It's always sunday (when it's sunday)

Hi everyone, I am here with the usual weekly report! First of all, I finally managed to hire someone for the milking scene. It has been a nightmare, I contacted several people and most of them didn't even bother to reply (so much so that I started getting paranoid about being on some kind of black list XD), a few had incredibly long waiting lists, but eventually I found an artist. The one who did the new portrait was already busy this month (and annoyingly enough, he didn't reply when I asked if it was possible to "pre-order" two drawings for the following month, leaving me to wonder if I did something wrong). Anyway, I found someone I was happy with, and I have high hopes for the final result (I should be able to show everyone a sketch next week).

 

As for the game itself, I worked on the temple: with the maps completed, I have been writing the puzzles and the text for the "discoveries" you'll make inside. I think I am past the halfway mark, although I still need to decide on the rewards/items you'll be able to find. I think it's going to be a fun one, we have some riddles, musical puzzles and more this time around! :D

I have also decided to move the mermaid in this temple, and have another creature seduce you in the first temple: the mermaid fits better with the new temple, and I also want to have some new info on how and why they live in the temples, so having the text spread out between 2 (or more when I add other ruins) NPCs is probably better, to avoid large info dumps (there are already one or two scenes which are honestly too long in the game, and I might have to revisit sooner or later).

 

Once the temple is finished, I'll have to consider what I am going to do next, and I might have to tackle the combat system, which is still rough around the edges. My idea for it was to keep fights rare, but relatively hard and short: No "100000 HP bosses" or anything of the sorts, I was thinking of tuning fights to have them last between 5-10 turns at most. I could also add summonings to the game, as those were part of the plans from the get go. Basically, you'll get a single companion you can switch out at will during battles, they'll be magical creatures with specific abilities. They'll probably follow a simple theme of "element+role", and you'll have to find the best synergies to profit from them, as well as consider what skills you want access to and plan ahead. Think of them like the various summons from Final Fantasy games, but who stay with you in the battle for the duration of the fight.

I will also start working in spells/elements which work well together (as in, a water spell giving a status which makes lightning stronger, for example), and I am trying to think of other balancing acts (I should really consider how strong and how easily available healing items should be, as they make most RPG games a joke).

 

If you have any thoughts/suggestions on the combat system, please let me know, all feedback is appreciated. ^_^

This is pretty much it for today, see you next week!