The Shop!
Oh man! I've really been enjoying how this shop has been coming together! Things are really bouncy and fun to play with! All of my time this week has been put into working on the shop. My hope is people would enjoy being in the shop when they're there and I feel like I might be doing that with this.
We got tags! They're little wiggly bits that are fun to play with. Grabbing items and shaking them around throws the tags all over the place! Just a little thing to add some enjoyment. I had a few other ideas on how to show prices for things, but in the end I felt this was the best way to go about it. I didn't want to take up the screen with tons of text, so I'm hoping this will still show the price info in a fun and clean way.
So the next part was a bit tough, and that would be the dialogue box. Though it isn't done yet, let me talk about it a little. Both the dialogue box and it's text took a while to figure out how to do... but I got it! I had to make both adjustable so no matter what screen size you got it would always work! I had to do some fancy tricks with both the box and the dialogue, but in the end it all works! Man it was difficult to figure out, but like everything else I've come across, I eventually figured out a way to get it to work. Boxes look good no matter the size, and text is adjusted to fit into any box size.
The Little Things
Along with those things I've also fixed up, or added tiny things. The shaky effect on the hand when you buy items, bug fixes like how you could see the edge of art pieces during screen shakes, and some simple animations to Beep the shopkeep are just to name a few. I've also discovered a few other bugs, so I gotta squash those too.
But what's left? Well there's some big things and some small things, but without writing a huge list I'll just share the big important things.
-A tutorial: You gotta know how to use this thing! This ain't your run of the mill in-game store, so I gotta show how it works! I think the toughest parts have been figured out, but I'll know for sure once I start work on it.
-Explanations for items: Honestly I'm a little stumped here. I could have it so you gotta click beep every time you wanna hear what an item is, but that sucks! It might end up being what we do though, unless I can come up with a better way to show the info though.
-Music and sound: You gotta be able to hear things when ya do things right?
-Particles and effects: This has been something I've wanted to learn about for a while now. I gotta make sure I don't over-do it, but I know it's gotta exist in the game. But how and in what way? Gotta figure that out too.
-And many more: flavor text for beep, artwork for items, music to buy, animations to buy, and a bunch of other things! So I still have a ways to go before the shop is done, but I feel like a good chunk has been completed.
What's Left?
For the entire game, there is (if I'm remembering this right) 5 different rooms. The shop, the main gameplay, options screen, credits, and the menu that connects them all together! The shop is the 2nd biggest part and with it out of the way a big portion of the game should be done. But there's still lots of work to do, so I'm gonna get back to it!
Freelance
Though the freelance has been taking up some of my time, I'm still trying my best to work on this game. But the good news is, not only is the money helping to keep me going, but the work is really great practice! I know doing this will only make my skills even better for future projects. And the people I'm working with are crazy awesome people! I was hired as a 3D animator to work on the game, "Dragon Slayers"! It's a fighting game with a colorful cast of characters. I was working on a character called, "The Spy" and will soon be given work with a new character. This is the website's here if you're interested: " https://metagames.studio/ "
Wrap Up
Alright! So since my last post I have put a little more work into the game. I've decided to put more time into the shop of the game, so that's all I've been working on. I've got tags, and dialogue and lots of little bouncy parts! Along with that, there's been a few bug fixes and other tiny things added into the shop!
I'm not done yet but I got a lot of big parts completed! There's still a few things left to add, one of the biggest being sound, but I'll be sure to get those done soon enough.
I was slowed down a little by freelance work, but it's ok because it's helpful to do and the people I'm working with are awesome!
So if this sounds interesting and you want to see more, you can always join in on twitch! I love answering questions about the game, game dev, art, music, or anything creative! Or if you want to meet the awesome people of our community, we have a link to our discord as well. I hope you're all having a good day.
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/joltjab
Discord: https://discord.gg/rTyHaMD