Game Journal #101 - Start of the Westwood Kingdom

Hey all! Welcome back to my game journal series. This time, I've begun work on the second part of the Introductory chapter of the game. To learn more, keep on reading!

First, a small life update. I'm getting really sick of working two jobs. Yeah, I make a lot of money, but I really don't need to make that much. I only need one job to pay my mortgage, and the rest I can use for bills. Right now I'm focusing on paying off the debt from when I first moved here (before I had my house.) I had to stay in AirBnBs and short term rentals, and they were not cheap. Pretty much all the money I made went towards that, so other expenses (like food, gas, etc) piled up over time. Thankfully I'm about two months away from finally cleaning it all out, so that's good. At that time, I'm going to quit one of my jobs. I'll have much more free time, and updates should also begin to come out faster. Because really, being a game dev is what I want my career to be. So yeah.

All right, with that all said, let's get into the game journal. Here's a list of what I remember adding.

-Time travel animation
-Preliminary Westwood Kingdom Level
-Bug fixes for the Detective Office
-New music (Westwood Kingdom theme)

With the Detective office now completed, I am now working on the next level, called the Westwood Kingdom. This area is where Erika is from, and also where you'll get the main quest for the game. I'm thinking that I'll do it the same way that I did the Detective Office; functionality first, and presentation later. Right now, this is what the level looks like.

I know, it's not much to look at. But you can see the general layout of the level. The top left portion is the castle area, and the flat portion on the right is the town square. There, you'll be able to go to the blacksmith, tailor, market, etc. I'm really rusty at making landscapes in Unreal Engine, so it may be a bit before it looks somewhat presentable. But the concept is coming along.

If you remember my old sandbox level, you'll know that I already have the functionality for all of the places I listed above. All I have to do is drag them into the level, and presto. So really, all I have to do is make everything look nice. It shouldn't take me too long... hopefully.

All right, with all that said here's the main video of me showing the level and the other things I added.