Hello it has been a while since my last update and things have been slow on the development side of things, though, this has given me time to reflect on what I have created thus far and what I want to do with the project going forward. After much deliberation, I have come to the realization that the general idea for the systems related to party management and combat is already realized, and that most of what I have been working on was making improvements to that system by exploring enemy AI designs as well as general gameplay flow improvements. The main issue right now is that the game has systems but not much in the way of an Identity. So, a lot of focus for the next couple of months would be focused on fleshing out what I already have and finally giving some character to the pill-shaped voids that you have been seeing for most of the project's life span.

With that said, what are my plans for this year going forward? Well the first thing I would like to address is the spaghetti code that is my current build. Now that I have a general Idea of the framework I am dealing with, I have taken it upon myself to do a full rewrite of my code. I made the decision to finally migrate some parts of what I had into plugins and turn them into fully fledged tools (to the best of my current ability). This way I can leverage these tools to quickly prototype gameplay concepts. The current plugins that I have are as follows.

• Action & Action Graph system
• Interaction system
• Camera RIG System

The list of plugins that I add to this may grow in the future but as of right now these systems will suffice. This process does mean that future versions of the game will be on a fresh slate, making the structure different to what I currently have. There are some gameplay additions that I have made in the interim between when 0.0.6 was released and now. A lot of that work would be wasted when the next update would come out so I have decided to compile all of it into a new version (0.0.7) that you would be able to play through. With that said the current refactored project will take some time for it to reach system parity with previous versions so in the interim I will keep 0.0.7 listed as a separate download source. Below is a list of all the changes made for 0.0.7.

• Enemy AI Attacker v1
• Combat melee arena
• Combat range arena
• Main menu level selector
• Hard lock camera system
• Hit reactions
• Hitbox filters
• Level Selector UI
• Doge system
• InputChart Swapping
• Ranger character
• Ranger A
• New Input Management System
• Boost jump
• Add new controller function
• Attack mode
• Party system integration with new combat system
• Campfire rest system
• Simple lock-on system

Expanding the World

Most of the developmental progress made last year focused on getting an idea of the systems that the player would have access to, with the latter half jumping into AI that interacts with those systems. While the NPC element of the project still needs work. I think it is high time that expand into the world that these systems would be placed in. Elements like dialog, exploration, item collecting, quests, fast traveling, etc. are some of the major features that I have priority on.

Quest System: This system has two implementations that were already written; however, due to how I split up my time on development, it never got the attention to test and refine. My hope is to get an implementation of this system done at some point this year. Though with how I'd like the system to be implemented would require other systems first.

Fast Travel System: Fast travel is a common system in games, and like I said in the previous devlog, I was hesitant but an idea of how to use it came to mind. To keep things short I'd like the act of fast travel to operate as a mini-game of optimizing routes through the world to complete quests on time. The exact details on how this system would operate via controls or keyboard is still being figured out. For the time being my main focus is getting the different elements operational before moving forward.

Campfire System: The campfire system operates as the interface to some of the other mechanics of the game. A couple of which is the Fast-travel System and maybe crafting. A part of this system is already implemented as it also serves as a bonfire like those found in souls games and can be experienced as part of 0.0.7.

Map Creation Tools: Currently a lot of the maps that I have are not that interesting to navigate through. To circumvent this I have started investigating methods of quickly creating interesting environments and while it is far from complete I am at least getting some progress on it. Once done I will be able to create levels quickly and test how they feel to play. Below is an image of its current progress.

Enhancing the Feel of the Game

While most of the development that I have worked on so far has focused on building the framework from which the gameplay is built off of. I want to start putting some time in creating systems and effects that enhance the feel and feedback of the overall game. Here are a list of things that I have implemented to some capacity.

Hit effects System: I really wanted to add more to how entities react to getting hit by an attack. The goal was to make hits feel much more impactful as well offer an extra dimension to how players can combo and interact with the environment.

Dynamic Camera System: I wanted to make the camera feel a little bit more dynamic. In most of the builds up till this point the camera has been rather static only offering simple transitions between characters and remained rather static when following the character around areas. I want the camera to feel dynamic in way to how it feels when playing games like Monster Hunter world, Breath of the wild or Horizon Zero Dawn. What I have created up to this point is something that closely mimics that sort of feel.

Projectile Consistency Improvement: This system, while already implemented, was very inconsistent in registering a hit and up till this point I have been rather laze in fixing it as other systems need

Enhancing the User Experience

Lastly I would like to start making a concerted effort to provide crucial information about the game's systems without having the player constantly return to the itch page to get that information. These may include video representations of how the systems operate and give a general idea of how I envision them to operate in game. While there is not much to add to this section other than having important information in-game, I do plan to keep this aspect to the game in mind whenever I finish a section or mechanic.

Closing Thoughts

I am at a point in development where I need to start sourcing assets; however, I am stubborn and hell bent on creating these assets myself. Though there might be some that I may source elsewhere like the music or sound effects. As of right now some of my main priorities are figuring out a pipeline for 3D assets and determining a proper art style direction. The hope for in the future that the core systems of the game is finally crystallized and moved into the alpha stage.