for today's devblog! Hopefully the next one will be a lot faster than this one. The build is uploading to Itch now for pre-alpha testers.