Devlog (Patreon)

Hey huge thanks to the new patrons!

We a few new patrons over the last couple weeks so just to bring everyone up to speed.

The latest test was released a week or two ago

 https://gauche-cheeks.itch.io/abdl-dialogue-demo/patreon-access

It was created to test the new basic movement along with dialogue and action systems.

So far in total progress we have basic movement, dialogue, animation, world geometry along with flow implementation for complex events. Remember all these elements are going to be polished and added to but I'm going to get a good grounding working.

Currently I'm working on inventory systems. This has been going pretty well. The gif above is a quick shot of me testing several different functions (You might recognise these icons from Piece of Soap so shutout to that useful game pack).

This obviously isn't final art I'm just making sure the core systems are working.
- Save and Load inventory objects
- Drag and Drop objects
- Stack items
- Give items

These are all working for the most part. There are a few weird glitches I'll need to stress test to make sure it's stable but I have a really good basis now. The only thing you can't do for the moment is split a stack. I don't expect the next demo will need it so I'll put it on the to-do list.

I need to make these "items" to do something so that will probably be next along with turning it into an actual menu that you can access.

I also sat down and drew up plans for the next demo I want to do. I have a good idea on something that will make use of inventory, dialogue and animations to test.

I'm going to ballpark it taking about a month to build. Some things could slow it down but the basic inventory has worked pretty well. I want to add, outfits, stores and "use" item so we will see if everything catches fire when they all have to play together.

Okay so this brings me onto what this devlog will be about.
I'm planning out the basic game mechanics.

Ability trees & Action bar
Okay so I have two ideas competing here. The main RPG game is going to be about unlocking different abilities and using them on different Supernatural things.

I have a good inventory system so I'd like to make use of a similar system for abilities.
There are two basic ways I could go about this.

Classic Minecraft
In this version your action bar is just an extension of your inventory and counts as an extra set of spaces. In this version any ability you would just treat like an item. You could store it in your inventory or in the ability tree menu and move it around like an item. This is much messier but could let you store extra ability in your inventory like items.

Deus Ex

In deus ex your inventory is static and the action bar is just a shortcut that allows you to use an item in your inventory or an ability. So like in this image you can see the health pack in two places.

I'm leaning towards the deus ex like system. Primarily because it could make things less cluttered. You could link items and abilities onto your action bar but you won't have abilities lying around clogging up your inventory and having an ability won't reduce your inventory space.

I looked into the deus ex grid inventory system. But it's quite complex and I'm not planning on inventory management as a major mechanic. I hope you'll have mostly enough inventory space.

I'd like to link that to an ability tree somewhat like Assassins Creed

Where your abilities are quite fee form and you could skill into any area you wanted just by spending points. Then you simply link your ability to the action bar to create your current "setup". 

So those are my current thoughts,
If there are any inventory or skill systems that you found particularly fun post them I'm always keen for more ideas.

I'll reveal more info about what I'm planning for the next demo in the next post later this week.

Good luck everyone!