A quicky update this weekend. I've got some good and bad news to share.

The bad: It has become clear that the last required sound effects will not be available by the end of March, as intended (due to personal circumstances for the sound engineer). Despite the challenges that exist he did deliver more sounds this week and expects to deliver more by mid  April. There are more challenges still to tackle so it´s not all due sound effects (!), but it is what has made clear that the next demo will have to be delayed past April first. By how many weeks is still unclear.

The good: Massive progress has been made on the enemy visuals. I had expected it to be a fairly easy affair, but ended up spriting over 50 frames this weekend. Complete one boss battle (including small tweaks) as well as two regular enemies. With the spritework for two more enemies already progressing quite nicely.
Also, another playtesting session has been completed and the demo is proving to be quite stable.

Here's the list of remaining items till the next demo again:
- 5x 3x enemy visual to replace <-- PROGRESS: Two more enemies finished. Spritework for two more has already been started.
- 5x 4x character actions visuals <-- UPDATE: Dropping the net item from the next demo to save time
- 7x effect visuals
- 14x 10x sound effects to replace <-- PROGRESS: Yet more sound effects replaced
- Text engine font update
- Full playthrough for testing <-- PROGRESS: Yet another session finished.

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.185 (6 mrt 2023)
* Tweaked small tiling oversight in demo dungeon
* Worked with sound engineer

v0.26.186 (10 mrt 2023)
* Created new sprites for common skeleton enemy actions
* Created various skull sprites

v0.26.187 (11 mrt 2023)
* Tweaked skeleton sprites to make the movements more readable
* Replaced visuals (+tweaked) Murray boss fight (NOTE: not in upcoming demo)
* Fixed credits not triggering at the end of the demo
* Fixed incorrect music playing after boss fights
* Made various more smaller tweaks/fixes based on the latest playtest session
* Boss helper death now brought more in line with regular boss deaths
* Made more progress on updating character death sequence

v0.26.188 (12 mrt 2023)
* Created and (almost fully) implemented new visuals for two more skeleton enemy types
* Implemented new sound effect

Last week I said we were on track with the sound effects. This week I decided to really make sure of that. So basically spending a lot of time finding (and creating) sound effects on my own to bring the remaining work down as much as possible. I'm quite proud of the jump in remaining work, given how challenging sound engineering is for me (and how time consuming asset hunting can be). The sound engineer should easily be able to complete the remaining work this month. And if not, then I've already picked out 4 sounds that can be pushed back to the next demo without too many players really noticing.

-------

Here's the list of remaining items till the next demo again:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 5x character actions visuals
- 8x 7x effect visuals <-- PROGRESS: New enemy death visuals finished and implemented
- 38x 14x sound effects to replace <-- PROGRESS: Good progress has been made. One batch of sound effects is already being worked on by the sound engineer. With another smaller final batch planned during the rest of the month.
- Text engine font update
- Full playthrough for testing  <-- PROGRESS: Expanded the pool of early playtesters a little. Tweaked the demo based on their feedback

------

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.180 (26 feb 2023)
* Finished implemented death and revival sprites
* Disable sword charging (for the upcoming demo only)
* Added extra demo boss impact effect
* Fixed potential visual issue when switching windows while dying
* Made progress working on the new death sequence
* Implemented new batch of sound effects
* Put out next sounds commission package

v0.26.181 (28 feb 2023)
* Created and implemented two sound effects

v0.26.182 (3 mrt 2023)
* Fixed and tweaked a number of small points after playtesting sessions
* Reversed descision for some health and magic items to not dissappear after a certain time
* Tweaked hinttexts slightly
* Expanded collission coding behind ledge jumping
* Player can now push objects while standing on small stair tiles
* Worked with sound engineer

v0.26.183 (4 mrt 2023)
* Replaced more sound effects
* Fixed issue where thrown containers would break against “the floor” before falling into an abyss or deep water

v0.26.184 (5 mrt 2023)
* Replaced more sound effects
* Implemented new enemy death visuals

I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend on development today so here's an early update post. Also, I'm not completely tired while writing these for once. Yay, progress!

So I've finally been able to finish spriting the character death and revival animations. It took a long time to get it to feel all nice and smooth so I'm really happy about it. All the remaining items are the toughest things that are left so each step feels like a big triumph. The animation ended up being a nice nod to the original SNES Zelda while still being different.

Also, I've finally decided to cut the demo scope a little bit by excluding sword charging (and thus also the sword release and wall poking). I don't want to rush things and go for a lower quality, just to get the demo out there sooner. So these features will be included in a second demo way later in the year. Depending on how things progress during March I might cut down the scope a little further.

And finally the progress on sounds: development is back on track for this week and the next. Which is great because I can focus more on other things again. The progress during March will be slowed down significantly however due to scheduling and life. This was taken into account beforehand this time so I should be able to complete the sound needs by myself via sound packs and edits. If not then I might consider placeholder sounds to not let the demo development get pushed into April.

