We have a new player going by Sehad over on the Discord, and you can see some of their art above! I'm happy for every new person finding TLS, of course, but when it's an artist, then I have new things to show everyone. Here is a boop. ^-^
Did you know TLS has a little fanfiction over at Ao3? We have another player posting a new story as well, so check it out if that's your sort of thing.
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Okay, now for the update on the week.
Though my primary mental preoccupation was Omnipocalypse, more of the week than I'd like was spent dealing with DStP stuff. Art asset is missing -> communication with artists. Artist isn't available -> contact other artists. Coder doesn't understand something -> clarification and maybe further testing necessary. Time for the monthly post -> more communication.
Nothing is particularly going wrong, and it would be unrealistic of me to hope that none of this happens, I'm just always frustrated by how much management is necessary at the end of a project. We are hopefully getting closer to the point where the polishing won't require as much of my time... but the alpha version for backers is coming soonish, so not quite yet.
I feel bad that I haven't gotten another build of Omnipocalypse out, even if I also feel that the delay has been justified. First, let me thank a few of the people who have been helping me wrangle the complexity:
Where many patrons gave the game a shot and gave quick feedback, Duncan Lutz and Lostone2 embraced this one and left a ton of bug reports. This is definitely good, even if I'm frustrated with myself for launching the alpha version with so many issues I could have caught myself.
Thanks to Rachnera for helping me with numerous coding issues. This will 100% save a lot of time in the long run, once we get the codebase of the game into better shape.
I don't want to give just excuses, though! Let me also share two screenshots that will show some of what I've been working on, though they'll mean more to you if you've had a chance to give the first build a try.
Those who played will notice that combat looks different in a number of ways. The most apparently superficial difference (how the turn bar looks) actually reflects one of the deepest changes: complete removal of outdated plugins and replacement with a single, more unified set. This will make problems like the game not properly counting turns a thing of the past.
Once you play, you'll also notice new information on screen in multiple ways, ranging from icons in descriptions to clarify the mechanics to new information windows. I got a screenshot of the big "Weakness!" popup, which tries to make completely clear whether you're using the status combo system properly. I hope that all of this will make the combat more legible in future builds.
(On the other hand, you can see there's more work to do. I changed the Energy system from using MP to using TP, which is a better basis for some of my plans, but still haven't figured out how to make the MP bar go away, so everyone has a useless "MP 0" at all times. EN 0 is just a coincidence from hastily taking a screenshot that bugs me, but I don't want to waste time for an ephemeral screenshot. I'm working on it, anyway!)
The next screenshot is an attempt to capture something that isn't very screenshotable:
You see how one of those enemies has a negative sprite? That's to indicate that the player can defeat them instantly and receive the same rewards without combat. I wanted to add this feature earlier, but it wasn't compatible with the element of the game where the player's experience gain multiplies as you do further loops.
Now that I can do that properly, there's nothing stopping me from integrating this element, making the gameplay loop further streamlined over time. For a while I thought I'd have to hard-code the rewards, but it seems we can handle that too! While it will take a little while to implement this with all enemies, it will be a key part of making the looping mechanics play smoothly.
So anyway, that's what I've been doing this week! The coming week will hopefully have one build or another as I keep moving forward on everything. Thanks for your support. ^-^