LyLaD April Update 1 (Patreon)

More gamedev :v

What was done:
 Completed the systems for perks (called traits ingame) and curses. The effects of all perks and curses that will appear in the demo are done.
 Basic functionality for the Shade Village, a simple town you pass through early in the game, is all done. There's an inn that you can rest at. There are shops which have limited stock, and will restock with the passage of time with more common & plentiful items and less common rare goodies. Food vendors can make remarks about your purchases (like emptying out their stock, buying all of one item or food type, etc.).
 Character customization (allocating attribute points, tagging major & minor skills) is done and incorporated into the intro. You'll go through a short questionnaire that gives you a preset, if you don't care to fiddle with the results, but the questionnaire also determines Lilya's 'sin' values which are not customizable.
 The Chamber of Ribbons and Mirrors (pictured above) is implemented. Whenever you rest you will return there, and from there you can wake up at any resting spot you've been to. There are certain things you can only do here, such as choosing perks or upgrading weapons.
 Sketched map art for the demo is kind of done. This includes the village, the chamber, the next two forest maps, and the demo dungeon. I say 'kind of' because I might expand the demo's scope a tiny bit to showcase more as setup for the full game. Depends on how easygoing the rest of development ends up being. (Won't show dungeon art here since players ought to go in blind.)
 Character sprites were drawn for the rooms shown above. You can speak to the girl in the chamber whenever you are there, though don't expect to be able to do anything to her for a long while. Ludmila appears in the village's general store. Depending on what you do in the demo, you may find her here again later but notably chubbier... And lastly there's a stranger in the inn who only stays briefly, but will provide dispelling services for exuberant prices.

 Next on the to-do list, I want to get the dungeon maps functional (fog of war, skill checks, one-way paths, etc.). That will take some time so I also want to split that work with getting started on Lilya's sprites, NPC dialogue sprites, and more in that vein.

Other Notes:
 Traits(Perks) work a bit more uniquely than I first intended. Instead of a single permanent choice you get slots that you will allot traits to. Your choice of traits can be switched around between excursions into dungeons. It's somewhat like charms in Hollow Knight? This was done because I made it so traits have no effect if you no longer meet their requirements, so that attribute debuffs would be more impactful. You will be able to change your choice of traits in the meanwhile if you don't have the means to undo the damage. It also means you can choose traits that work best for certain dungeons and fights.
 The way curses work: Most curses you will not know their effect until they have been appraised. Appraising a curse is required in order to be able to dispel it. Both appraisal and dispelling can be done by the player or by an NPC that provides such services. Both require skill checks, with dispelling being much harder. Even NPCs can fail if their skill isn't up to the task. Failing to appraise a curse has no penalty, but failing to dispel one might lead to altering the curse. It can render its effect more potent, or it can even turn it into a permanent hex on your character. When dispelling curses yourself you may be given a choice to stop before its too late, but NPCs will not show the same kind of restraint. And if they fail, you won't get a refund.
 Map/Room art will very likely be touched up, these were all relatively quick sketches, but don't expect too much. I've barely ever drawn backgrounds.
 Character sprites in rooms are animated to blink and breath slightly. Its very rudimentary but you can see it in action here and in other posts on the gamedev account.
 Text for the village, the chamber, and the intro aren't written yet so there's only the art to show thus far.