-----

Here's the list of remaining items till the next demo again:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 11x 5x character actions visuals <-- PROGRESS: I've pushed back a few character actions (like sword charging) and finished the death/revival animations
- 8x effect visuals
- 38x sound effect to replace <-- STATUS: The last batch of 8 sounds are practically done. The next batch of 8 will be commissions within the next few days.
- Text engine font update
- Full playthrough for testing

---------

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.176 (21 feb 2023)
* Improved sprites elemental sprites

v0.26.177 (22 feb 2023)
* Worked with sound engineer
* Shortened wall crash sound effect a little again

v0.26.178 (24 feb 2023)
* Tweaked and implemented visuals various elemental sprites
* Tweaked visuals new conveyor belt
* Tweaked audio levels
* Animated Linden death and revive character animations

v0.26.179 (25 feb 2023)
* Worked on sound effects and started work on next commission pack
* Tweaked music volume levels
* Started work on the new death sequence

Concept is promising. I'll hope for its release eventually.

I wish you the best of luck.

Just a quickie update this weekend as (like clockwork) I'm pretty beat from working on the game all day again. You would think I'd change my ways by now, but when I get started I tend to go until I'm done.

So the biggest news this week is probably that I've finally found a suitable name for the main character: Linden.

Why do I find it to be such a suitable name? Well, the Linden is a type of European tree. Clever right? Well, it gets way better: back in the medieval days it was considered a holy tree by some pagans and the early church. Being seen as a symbol of truth, peace and justice. And if you add the fact that it matches quite well with the HUD tree and has heart shaped leafs... it's just too perfect not to use .

-------

Here's the list of remaining items till the next demo again:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 11x character actions visuals
- 8x effect visuals
- 38x sound effect to replace <-- STATUS: The next commission batch is still delayed due to scheduling issues.
- Demo dungeon flow tweaking <-- PROGRESS: Now fully done
- Text engine font update
- Full playthrough for testing

---------------------

Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.174 (18 feb 2023)
* Further refined coding behind breakable floors
* Further tweaked hint texts in demo dungeon
* Added extra type of converyor belt
* Tweaked masking tall torches (+ added extra variant)
* Finished coding latest demo dungeon rooms
* Added 2 additional NPC's from later in the game to the demo dungeon for extra (optional) player guidance
* Switched to different HUD font
* Tweaked menu controls a little

v0.26.175 (19 feb 2023)
* Worked with Kohari on new visuals
* Tweaked demo boss and cape stats
* Started implementing new shield (menu) sprites

So here's this weekends update post. Man, it's gotten late again. I've been sick for over a week (nearly fully recovered now) and I just couldn't help myself from trying to squeeze everything out of the time left before sleep and work again.

But anyway, let's talk game development progress:
The focus his been on two aspects lately: adding in more custom audio effects and improving the demo dungeon rooms slightly. It was only a few weeks ago when a whooping 60+ audio files still needed to be replaced and now (with the latest batch outstanding) we're almost at half. I don't want to go for too generic or arcade style audio so a lot time is going into finding the right direction and overall feel. Which stressful at first, but now that more and more sounds are getting replaced it's feeling very rewarding to hear things working together.
The dungeon tweaks I describe a little more extensively in next weekends update, when it's fully completed.

-----

And here's the list of remaining items till the next demo again:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 11x character actions visuals
- 8x effect visuals
- 49x 38x sound effect to replace <-- PROGRESS: Another batch has been implemented. The next one is already started, but might take a week or two due to scheduling
- Demo dungeon flow tweaking <-- PROGRESS: Mostly finished. It's just some coding left to update and testing.
- Text engine font update
- Update PC controls to better match industry standards --> Finally DONE
- Full playthrough for testing


Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.167 (30-31 jan 2023)
* Finished preparing next audio commission batch

v0.26.168 (3 feb 2023)
* Moved three demo dungeon rooms down to a later area
* Restructured some code concerning area room data

v0.26.169 (5 feb 2023)
* Prepared next batch of sprite commissions
* Made good progress designing 2 new rooms in the demo dungeon

v0.26.170 (9 feb 2023)
* Changed default keyboard controls
* Made some progress adding in the new rooms into the demo dungeon

v0.26.171 (10 feb 2023)
* Made slight tweaks to coding flying tiles and most doors
* Tweaked switch sounds
* Tweaked fountains sprites
* Made progress replacing more sounds with sound engineer

v0.26.172 (11 feb 2023)
* Finished implementing last batch of audio files and put out new commission batch
* Tweaked door and switch audio files slightly to work together better
* Made more progress on latest demo dungeon rooms

v0.26.173 (12 feb 2023)
* Tweaked coding behind flying tiles
* Finished tiling and masking latest demo dungeon rooms
* Updated breakable floor to break via more methods
* Tweaked some more demo dungeon components slightly

Hi. Me again. I maked rod of seasons in oracle of seasons game. İ maked it with MC style. How its look's?
See ya!

