Progress update- pieces coming together (Patreon)

Last weeks' mental block is gone! Yayyy! 

Btw- I have a coding stream starting now! I'll be working on what's talked about below. If you miss the stream, VODS are also available. ('Videos' tab at the top.)

To new patrons: We’re in the middle of an absurdly-long update cycle. Here’s the summary and how to access content.

What's being worked on?

Spawning stuff!

The main topic! To make objects spawn in the game, I need to know a lot about them, and only use data when it's relevant. Since objects have a lot of context (e.g. a toy being held at a different angle requiring different assets, being used as a penetrator requiring layer sorting so it looks right, etc), there needs to be a way to find all the right data for the current context.

The answer for finding the right context is splitting the data into stuff that's relevant to General info (stuff that's always true about the item), then Uses (specific things you can do with the item), and finally Views (anything that gets displayed on the screen, including UI).

Working out the specifics has been a slow process of refinement-

I now have a Use able to create multiple Views. So, the idea is that all info about what's displayed on the screen is decided in the data, not the code (which makes the game engine far more versatile and customizable). So a typical toy's Use data will say "Hey, display me in the world, and also display me on the standard toy menu". This is pretty cool, cause it lets me properly handle things that have conceptual overlap. 

For example, think of the UI display that shows pussy tightness/contraction. Then think of how a sheath/penetrable toy would work. There's conceptual overlap. The idea is, I can just attach/detach the display for tightness on the sheath. Same for orifices.

All of this requires every facet of every use case to be accounted for. It's taken me a bit, but I've finally grasped the overall branching structure needed for the code that creates objects. 

The top half of the image is me realizing that there were way more permutations I hadn't accounted for in the data reading process. The bottom half is me trying to figure out if the Uses idea covers everything the game will every want to do.

I'm feeling good about it so far! ^^

Making it actually work

I've been brutally digging up any code that looks like spaghetti. Something I'm happy about is that now, the most basic building block in the game -- a Game Object -- is purely an entity in the ECS. Which basically means there's no overlap between the creation code and playing code. 

This has been part of doing the spawn code work. It's forcing me to look at every singular facet of how the game engine is working, and ask is this good enough to work long term?

The mental block

Last week I talked about struggling to work on the code. I recognized that my brain was trying super hard to point my focus in any direction except working. It felt dumb to have my brain trying to actively sabotage me. But I also recognized the feeling- it's the same thing that happens when I'm struggling to force myself to draw more, or learn new skills in general. My brain just goes nahhhh.

The solution to this was practicing mindfulness (a therapy technique). I was able to let a backlog of thoughts and feelings happen, and was immediately refreshed and ready to tackle the code. I highly recommend mindfulness as a tool for anyone who struggles to focus on a project or skill learning. 

This all might be a little too real for talking about a pony butt game >.>

New game engine?!

Don't panic. I'm not changing anything until this game is released. 

BUT. I noticed that my code is mostly abstracted away from the display layer. Given a game library that has an ECS and support for bone-based animation, I could port my code to it without any actual structure changes. 

Sooo I've been flirting with the idea of using a more updated and capable game engine. Specifically the Heaps engine for Haxe, with some surrounding tech. It's basically just the engine I'm already using, but updated and a lot more powerful. It'd be a serious upgrade.

I've also looked at the capabilities of Unity and concluded that it's overall a viable option, but probably not for this current project.

That's all for now! Thank you all so for following this project. I'm antsy to get to the point where I can start putting real content out again. See y'all next week! <3