#setimun

This week I worked on effects.

The Sacrificial Dagger effect is this game's version of the knife effect, killing NPCs. Each killed NPC gives varying amounts of blood, shown in the temporary blood meter on the left. They also turn into spirits, remaining dead forever (a long time).

The 'light' mechanic from last post is turned into the Sleuth and light effects. Sleuth acts as shown, while the light effects just shine light in dark areas.

The Searchlight effect shines the light in-front of Setimun, and the Spotlight effect shines a movable spotlight.

I started on the docks and the accompanying sailboat effect. The sailboat can be equipped in front of water, and interacting with land will automatically un-equip it. The effect's ability is to partially sink into the water, allowing for travel under the pier.

I plan to have a day and night cycle in the game. When sleeping, the dream world will progress in time from day to night and vice-versa. Maps will have differences between day and night, such as the body in the docks maybe being there only during the night. Some areas may only be accessible during day or night as well.

The current title screen. I wasn't planning to have a star-themed title screen but I'm tired of looking at an RTP default and I’ve been working on these stars.

A work-in-progress balcony. The stars are randomized but the constellations are not yet. The constellations will be different each night after I make more.

While working on something (don't remember what) I came up with this

Setimun was too incomplete for me to feel any sense in releasing it, and I decided not to spend the last few days rushing to (fail to) reach that state. I was not intending to participate in this year's jam in the first place, as 1. Manda no Yume (my entry last year) was ineligible as I have worked on it outside of the jam and 2. just prior to the jam's early start this year I had finals, so I did not have much time to plan. I chose to attempt an entry with the intention of not submitting unless I was satisfied with the result, probably feeling compelled to give it a try as I was (am) a moderator on the discord and promoted the jam on the YN subreddit. While I wanted a simpler and more polished entry from last year's, the lack of planning and hence direction was very stifling.

I haven't worked on Manda no Yume in a while.  The plan was to release some sort of update by now, but its either "not substantial enough to be worth putting out" or "unplayable/not yet ready" at any given time.  Combination effects are really a pain, you want to add a new effect but it doesn't combine with effects A, B, D, E, G, J, K... and so you have a combination system where most things don't actually combine.  It needs to be kept small in terms of effects, but the only part of YNFG development I really care for are effects.

I think I'm just bored of working in RPG MAKER, at least with YN-like games. I think it would be fun to return to the comedy-battle RPG I tried making when I first started RPG MAKER now that I (think I) know what I'm doing. My current mini-project in the last few days (rather than finishing Setimun) is something that you'd think would be very boring but was able to pull me away from the jam so...

Chat felt much less active this time, but apparently there were more posts overall. There wasn’t much to moderate but mod chat was off the walls, you should’ve been there.

I'm putting Manda no Yume on hold [OFFICIALLY] until I feel motivated to work on it and possibly remake it or something. If not I'll get an updated build out there somewhere, through a collection or something. Same for Setimun, I might stay away from it 'til next jam so that I can just continue where I left off or re-plan it. I liked where it was going, just needs more thought put it into. I'll probably keep a presence in DDJ chat, either as a mod or lurking degenerate. I'd only be there to see what others are(n't) working on but maybe I can post hourly Overwatch rants or something.

Figured I'd post something rather than keep it silent and getting asked "whatever happened to Setimun?" and replying "what?"