Progress update- Aiming UI/UX (Patreon)

I'm gonna be using the word "drilling" to refer to a thing going inside another person's thing. A reminder that on SubStar, these posts are uncensored~

This week, I built up the UI/UX for aiming toys. It's not specifically restricted to "drilling", but that'll be the first use for it. Bit of a short one today ^^

Also I have a coding stream starting 40 minutes!

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?

"Drilling" mechanics
Last time I talked about making a prototype for the "drilling" interface. The challenge was how to aim when your targets are small, slippery, and bunched up all next to each other. My idea was to have an aiming indicator that shows how far up/down you are, and what the head of the toy you're holding is "looking at".

I can show off the basic concept. The different icons will represent the different targets a toy might be aiming at down there. Moving the mouse while in aiming mode moves the indicator and aims the toy. Please excuse the placeholder assets.

It's so simple to look at, but this feels like a really good upgrade so far. Being able to throw out all the other aiming buttons and just have this pop up when you're trying to aim at tricky areas would be a lot more interactive, I feel.

Plus, it's much closer to the act of "drilling"- you actually have to aim. I'm aiming for something less awkward than the IRL experience though lol.

Prototype to reality
The above is actually implemented in the game engine completely now. You can dynamically add targeting info to any body part, "drillable" or otherwise, and it'll pop itself into the targeting UI and position itself correctly.

A lesson in prototyping
So... prototyping... I did it sort of! And learned quite a bit. 

So firstly, prototyping is a skill unto itself. Making a 'working' model of an idea before implementing it in-game sounds like a low-cost way of exploring an idea. In practice, the engine isn't set up to implement things you aren't planning to actually use. Maybe I need to set up a prototyping environment, perhaps even outside the engine. I'll look into ways to do this quickly, without it being a whole side quest.

Q&A

Will there be dialogue/speech bubbles? My current concept for "dialogue" is to do speech bubbles with something like emojis and little pictures. I don't want to implement unique dialogue options, but I do want there to be some communication. That's the middle ground I feel would be able to work best. This'll be the subject of a later update though.

Characters could suggest toys they want, and you could pull them straight out of the speech bubbles! Is good suggestion. Will look into it when doing these ^^

Will you be asking for community help in designing default personalities and personality presets? I'd love to do this. The personality customization controls should end up in a place where this'll be possible. It'd make adding lots of characters more doable. Also- I'd love to add community-made alternate personalities for characters. There are lots of interpretations of canon characters, so it'd be neat to have a range of options ^^

Where's Project Maple? Waiting for the SHF3 engine to cover all its features so I can put it together. "Drilling" is one of the biggest things needed for Maple to be made.

As a reminder, here's the release checklist to track my progress!

... and that's all for now!

Thank you all so so much for the support on both platforms now. I'm giddy to be able to get to the point of showing off some real in-game shots with the engine soon. Though progress feels slow to me when I'm working on "small" stuff like UI/UX, I'm also taking the time to try to cultivate a positive attitude toward my work and stuff.

Y'all have enabled me to work on something I'm passionate about as my day job. Thank you. I'm working hard to earn your kindess!

<3