Game Journal #79 - Achievements, Chemistry Bar Revamp, Finishing the Photo Gallery

Hey all! Got another game journal for you to read. I've been steadily making progress these past few days, so let's get into it!

Firstly, life update as usual. Recently I remembered an anime that I saw in my childhood called Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro (Demon Detective Nougami Neuro.) I watched it twice back then; once by myself, and once with my younger sister. I was listening to the opening song (when I was a kid, I downloaded all the anime opening songs of shows I watched to mp3, and I still have them like 10 years later lol) and thought, why not watch it again? So I did. And it was just as good as I remembered it to be!

The two main protagonists, Neuro and Yako.

The anime is about a demon named Neuro that comes from Hell to Earth to solve mysteries. For him, mysteries are food that he eats, and he ate all the mysteries in Hell. So he goes to Earth and meets Yako, and they open a detective agency together. It's a really cool and unique show! Apparently it's also made by the same mangaka that made Assassination Classroom, which I have not seen but heard a lot of good reviews of. So yeah, if you like that you'll probably like this too.

What was really crazy to me was that I remembered all the mysteries from each episode even a decade later. In fact, a few of them I thought were from Ace Attorney, but were from this show instead! I was a total detective junkie when I was a kid, so I watched/played every single detective anime/video game in existence at the time. Yeah, explains a lot about Joe Maverick, huh? Haha. I think because I did that, a lot of my memories blended together, hence the misattribution. Well, now I know!

Now for more important stuff. I'm trying everything to get financing for this manufactured home in Arkansas. But because it was made in 1973, I'm having a lot of trouble finding a lender. You see, before 1976 there were no regulations on mobile homes, so the quality was a hit and miss. So most lenders don't want anything to do with homes before that year, even if they're in great condition. Yeah. For some reason, I can buy a crappy falling apart house with a terrible foundation made in 1900 and it's okay, but noooooooo, can't buy my mobile home that I can actually live in because It'S tOo RiSkY! Do banks really? I don't understand 'em.

Anyway, I found three (possibly four) lenders so far that do mobile homes, so I think it'll happen... maybe. The first one wanted me to do a 25,000 down payment and have 500$ repaid a month. ...This is on a $65k house, mind you. Excuse me, nearly a THIRD of the price as down payment?! Way to nickel and dime the little guy. So that's a definite no. The second one is still up in the air. Because I'm transferring with a slightly lower hourly rate for my job, they possibly (maybe) want me to work there for a month before giving me the loan. Which, I mean... where am I gonna live for that month? Seems ridiculous to have to have temporary housing just so I can buy the actual house I want. Because of that, I contacted two other companies, which I'll hear back from soonish. I'm really hoping this goes through somehow. The inventory in Hot Springs is pretty much nonexistent for anything I can afford, so if not this house, yeah I'm kinda out of luck. Fingers crossed that it all goes well.

That all being said! Let's get into the game journal. Here's the changelog:

8/2/23

• Added subtitle option for photos taken in the gallery.

• Added the option to write in the subtitle.

• Added option to delete photos.

• Added option to view photos.

8/3/23

• Clarify Romantic/Friendship Chemistry route

  • Romantic is yellow to pink, friendship is yellow to orange

• Improved Chemistry bar percentage UI.

• Improved Chemistry bar UI

• Created add Chemistry points function

  • Chemistry points will only add if there is no side story restriction capping the percentage.

8/4/23

• Chemistry Bar has unlock requirements that show on the bar itself.

8/5/23

• If file not found for photos, button is not created.

• Added inOverworld bool for moves

8/6/23

• Added transition effect for chemistry bar on unlock text

• When you take a photo, show a GET! text and show photos of the monsters you got.

• Added Unlock Achievement function

• You can't pause when the camera is open.

Quite a bit! I have even more to add but didn't want to put too much in one journal. So I figured this was good enough. Speaking of, check out the difference between the way the Chemistry Bar screen used to look and now!

Yeah, it's not terribly different. I kinda had the basic idea for a while, but I didn't know how to improve on it. That is, until I coded in the function to add chemistry points, so I had no choice but to make the widget look nice. Lol. I'll go over all the changes in the video of course, but I think it looks much better than how it was before. I hope you think so, too!

Okay, with all that said, here's the video of me going over everything I added. It's not as long as last week's journal, so I hope you don't fall asleep. Next time I'm planning on implementing the Skills menu on the pause screen, and adding another widget for the Chemistry Bar when you earn points for characters. I really want to use particle effects for it, so I'll have to learn how to use Niagara. I'm rather excited about it! And as always, leave me your thoughts below. What do you think about the recent updates? Is there anything you'd like to see implemented? Let me know!