After a while spent working on my PROCJAM 2018 entry and a small break, I’m resuming work on Talk || Take with the second to last dungeon, the Ancient Battlefield. Enemies here include automated statues that shoot at the player and dangerous bomb droppers. This shouldn’t take too long because I already have the basic layout of the dungeon and the enemy concepts!
Time spent on the project so far: 87 hours
Currently working on: Starting up Ancient Battlefield
Wild Island took a while to make because of its unique way to work as a dungeon, but I’m almost done with it, I just need to complete one final boss fight and test the whole thing and that’s going to be it! Then I’ll ‘only’ have two dungeons left…
Time spent on the project so far: 85 hours
Currently working on: Finishing up Wild Island
Another one dungeon completed! I’m currently working on the magic staff mechanics before starting dungeon 4/7. Here’s a bit more of the encyclopedia!
Time spent on the project so far: 80 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
Still working on The Magic Grove, almost done in fact. I only have one boss fight left to code and then I’ll move to another dungeon. Probably the graveyard one!
Time spent on the project so far: 77 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
I’ve been working on the ‘third’ dungeon lately, The Magic Grove, it’s a forest themed dungeon with snakes, spiders and magic crystals. There are a bunch of other things to do in the sidelines, like sidequests and alternative paths you can take through the game, but I reckon I’ll work on that when I’m done with all the dungeons.
Time spent on the project so far: 76 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
I’ve worked on a second dungeon this weekend; the Bandit Camp, with its bosses and puzzles. I’m almost done and will be able to start working on more of them. Dungeons go fairly quickly so I should have a new one done by the end of the week as well. That being said, I’m feeling kinda sick at the moment so things might slow down…
Time spent on the project so far: 72 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
The world map is ‘done’! And by that I mean that all the tiles are there, enemy spawns are placed and entrances are also there. I still need to work a bunch of side quests and item mechanics and the dungeons are still a WIP. But hey, the world map is done that’s something!
Time spent on the project so far: 68 hours
Currently working on: Dungeons
I've worked on the Blood Plains a bit in the last few days; Adding the Ancient Cannon that you can move around and set to fire at will on the two factions warring over this region. You have to do this in order to unlock the Ancient Battlefield, which is where the Seal of War is located.
In the last few days I've done a bunch of work on the world map; adding new enemies and map tiles as I almost complete the whole overworld area of the game. There isn't much left to do, most of the Blood Plains and a big party of the Crystal Sea, but otherwise the other areas are done. I still have one NPC left to implement and a few more tricks here and there, but I'm also pretty close to adding all the remaining dungeons!
Today I worked on allowing the player to walk on water - and properly drown if you unequip the means to do so while above the blue waves - and I tweaked the pathfinding for some of my enemies. Next up are more maps and other challenges and foes. I only have one NPC left to design, technically, and a bunch of dungeons, so things are going well!
Today I've made the first thief challenge where you just need to figure out which box contains the Bracelet of Water in order to win it. It's fairly easy, but that's pretty much the goal with first challenges for each NPCs. Then I implemented the Healing Flask - an item that revives you to full health if you die. It's fairly powerful, but there will be a limited number of them in the game. They are also the first way I've added to heal Empty Hearts. Then I started working on the 'walking on water' system, which works fairly simply, I just need to make it so you drown if you un-equip the bracelet, and everything will be fine!
I was thinking about retooling some of the work I've done on Talk || Take to create a small Boyfriend Dungeon fangame and now that I think about it, if I need to create a procedural dungeon for the Seal Of Chaos, that's work I could use for both ideas. Hmm.
A lot of things were done since last time! I kept working on the world map, added a few more items and NPCs and started work on more enemies and stuff! You can see the status of the world as it is right now in one of the screenshots below, keep in mind that the lower left half of the world isn't started yet because you need a way to walk over water in order to get there. I'm currently working on that very specific item, which you can acquire from Pilf, the Sneak NPC. If you TAKE it from him however...
I've been working on a few things the last couple of days, mainly the challenge you need to pass in order to get the first shield. I've also added squares on the map and worked on a few new enemies and NPCs. I'm currently working on a bug that occurs when you exit a dungeon - the camera kinda goes crazy if you try to change locations. Afterwards I'll work a bit more on the world map.
I managed to get music that I kinda liked, so I went back to working on the world map and game content. You can now start exploring the graveyard, but the thick trees around it make it impossible to see if you don't have a lamp. You could always TAKE one from the gravekeeper...
Today I finished my work on the Seal + Empty Heart you can get at the end of dungeons. Like other parts of Talk || Take, there's a decision involved. You can explore optional parts of dungeons and fight optional bosses in order to purify the Dungeon Seal and get the Heart Of Gold, or you can just skip those and get the un-purified seal and some Empty Hearts. It's a choice! Now I'm going to start working on my procedural music system! It might take a little while (mostly because I need data to feed into my Markov chains) but I have to do it at some point!
Almost done with the Swamp Hole dungeon! I'm working on the last of the three bosses you can fight there, and then I'll have to implement the life upgrade mechanic and the Seal mechanic! Afterwards I suppose I'll move on to some more bits of the main overworld, but that's for another day!
I've been working on The Swamp Hole for the last few days - and I had real-life events messing up my work schedule. Now you can open golden doors in order to find some special items in the dungeon. The question in dungeons is either you TAKE the golden key at the end and grab the Seal and Life Upgrade or you continue running around and fight more bosses in order to get the purified seal and a weaker but more versatile life upgrade.
Talk || Take indeed!
I've worked on the minimap for dungeons lately (it was a bit more trouble than I wanted because I'm still using the 8x8 map to show dungeons that span on a 12x12 grid) and more basic dungeon stuff. For instance, if you enter a dungeon and quit/die, you restart the game at the entrance of the dungeon while if you quit/die in the overworld, you just restart in the starting location.
I also implemented chests that open only when you defeat all enemies in a room. You can now get a key from one of these chests! Keys do nothing right now, but that's next on my list. Dungeons in Talk || Take are a bit of an oddity; There are seals and life upgrades to grab in them, but just TAKING them might be a bad idea in the long run!
I've been working on the game's dungeons in the last few hours, mainly designing them and thinking about how they'll work. I've also implemented the bow mechanic and now I'll make the 'first' dungeon, the Swamp Hole. It's not really the 'first' dungeon because you can tackle them in any order, but it's the first I'll implement!
