Cards of Gluttony Dev Log #8 [20/07/2023] (Patreon)

Hey, do you know what day it is? That's right, it's devlog day!

Before we start, it occurred to me that I hadn't officially announced the results of the previous poll regarding release frequency: the results were largely in favor of continuing the slower releases so that's how things will be going forward!

Frankly, that was the result I was hoping for, but I wasn't sure how people would feel about it, so I'm glad everyone's been understanding. Thank you all for being patient, because as it turns out: making video games is a lot of work.

Alright, now back to the game:

We have more Character Customization!

Okay, I may have gone a little overboard with this, but we have even more character customization stuff! Feast your eyes on these facial feature options!

(Honestly the eye options are so subtle you can't even tell the difference...)

And since existing save files didn't have the luxury of picking these options, I've added an Edit Character option to your room at the SG so you can access these new options in old save files.

Next up we have even more character customization news:

Some of you might remember the first development log, where hairstyles first showed up. In that log, I mentioned that I am unlikely to do the same with beards as they would require a sprite for all the weight levels.

Well that was a lie.

We have beard options now!

It may or may not come off as a surprise, based on the many characters in the game, that I am something of a beard enthusiast... so despite all of the work it would take, I really wanted to add some beard options in.

If you take a look at all of them, you'll notice they're actually just derived from the original beard sprite, with some sections just erased and a few slight tweaks. This is how I was able to make all of these without losing my mind drawing so many frames.

I'm also pretty happy with how the Shadow turned out: it pairs pretty well with the main options for some nice variety.

Now onto actual gameplay stuff

Who doesn't love a good narrative-to-gameplay connection? I sure do and there is a part of the game that's just begging to do so: the exercising minigame!

With Ikem offering to work out with you, I knew I wanted to have some sort of plotline with him where you advance by occasionally going to the gym together. But besides just that, I thought it would be neat if his presence offered you actual buffs and bonuses during the minigame.

So I did just that:

(Goddammit Ikem, you blinked right as I took the screenshot.)

There are a few effects that are currently in, such as: giving you a free refill once your deck is empty, or recovering you some extra stats every few turns like Stamina, Power and Endurance.

In addition, working out with Ikem will reduce the gym cooldown by one day. The system is designed in a way where it's open to adding more gym partners in the future, so you can look forward to that!

A lot of people have noted how slow the weight loss process is, and while the numbers definitely need a lot of tweaking, the original intent was for things to get easier and faster as you keep at it. Things like the exercise level, which grants more cards and stats, and now these workouts with a partner should make the process feel a bit faster.

There is also a future crafting feature that'll let you make various consumable items that'll help with the process. More news on that once it is ready!

Some discussion about game design!

If you've tried to go to the forest for a rematch with Tom, you'll know that the game doesn't let you, stating "You'll be staying away from it for a while." This limitation is lifted once you meet Gordon for the second task, meaning it isn't accessible in the current build of the game.

Currently, going to the forest will yield you a few materials based on chance, as well as trigger a potential encounter with Tom again. (you'll notice I talk a lot about content that is already in the game, but not actually accessible)

The limitation was put in a bit later after I realized I wanted the player to prioritize getting down to 20 Wgt as per Gordon's request, and getting into another fight would make that difficult, especially since you can already fight Darwin and Beau.

Speaking of: the fishing icon now changes to warn you before entering the scene where you battle Darwin.

In Beau's case, you are given the option to postpone it, which makes sense given the context, but I didn't really know how to handle Darwin at the time. In the end, I decided to just leave it as a surprise, thinking it could lead to some interesting variety in how difficult or even unwinnable the battle would be for some players.

... admittedly it came off as a little frustrating, most people probably just reloaded their save, which isn't exactly great design, so this should be a good enough solution to that.

I'm most definitely not a professional game designer, so there will be a lot of trial-and-error when it comes to these kinds of things, but reading all sorts of feedback has been both fun and helpful so far!

I would like to note though that most of the battles in the game so far are written in a way where losing is a valid way to progress the plot, and the plotlines are designed in a way that assumes you might lose some of the fights.

Back to the forest:

I realized it would be pretty unsustainable to have to worry about a potential battle with Tom every time you wanted to collect some materials. So here's what I've been working on in the art department:

Say hello to Akello, a park ranger that patrols the forest east of town. If you enter the forest at any time when he's working, he'll break up the fight before it even starts.

And of course it's a great excuse to add yet another character into the growing roster of the game... although that'll probably be all he's going to be doing for now. There's quite a few ideas I have for many of the characters that haven't been properly written down yet.

The reason I'm bringing this up is because I want to talk about another important topic:

The structure of the game

I might be going a bit too hard with how many characters there are already in the game, especially since most of them aren't even related to the main plot thread of the Stout Group and kinda just doing their own thing.

That's alright though, because rather than featuring one main storyline, I'm aiming for the game to be a bit more open, with the various events occurring across town being the main source of content. Such is the case with the Beau and Darwin fights, they're not quite "secret" battles, as they are just one of the many plotlines I want to feature in the game.

Of course, that doesn't mean there won't be some sort of over-arching story, but what it does mean is it won't be the bulk of the game. What do you think? Would it be better if the game had a more focused main objective or are all of these self-contained plotlines good enough?

And now it's time for... the Card of the Month!

(It's 'Sympathy Weight'!)

For the second installment of Card of the Month, we have a card that is perhaps a bit more gainer-themed, and therefore more exciting, than the last one! This fun little card will make your Opponent gain the same weight that you do!

While testing it, I've found that it's probably not going to be as much of a powerful card, but rather just a fun addition to mix things up, especially since the Wgt is only reflected if you have no Fitness and actually gain the Wgt, so it works mostly in self-destructive decks, which benefits Opponents more, since they don't have to worry about losing the weight as much as the Player.

Of course, I thought about changing the effect to reflecting any Wgt inflicted, but in the end I decided to keep that for perhaps a more powerful, future variant of the card.

That's it!

I have nothing to add at the end this time, so as always: thank you for reading and supporting the project!