Progress Report 12/15/2023 (Patreon)

Hello again, everyone! Here's what I got done this week:

• Implemented all wet sprites into the gameplay
• Created and implemented gloss for the toenails (always visible; not affected by the "Shine" properties)
• Continued planning out future versions of the game
• FINALLY came up a way to fit the heroes into gameplay without being too chaotic! ...Hopefully!

It's that time of year again! The holidays are among us, the stores are buzzing, the drivers are nuts, and my time is split seven different ways. @_@

But the good news is that I got the wet sprites implemented into the gameplay! Once again, they proved a bit trickier than the average sprite; unlike everything before them, these sprites are asymmetrical. That is, the water droplets on the right legs/feet are different from the ones on the left.

It's actually very good that I encountered this challenge so soon, since later on I may have socks of different lengths, jewelry on one foot, tattoos on one leg... The asymmetry was gonna happen sooner or later, and now I have it figured out! :D

As always, I did some tests with randomization. Here, have an alien waifu covered in grape juice.

It's a good day. :)

I *might* add some small animations to the water droplets here and there someday, but that'll be a task for the future. Right now I've got bigger fish to fry.

In other news, something about the feet had been bothering me for some time, and I couldn't put my finger on it until recently: the toenails weren't shiny at all! So, I opened up a bottle of nail polish, snuck into the giantess's lair/house/whatever-your-backstory-for-her-is and applied it to her nails while she was asleep! Now we've got toenail gloss!

It's still a bit hard to see here, since past me decided to make her skin extra shiny for some reason... It's much easier to notice in-game. ^^;

Other than that, I spend some more time designing future updates, especially related to the [REDACTED] as discussed last week. However, I also spent some time thinking about heroes and where they fit best into gameplay, and I think I FINALLY have it figured out!

See, making the heroes follow behind the player like any other NPC makes them feel unimportant, and they can be killed easily. However, having the player control them would just add to the chaos in an already chaotic game. So, what's the solution here?

I can't believe it took me this long to think of it, but... just have the heroes run around on their own! Let them be autonomous; let them do their hero thing and save NPCs while you, the player, focus on keeping the NPCs alive. It'll be a bit complicated to set up (and therefore something I'll focus on later, in 0.4), but I think it's the optimal solution.

The current plan is to also allow the player to drag them around with the mouse in case of emergency. You know, in case they're about to get stepped on, trapped behind an obstacle, or when they get caught by a [REDACTED].

Anyhoo, that's enough mystery for now. I'm gonna go chow down on some Taco Bell while I hide from the giantess. She is NOT happy that I polished her nails while she slept! I'll see you guys again next week!

Note: My next quarterly break is coming up, from Dec 24th - Dec 30th! I'll try to have the next update out before then. :)