So I made a few additional changes to the mp/hp items this week. (In an effort to set my game slightly further apart from the original Zelda game). One thing let to another and it kinda sorta ended up taking the entire weeks development time to fully complete. I AM very happy with the results though. It feels polished and consistent now.

My journey down the rabbit hole went a little bit like this (for those interested):
I added the ability to fly to the small hp/mp items and in different ways to help colorblind players. Next I realized it would be inconsistent to let players only catch larger spirits, so I rewrote a good chunk of coding to also allow mp/hp items to get caught in your net. Which let me to having to update the saving system. But I also wanted to add in more larger sprites so that could be done together as both types where now handled the same. But to add those bigger elemental types I needed to update the item spawn rates to take them into account. And to do that I needed the game to tell which spirits would be suited for which cases. (To prevent a fire enemy to spawn an ice spirit down the line). And to do that I needed to add an element stat to enemies (and objects). And so on...

I love game development at times like this. To stumble down a hole like and crawl back out without loose ends feels great.

======

Anyway. Here's also the list again of what's left to do before the public demo:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 11x character actions visuals
- New Hp/Mp items <-- Now fully done
- Collectable fairies <-- Now fully done
- 8x effect visuals
- 60x  49x sound effect to replace <-- PROGRESS: Implemented the last batch and started detailing the next one
- Demo dungeon flow tweaking
- Text engine font update
- Update PC controls to better match industry standards
- Full playthrough for testing


Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.163 (23 jan 2023)
* Implemented 11 more sound effects

v0.26.164 (27 jan 2023)
* Cleaned up coding behind common items more
* Finished implementing new common mp/hp items
* Small mp/hp items can now also be captured with net
* Small mp/hp items will no longer be picked up if you are already fully restored
* Added more (placeholder) fairy replacements
* Started implementing replacement items for bottles

v0.26.165 (28 jan 2023)
* Finished implementing new bottle replacement visuals (with sketches for demo excluded items – for now)
* Game now also tracks and saves # uses of new bottle replacement items
* Updated the credits end page to also show stats new bottle replacement items
* Updated shops to sell nests instead of bottles (=not in demo)
* Went through all text to rename rupees in gems
* Big magic bulbs have been removed. The fairy replacements will now offer you bigger mp or hp restoration than normal mp/hp items
* Random item generation (like from bushes/enemies/digging) can now also spawn sprites with a small change of occuring
* Updated the overall item spawn rates in the game to reflect these latest changes
* All enemies now have a stat for connected element(s) to determine what type of sprite could potentially get spawned upon defeat, if any

v0.26.166 (29 jan 2023)
* Switched up what type of sprites spawn in dungeons
* Tweaked allignments of text on credits page
* Prepared next batch of audio commissions

And another weekend of development is behind us. Progress on the sounds is going swimmingly. Animations are going a little slower, but are coming along as well.

And I "finally" decided on a visual approach for the game's health pick-ups, magic pick-up and fairies. The concept from way back in my design document has always been that all things in this game's world are brought to life via sprites (= as in tiny magical spirits). It's still all subject to chance, but I pictured these sprites as small fireflies, that also acts as the player's basic hp/mp pickups. And spirits can also combine in the wild to turn into larger elemental sprites (which you can capture and carry along). One type (which I now added) will mechanically replace the standard alttp Fairy. Other future sprites will replace potions, a few items, and will maybe also add some extra functions in the future. Maybe I'll tell you some more about it in the future.

And to close out.
Here's the latest list of what's left to do before the public demo:
- 5x enemy visual to replace
- 12x 11x character actions visuals <-- PROGRESS: The pick up / throw animations are now done and implemented
- New Hp/Mp items <-- PROGRESS: Technically finished it this weekend but I want to add some extra detailing still
- Collectable fairies <-- PROGRESS: Technically finished it this weekend but I want to add some extra variations
- 8x effect visuals
- 63x 60x sound effect to replace <-- PROGRESS: With another 11 sounds incoming
- Demo dungeon flow tweaking
- Text engine font update
- Update PC controls to better match industry standards
- Full playthrough for testing


Progress report:

Code: [Select]

v0.26.159 (17 jan 2023)
* Fixed visual oversight during boss appearance scene

v0.26.160 (20 jan 2023)
* Fixed bug where containers could get destroyed multiple types in sequence
* Fixed sound overlap during subboss attacks
* Worked with sound engineer
* Implemented new visuals for hearts and small magic bulb
* Tweaked new visuals for breakable walls further
* Hero now turns around gradually into idle animations and opening master chests
* Replaced one more menu sound effect
* Hero turns around gradually when picking up, or buying, an important treasure
* Phased out one of the menu sound effects

v0.26.161 (21 jan 2023)
* Animated new visuals for picking up containers
* Made good progress implementing new animation
* Spend good deal of time researching the business side of things

v0.26.162 (22 jan 2023)
* Further edited and fully implemented pick up animations
* Created and implemented fairy replacement sprites