Devlog #4

Hey itch.io! 

Worked a lot of code cleanup and simplification. Core systems  now in place: all main features, that will be used a lot during the game, are ready to go. Also got back to dialogue and diary entries. 

Plans for the week: sprites for characters who are coming in the next scenes.

Changelog from 3 to 11 Nov, 25:

• Notification system done: achievements, "now playing," etc.
• Minor tweaks to the music room.
• Cutscene skip system: hold the B button (gamepad) or Spacebar to start the timer.
• Reworking intro screen: shader adjustments, menu and logo positioning; added a "PRESS ANY BUTTON" before the menu appears.
• Intro nightmare scene finished.
• New dialogue for the Portland sequence; minor dialogue adjustments.
• Various improvements to shaders and effects (still a lot to be done on environmental effects).
• Controller hotplug now seems to respond better.
• Improved the UI to respond to the detected controller with specific icons.
• New journal entries; all entries are now locked by default and are unlocked during gameplay.
• Writing more journal parts, mainly character profiles and locations.
• Finished the notification system integration with journal and achievements.
• Created the gallery—special images unlocked during the game.
• Gallery integration with achievements.
• Cleaning up the messy codebase.
• Polishing the initial point-and-click part: adding labels and icons to buttons and a reading screen with pagination.
• Working on text highlighting for dialogues—a different color for place names, characters, and important items when they first appear.
• Created a game loading screen.
• Reorganizing dialogue in the initial segment, removing test code.
• Dialogue now has a complete hint system.
• Adjusted which entries are unlocked in this initial segment.
• Wrote new entries to the journal.
• Several UI tweaks.

Don't forget to comment if you have doubts or suggestions. And follow the project on Patreon for complete updates!

See you all next week.