LyLaD November Update (Patreon)

I finished a kind of proof of concept demonstration for some newly fleshed out game mechanics. Details on gamedev are below. You can view the main video (+ an extra bonus) in the attachments below cause I can't just post video files here. The bonus video is exclusive, and is a continuation of the main video showing a special scene that happens after losing to an enemy.
You can also just view the video demonstration on Twitter. But the Patreon exclusive bonus is only here in the attachments!

By the way the game is written in second person, since I think that's most appropriate for an RPG such as this. However the way you should read this isn't really as you in Lilya's shoes. Instead your place as the player is more like the narrator itself speaking to her and giving directions. Lilya is strictly her own character after all.

Gamedev:

It's been a while so I will explain most of the latest developments from scratch since it's all been piling up on itself.
The current goal for basically the latter three quarters of this year have been to revamp basic systems such as map traversal, and also map creation on my part. This extended into adding an extra dimension to how the game will function via in-game time passing with all actions. This in turn led to rethinking how statuses function in the game, allowing them to have durations based on in-game time rather than just strictly "turns" like how RPGmaker normally functions.

A lot of work through September and early November went towards adapting the current existing status effects to work with this new status system, which also allowed for new mechanics that would've been annoying to reliably execute beforehand: such as scenes triggering when a status effect is cured, or a status effect progressing into a more advanced one when its duration expires, etc.
This all also makes it so statuses can persist between combat and the map, where previously most combat statuses would automatically expire when the battle ended. So things like poison or other debuffs can persist out of one battle and effect you while exploring then last into another battle, and at the same time you can activate buffs before a battle even begins.

To help the player parse all these status effects, a new "status display" menu was added, seen in the second picture. This menu will show what you're currently afflicted with, buffs or debuffs, and will tell you the effect's remaining duration and a short description. It also covers curses, allowing you to easily pick ones out to appraise or attempt to dispel. You won't know what they do unless you appraise them, and you'll never know a curse's duration (if it has one).
This same principle was also extended to combat, where you will see status effects displayed below Lilya's stats along with their duration in turns. These are also ordered according to a priority listing so that more pertinent effects such as stuns, restraints, and hypnosis are higher up the chain than weaker or less pressing effects.

Since almost everything around statuses has been condensed into information the status itself stores, along with how interaction and the passage of time are standardized across the board, it makes it easier to integrate them into gameplay and function smoother all around.
These changes allow for the situation showcased in the demonstration to be possible. It works like this: Lilya is afflicted with the Delayed Blubber Curse. Since it is unappraised she, and the player, cannot discern what the curse's effect actually is. She continues exploring like normal. Then in a critical moment the Delayed Blubber Curse is "set off" by its duration expiring during combat. The "Delayed Blubber Curse" is removed and the actual "Blubber Curse" is inflicted, prompting the scene in the demonstration to execute mid-combat, while also causing additional combat effects such as DP damage (the pink segments, vulnerability to restraints and hypnosis mainly) and losing her current turn.

Other small updates:

-New and updated Lilya combat sprite, including variants for one of the fatter weight tiers. These sprites still need to be rendered with shading and everything, and of course there are all the other weight tiers to complete as well.
-Changes to Lilya's stats during combat no longer update instantly, instead the display will count down or up to the new value. The relevant stat will turn red or green depending on whether it is being raised or lowered, providing extra clarity to the information on top of the cleaner visual effect.
-Decorative frame added to interaction and item pick up menus
-A little tick sound plays when Lilya's turn begins, or strictly whenever AP regen starts and when the combat menu opens. It's minor, but I like it.

Timeline for the Demo:

The demo proper is still far away, but closer nonetheless.

There are still things to complete regarding in-game time + new status functionality and their adaptation to combat. I want to be able to have statuses that have "action" durations rather than time durations (since Lilya can gain the ability to do multiple actions per turn, while all turns are always 30 sec) so some more unique and stricter combat buffs can be implemented, such as only boosting your next action. After that there are weapon moves, statuses tied to weapon moves, perk effects, and curse scenes that all still need adaptation.
A possibly major overhaul to combat may also come in the future, because it's kind of a complete mess right now and needs to be optimized, both to just be faster and to be easier to tweak and add things to without things breaking.

A few minor details likely still need adaptation or at least testing with in-game time.
I also want to re-do how the bloat mechanic works, mainly how it is gained: Such as making it so bloat lies "dormant" before being gradually added to the stat over time instead of instantaneously.
After all of the above, in-game time is effectively finished.

Next is then finishing up some remaining "interaction" mechanics that were put off until in-game time could be completed:
Sneak functionality, allowing the player to naturally bypass static encounter in the game world. Whereas previously, besides reducing random encounters, the skill was only invoked for specific encounters with a given stealth option. The goal of this would be to allow players to sneak by most obstacles organically.
Trap functionality, making it so that things which you can interact with on a dot can have an associated "trap" that is triggered when it is tampered with.
Special tools and scrolls, unique items that serve special purposes. Such as a pickaxe to break through hard surfaces, a shovel to dig things up, and unique scrolls (and spells) that would give pertinent information about a dot such as possible threats or secrets.

After all that comes some additional smaller targets, such as item storage, much-needed updates to the ledger menus, item selling and rebuying at merchants, various NPC services that have yet to be added or need new adaptations (curse appraisal and dispelling, attribute restoration, sin normalization).
Some additional work may be needed adapting towns and room maps to in-game time, depending on how I want time to effect what goes on in towns (if anything at all, might be post-demo stuff).

The timeline after all of the above should then be relatively smooth sailing:
-Recreating the demo maps in full, writing all the dot, trap, and event texts.
-Completing Lilya's sprites + new sprite mechanics for more nuanced/merging expressions
-Completing NPC sprites and plot events and writing (for the demo)
-Drawing all the demo enemy sprites and completing their behaviors
-Filling in a lot of placeholder flavor text for various mechanics and for enemies
-Doing all the art and writing needed for loss scenes and other special events to be in the demo.
-Music and new sound effects

I want to finish and color both the body swap sequence and the NGO sequence before the end of year, with possibly an NGO story also being written in December (<- this is wishful thinking).
Once 2024 starts I'd like to focus almost completely on LyLaD while keeping up with a monthly poll on the side. I'd likely want to draw, write, and implement loss scenes on the side while working on mechanics so that I'm not suddenly swamped with weeks of art work right near the end, this would mean more videos like that of the loss scene attached below. Of course more concept art and general fat sketches of Lilya and other LyLaD characters would be on the table as well.
I think an optimistic goal for demo completion would be around March, with a more realistic estimate leaning towards June. Thankfully since I've started up on a rigorous new schedule my work output has gone up a lot, as you might have noticed. It's why I got this done in the first place. So that should help a lot in keeping me on track.