Dev Log 9 - back to twine

So I spent much of yesterday working with RPG maker, and one thing that was driving me up the wall is just how slow things are when you also need to account for adding graphics. I very quickly realized after I finished working yesterday I was going to end up spending all this week making maps and such, and almost no time actually getting the systems working. Add in not being able to find a satisfactory way of having the main character speak...

I picked up the original twine prototype again and got back to work. One of the few things I know I can't budge on is I do need the main character to have a very distinct voice; the player will have some input on things, of course, and decide various actions, but the character is not a player stand-in, and as such needs to be able to speak and act so that player will be able to get a feel for him.

I'm already pretty happy with the progress I've made today! Twine really is fairly pick up and go, as far as programming languages go.

Learned

• header and footer tags are super handy! headers run stuff at the top of every passage, while footers add it to the bottom; by using tags and if/else statements, it's not too difficult to escape out of running it when it's not needed as well :)


• a basic inventory! I used this tutorial to get one set up, and it's given me a little bit of a handle on arrays. There's still a couple of kinks I need to work out, but it sure beats having a long list of booleans to check for key items.


• finally groked how to use passages as basically functions; that's really handy


• booleans can be used as very simple if-then statements, which is super duper nice. $boolean[do/hook] is the basic format.


• the true power of the (passage:) call

Completed
A fair bit! Certainly made more progress than the days I spent with HaxeFlixel, and yesterday with RPG Maker. In no particular order:

• changed dateTime to dateTimenLocation, which is the display for...


• updateDateTimenLocation , which does all the actual updates and such. If entering an area updates the time, it requires the tag advanceTime. It also checks for night, night now....


• adjusts the day and season (if needed), resets the time back to dawn, and resolves any systems that were left open ended.


• the various statuses for the different systems have all been grouped into $status. Status takes 'none', 'isFishing', 'isMtnFor', 'isFieldFor', and 'isBeachFor' . This lets me easily reference if the player is in a special loop, as well as lets me resolve them if the player is still doing one of them when night arrives.


• added a split based off for(age) vs fishing to the night function, to update inventory/haul properly.
• moved all the $location updates to the updateDateTimenLocation using (set: $location to (passage:)'s name))


• got the inventory mostly working, other than a weird array bug that... doesn't affect the run? if inventory is not mean to show, use the tag doNotShowInventory. Inventory does not display during the start sequence by default; keeping the $isStart boolean for just that reason.


• created a passage that has no use and isn't accessible, just a comment with the various key items


• updated the $hasComb boolean so now it just gets added to the inventory instead


• player starts with bag in inventory.


• updated bag variable so I actually know what the fuck that number means


• updated bag variables in the completion events for foraging


• created a $coveFound[hook] for that event, so i don't have to write 3 lines of if statements every time that happens

To Do

• merge the various forage systems into one set of passages, with branches based off the $status variable


• create the various lists/stats for foraging and fishing, decide how they will work


• fix the array error


• create the event with the witch to get plot moving


• create the various families and shop fronts to interact with


• add the food system in


• add a trade system of some sort


• add the weather system for each season. use a master passage to do that? tbd


• create and implement various standing/relationship markers for the villagers


• add the save features that harlowe uses