NPCs

I added the (four) hirable NPCs previously, but they were badly broken in the game.  After a fair amount of debugging, they are pretty much working now:

You hire them in town, and they manifest once you descend into the dungeon.

Additionally, I added the option to disable the Tooltips I'd mentioned earlier to the configuration, fixed a bunch of miscellaneous bugs regarding Inn events.  I should mention that every creature in this game can gain XP and levels, and the NPCs can as well (which is good, as you don't get XP for what they kill.)

Some interface updates

Still busy with checking through the full game, but as I started to do that, I realized parts of it were really just... a hassle.  So I added some ability buttons, so you can remember what the number keys are mapped for, and icons for the status ailments.

Then, after some thought about the icons not being very obvious, I added some tooltips to all of it.  They don't seem very intrusive, but I suppose I should add an option to disable them in the preferences at some point.

Some visible progress

Ok, after months of irritating script-writing that didn't lend itself to screenshots, let's discuss how the game has evolved.  Earlier, I'd mention that there were certain Game Over events that would transform your character into an enemy, and those are implemented now, via lycanthropes and vampires.  For the former, there's both a boss that can turn you, as well as more common mobs (and players who get turned, themselves.)

Here's the player encountering the boss:

...I don't think earlier screenshots had the debug window, I added that a while back.  It won't be visible in the final version, of course.  Here's the player getting transformed by the boss:

...and finally, here's a new player running into the boss and their new minion:

Right now, the boss in question is really overpowered (I think she one-shot this character after using her pounce ability to instantly close the distance) but game balance is definitely something I'm working on.

Another neat Roguelike in development

Erna and the Mysterious Cave

The game's a little simple, particularly when it comes to levels and enemies, but that's probably a necessary result of some pretty interactive and animated game over scenes.

On my side of things, I'm hoping to finish up the scripting today.

It's been a while..

...it's been so long, the whole "No hentai on Blogger" came and went before I could comment on it.

Anyway, game is still going, I'm just having to do all the event and script writing, which is why I haven't posted anything recently, since there's not much to look at.  Once I finish that up and start debugging, there'll be more interesting posts.

Slow Progress

So, finished scripting for the last of the Game Over scenes, now just need to do a bit more scripting for other events, and I'll move on to finishing the other needed monster AI routines.  None of this is particularly exciting and my time to work on the project is limited, but it is progressing.

Where were we?

Oh yes, well, progress is still coming, although slowly.  Most of it doesn't lend itself to screenshots.

I added an expanded debugging mode:

...which I'm going to need to add an "arena" mode to kind of like what's in Dwarven Fortress for the combat balance.  Speaking of which, I finished the bestiary, so now we've gone from 36 enemy types to 87.  Those don't include monsters ex-players have been transformed into... a detail I still need to fully implement.

Most of the rest of my recent work was fixing bugs (Load/Save was broken, in part by adding the debugging mode, of all things) and there was a long-standing issue with save compatibility breaking between versions.