First off, I'm sorry to all of you out there that have been reading and following these posts (all two of you) and wondering where I've been, but finals are over, summer is about to begin, and I'm ready to get back to work!
I'm still working on the demo, balancing between engine, enemies, and spells (more about those below), but for the past couple days, I have been putting together a full UML class diagram to help me mentally organize the over 60 (and growing) classes that make up the game's code; for the sake of my own sanity (I've never built anything even half this big before). So, my actual work will be paused for the next couple days while I put together a bit more documentation for reference; it should allow me to work on the game a lot faster as I'll be able to get a better overall view of the code from the diagram than having to dig through it.
Next, the actual game. For now, I have been trying to balance between improving upon the demo and building upon the current game's code. While there is some overlap between those two categories, there are some features yet to be added to the code that either are not needed in the demo, or are currently hard-coded (meaning that there is code for features to act as I currently want them to for now, but not how they should act in the end). Certain things like saving and a bit more functionality to the cutscenes are definitely on the list to be added, but things like full boss fights, interactive cinematics (the slide show thing), and other features are on the list to be added, but simply are not required for the demo. Meanwhile, further enemy, spell, and item testing are definitely in order to help balance the gameplay so that it just "feels right" (if you know what I mean).
Additionally, art is a thing that I want to improve in the demo. Part of this is cinematic (the slide show cutscene), which I want to redraw. I'm looking around for artists who would be interested in this project, but in the meantime, I may just redraw them myself. The other part is the main art for the overworld where you walk around. I wanted this game to emulate the style of older RPGs, and as such, gave it a constant pixelated aesthetic that is not only in its overworld, but extends to the fight graphics as well. However, I have been having some issues with drawing smaller things in that pixel size. Most small things aren't a problem, and can be either approximated or replaced with something else, but the one glaring failure of mine in this style is the titular character himself, Lotus. After you get dropped off in the forest, Lotus rides on your shoulder for a large portion of the game (not going to say how large, spoilers), so he needs to stay proportionally sized to the player sprite (and he is small) but still keeping enough distinct detail and sitting on the player's shoulder in a way that does not look oddly tacked on. I have yet to really accomplish both of these things at the same time, despite my current efforts. I will keep working at it, but I'm worried that the, as the pixel ratio is already at a 2:1 ratio, I may have to make the images 1:1, meaning dropping the large pixel aesthetic. Although I would still have some tricks to give it a "pixelated" look, such as not using blended/merging colours and scaling it to look pixelated in full screen mode, it wouldn't be the same; which is kind of a shame since it's been the style that I wanted the game to be designed in. However, not only would it mean losing some of its style, but I would also have to completely rework (and in some cases, redo) the background images, which are somewhat large at this point, and doing so would be quite time consuming. So I'm kinda stuck between a rock and a hard place in this case. For now, it's my biggest issue, art wise. I'm leaning towards slightly reworking the player design to allow for a simplified Lotus sprite to fit in aesthetically so that I can avoid the above situation at all costs, but at this stage of development, that choice needs to be made as soon as possible. I'd appreciate feedback on this.
Oh, and one last thing! I've been working on something small on the side, but I'll write more about that in an extra post soon.
That's all for now. Thank you for your continued support!