Report, Pt.1


Hi, guys. Sorry for the silence yet again. I tried to make this post to be the platformer release already, being positive that I'll make it before March, but the need for money won. The job I took on the side, which I mentioned in December, turned into a project that I took part in. This helped with improving my financial situation considerably, but it ate about a month from games development along with that.

With luck, I'll release it this month, but if I won't manage, the game will see the light in April. Then I'll switch to TDLT.

So it's been two months, and you know I can't stomach short “proof of life” posts, after not being there for too long, so I owe you two big ones at least. Thankfully, there's still a lot to unravel for TDLT, so let's get to it.

In this post we'll finish with the menu items and, if the post won't came up as too big, I'll share a light on a new gameplay mechanic that I finally completely debugged a month ago.

Concerning menu we stopped at Affinity last time. I'll skip Fast Travel and interaction with party members – the interaction stayed the same and I'll better mention fixes that I did for Fast Travel in the next post where I'll describe translation functional, you'll get what I mean there. You might notice that I changed the font, since the previous one messed up the translation functional, I'll mention the details about it later as well.


CG Gallery.

I stole this idea from Akabur's Princess Trainer. Sex scenes are constructed from parts of pictures, layered on one another. In the process of the scene, some parts are being changed, added or removed. This gallery takes those parts and reproduces the scene in form of a slide-show. So if you went through a scene in the game, it'll be unlocked in the gallery forever even if you'll start a new game. Now you always can revisit it if you wish.

I planned something that's worth mentioning: I'm going to redraw Red Hood's handjob and Tara's blowjob scenes to make it more appealing – I updated my drawing skills since the last update and those two scenes won't work with the stuff I prepared. This job will be set aside for last, only if preparing the next build won't take too much time after releasing ERO Unit.


Cards.

(I've been warned that leaving direct links on non-censored images can get me into trouble on Patreon, so I'll have to do without it from now on. Anyway all the censored stuff from this post was already shown in the game and in doodles I posted earlier)

This idea was stolen from Dahr. The cards are collectibles that can be found throughout the game's world. As a rule, I'll stick to displaying porn with fictional characters that have some relation to fantasy works, or non-modern times at least. 

I worked with this one while I cut myself out from the world, being head-deep into the development and I kind of unnecessarily overcomplicated this thing) The Card gallery handles different frames for different images with different text that's being processed separately in the plugin's database. Some cards can be rotated in horizontal position (by the plugin). And it has smooth animation when you find a card.
Today I could easily go with mildly tweaked CG Gallery analog instead, but what's done is done. Now we have this awesome system to handle a simple thing as cards) 

There will be 7 cards in the next build. I plan to add 2-3 in each build to come. 

This collectible has a reward if you'll achieve 100% completion for it. It's too early to talk about it before I'll lead the main quest to its end at least, but I'm thinking to have a secret option in the start menu unlocked that will lead you on a secret level.


Achievements.

I always saw achievements as checkpoints from developers to experience all what game can offer, generally. I tend to treat it that way as well.

We had it in previous build, that's how it looked:
I found the number of displayed achievements as too small. Also with the number of achievements I implemented, the fact that you'd have to scroll them - seemed to me as unnecessary drag. So that's how it looks now:
(the icons with skull are placeholders.)

That way overview should be quicker now. There will be no reward; the purpose of the achievements is to make you not miss anything in a build, if you're going for a full completion.

There's also Sketches Gallery I won't show here, cause it looks and works just like CG Gallery. Only it doesn't construct scenes out of images-layers, it just shows you full-sized images with sketches of the game. It's located at the start menu in Extras.

Once you unlocked something in CG Gallery, Cards, Achievements or Sketches - it will stay unlocked even if you start a new game.


Options
mostly stayed the same. I added a new function:
It makes dialogue text to show right away, without the typing effect (when letters appear gradually) that was by default in the previous builds. I know some people prefer it like that, so here you go.

Cheats can be unlocked by this thing now:
I'm thinking to rename “Cheats” to avoid confusion, because cheats are cosmetic in this game. They will affect stuff like party member's skins or layout of UI, etc. No god mode or gold or anything that can affect gameplay in a considerable way.

I'll post the codes later somewhere.


So, that wraps up the menu. As you can see, a lot of work was invested into it. I tried to complete everything that bothered me about it, so I would never have to come back to it again. I believe it was achieved.


Let's share a light on the gameplay mechanic I mentioned. At some point in the game you'll get the grappling hook.
This devise will get you to places that you can't reach on foot, or it will help to shorten you path to get somewhere. I already added various levels that require to use it, so before getting the device, you'll encounter this hooks:
Later you'll find out why are they there and that you can use grappling hook on them.

The hook's look is a semi-placeholder. I probably will change the design, the fact that it looks like question mark seems too associated, but it catches the eye in the wild and it calls for interaction. We'll see how it takes root.

Hades can shoot at it with grappling hook horizontally or vertically, from the distance of 7 walking blocks. The best way is to use mouse for that (as for everything in this game) – you just click on the hook, in approximate access from it – Hades will do the rest. If you're using keyboard/controller – you'll have to take position before the hook.

You can see how it works more clearly in this video:
Link 


Alright, that's it for this post. The usual lewd doodles, that I prepared for cards. are on my website or twitter, with the full version of this thing:
As I mentioned, I can't post direct links on uncensored versions, but, apparently, I can post links to sites, where you can find it anyway. Ridiculous, I know. The links:
The Pt.2 post will came up in few days. See you there, guys.