Status Report #60 (Dungeon Select, Brainstorming, & File System)

I'm accomplishing a crazy amount of stuff this weekend!

     My development checklist is getting shorter! This coming week might just be the last for development! Once I'm in final testing I can rest easy and prepare for launch! Since I don't even have to wait for Apple this time I can do it whenever I'm ready. Amazon and Samsung might take a week but there's really not much to stop me from releasing in early November. I can finally get feedback from people I don't see in person and see what the world thinks of my first game.

    Look at all my business stats after the page break!

Unicorn Training: (Load & Save) File Select Menu

     A file select screen exists! Players can have their save data occupy one or all of the available slots. Player will select a file then push the forward arrow to act or push the back button to return to the previous screen. In the end, it's a lot more elegant than what I had in mind a few weeks ago. I scrapped the idea of custom file names to save time on a virtual keyboard even though my school maze project had me make a keypad with similar behaviors.

Ideas For Building Characters (Mobile RPG)

     I spent a lot of time looking at a bunch of Pokemon theories (non-creepypasta ones) that explained a lot of logic games in the game's world. things like how the world came into existence, how one monster can become another through generations of breeding/mutation, and why there is a limit to how many moves can be used. It's a way to get me thinking about how to make my own world full of characters that don't feel like generic stand-ins.

    You can see a few standout videos I saw on Gnoggin's YouTube channel and catch what I took away from the experience as a gamedev below the break.

Unicorn Training Dungeon Selector

     I finished up another pretty big piece of the game, the way players choose which dungeon to play through. Now the global variables that control that stuff are accessible in game. I added the ability to quit and be taken back to home from the pause menu or death menu.

     When players approach the crystal ball the action icon changes and pressing it brings up the choices of Dungeons, Bosses, and Random. Dungeons brings up all the dungeons you can play in any order, bosses brings up the boss fights you can do again, and Random makes it so that each dungeon room you enter is randomized based on ones you've beaten before.

     The diamonds are colored in for the dungeons you already beat while the others are grey. Pushing the page buttons shifts between the 9 dungeons so players can choose to play any level they want from the start.