Game Journal #69 - Finished Fundamentals

Hey all! Happy Easter. Have I got a game journal for you today! I got a ton of stuff done, and I'm pretty satisfied with how my workflow is going. In fact... today, I realized that if I wanted, I could release my game within two and a half weeks!

That's right, you read correctly! If I really wanted to, I could fully release my game in two and a half weeks. That's about how long it would take me to implement all the dialogue I've written for the story mode.

...Of course, the game itself would be very unpolished, and the models would still be placeholders, and some optional features (like the move tutor) would be missing...

...BUT, I could theoretically release it in a finished state. Why? Well, all the fundamental features are now done! The dialogue system got an overhaul, battling and getting EXP works, you can use AP to level up moves and use them in battle, and you can complete quests and objectives. Therefore, even as barebones as it is now, my game is technically complete. Isn't that just fascinating?! When I realized it, it blew my mind!

Will my game still release this year? It's hard to say. While the code is mostly done, and there's still a lot of the year left, I still have a lot of assets to make. If you remember my last journal, I mentioned that making assets takes the longest for game development. Hence why I've dedicated such a large portion of the year to it. Those 3D models aren't going to make themselves... ugh. If it does release in 2024, it'll be because of that.

Anyway, life update. I've somehow been getting better at the guitar despite only practicing once a week for class. Today I tried to play Megadeth's Holy Wars(The Punishment Due) and Tornado of Souls, and... amazingly, it didn't sound terrible. Of course, I still made a lot of mistakes, but it was mostly a speed issue. I could play the notes, just not fast enough for the tempo. Some parts I even aced (that one bit in Holy Wars with the really metal sounding rhythm that sounds like screeching metal. You know the part.) I think it's partly because my teacher is having me learn scales, and to ace them I've spammed Scale Racer in Rocksmith. According to the game, I've played it 86 times so far. Yeah... that's in the span of a month or so. So who knows? The metal songs for my game might come quicker than I thought.

Recently, I've been more on the lefthand side.

My coding skills have also improved. I've been practically rebuilding my game's data-handling system from the ground up these past few weeks. I used to create references for things that I wanted to access from another blueprint (like input handling) but I came up with a better method that uses binding and unbinding events to a global dispatcher instead. I'll explain more in the video, but it basically saves a ton of memory and data. Plus, it's easy to read! Ain't that just the bee's knees.

With all that said, here's the changelog.

4/2/23

• Added dialogue sprites

4/3/23

• Added tutorial mode

• More sprites

4/4/23

• Added container for evidence.

• Added investigatable items.

• Added FindAll objective that completes based on objects found.

• Changed Bestiary UI

4/5/23

• Added Evidence popup

• Refactored a lot of the dialogue widget

• Changed visuals of History Widget.

• Added text color for presenting evidence.

4/6/23-4/8/23

• Drawing dialogue portraits

I did a lot of drawing this week. Because I'm finally implementing the story mode, I can implement what I draw right away, so it's very satisfying. So far, Joe and Dan both have all of their main emotes for the story done. I'm adding some extras when I think of another one I want for a certain situation, but the basics are all there. So that's cool. I'll probably finish up more for the other characters once I implement their first appearances in the story.

With all that said, here's the video: