Devlog #46 - A Solid Plan
Meowllo everyone! It’s already the end of June, which means the year is half over, which means I’m in despair.
That aside, a couple weeks ago, we announced through Wholesome Direct that we’re coming to PS4 + PS5! Ameowzing! Huey is handling a lot of the porting just like the Switch version, so we’re excited to try their implementation of the special PS5 controller haptic effects.
We’ve been mostly focused on other things, though…so let’s run through those!
📑 Right On Schedule
A long…long…..time ago, we mentioned our rehaul of the NPC schedule system. Up until now, we haven’t had a chance to implement any NPCs outside of making sure the system works. Now that the bare bones storyline is playable, I’ve been working on implementing getting a select few NPCs alive and running.
We’re aiming to complete a build for Kickstarter backers and old Patreon supporters who were grandfathered into the beta test. Having just an empty island with a bunch of story isn’t what we want people to experience, so the past month and the foreseeable future will be spent polishing that experience.
It’s kind of exciting that a few months ago, we were still trying to get the game to even go through the tutorial properly. Now we’re tying everything together and implementing content for it to be playable. It’s a nice feeling, but also kind of scary.
Above is what the overview of a schedule looks like. Depending on the NPC, they might have more than one. For example, Nobu has a different schedule when it’s raining, because he doesn’t have to water his crops. Shopkeepers might have a different routine on days their store is closed.
Inside each action contains the actual logic. This might be things like setting flags for dialogue, or adding in locations for where to walk next.
The actual system is quite simple and intuitive to use (thanks recursive), but it’s still a bit time consuming and dry…
🎨 New Art
So, I’ve been dispersing some of my NPC work with art work! Do you remember Lan?
Her happy portrait debuted when we launched our Kickstarter in 2020 (oh no time flies). Now, she’s got the full gamut of emotions!
In the Switch trailer, there was also a portrait of Rejka looking bashful. I’ve revisited that portrait and improved it, since it’s always bothered me a bit. Now our beautiful eyelash boy gets the beautiful portrait he deserves.
Asides from some portraits I don’t want to show you just yet 🤫, I’ve also done some new asset work. There’s a lot of placeable furniture for one person to work through, so I’m going for a couple at a time to break it up.
What I’m trying to accomplish with the furniture sets in Snacko is having each set correlate loosely to a style. That way, if you’re not into the default rustic vibes the softwood set provides, there’s other things for you to get excited about.
