Development Update #49

Hey guys, are you allright?

I'm here to tell you all about the previous pool for this month's development. Tier 3 and 4 patrons, decided to vote for: Create a Filter System for the game.

Since this topic is a little more complex than just writing the text for the game, I decided it was worth creating a new Development Update for you all.

What this would imply? Let's go for the list and explanation shall we?

You know how in the story, sometimes it's evening, or morning, or close to night and the backgrounds are all the same? So, I've been thinking on adding a Filter System to change that. I can't just go buying different variations of an image with the artist right ,now (not with the current budget I have), so if I can figure out how to implement filters to make Early Morning, Evening and Night work, while Daytime being the backgrounds without filter, that would be great.

And that's what I'll be trying to do this month. Here's the catch though:  I can't do this in one month. Even if I figure out how to make a good filter system for the game, there's a lot that need to be done. Lemme list it to you all:

• Create the Filter System:

-- That would include: Finding the right colors, how to apply them over the background but under the UI, saving the values in a constant variable to always be applied, create an animation for the filter when it's added (such as a Fade-In/Out situation), create all functions calls on the correct scripts and make sure they are clear enough for bug-tracking later on. And of course, making sure that the filter is applied once the game reads the dialogue and identifies there's a filter to be applied there.

• Add the Filter Options in the Editor.

-- That would include: Creating the UI elements in the editor, such as the button with the options for each time of the day. Figure it out how I want that information to be saved on the JSON (For example, the normal backgrounds are background without a filter? If yes, then the option for that is NONE if, the option should be Filter: Daytime instead).  Make sure the Preview on the JSON editor also shows the Filter, or at least some sort of label to indicate visually that there's a filter applied in that dialogue.

• Save the information of what kind of filter is set for each dialogue in the JSON.

-- That would include: Working with the code of the Editor itself, making sure it can save the new information on each dialogue without removing any necessary information. Make sure the code can open and read the new information and not crash if the information is missing (If a dialogue has no filter information it should not crash because of it).

• Add the filters to the Games on all days that are necessary.

-- The last one is self-explanatory. And that would take a very good chunk of time. And I mean it. Even if I work every single day reading every single dialogue to make sure there's no need for a filter to be applied, I need to make sure to add them in the right place and remove them once the time of the day changes. Nothing is automatic, so I need to be careful there. Not only that, but I also need to do it for each day and each character, and there are tons of routes now. Thankfully, things like the passage of time tend to be said on the main routes. I try to be consistent with that.  But I don't remember where every single part is on every single day so I need to read everything and that takes time.

So how much for that? I believe it's between two to three months of working on it to make sure no bugs or issues happen.

However, I'll do my best to finish this by this month. I tend to think things way too complicated, and usually I give you guys the worst-case scenario. Maybe It'll be a breeze to do it and I'll finish by the end of this month.

So here's what can happen:

1 - I can finish everything by the end of this month and I'll give you guys this month a build with at least the first day with the filters applied.

2 -I can finish the filter system and all that but I won't have time to pass the filters to the first day at all, meaning the build would be set for the next month (the start of the next month).

3 - I won't be able to do everything and you guys will end this month with a Development Update of the next build instead. That was what was happening way back at the start of this game development, by the way.

If the third case happens, I'll make sure to at least apply any suggested corrections you all sent to me, update the credits, and update a new alpha with a patch number only (0.40.1.0). I will make sure to create a different post just in case so everyone is notified. But I'll aim for the first or second cases.

Like I said, even if I update a build with only patch notes, remember that the work for the filter will be halfway done in the build itself, there's no way for me to work in separate versions of the game. It's all one big chunk of data that you get, the only difference is that in some versions, the incomplete code is not working nor available for you to see yet.

For now, that's what I have for you all. Once I start getting results, I'll be here creating more Development Updates for you all to see with screen-shots of the progress and maybe even some gifs if possible!

Note: Since this Development Update only contains the plans for this month and the in-depth explanation of what I need to do, this post is available for every single patron. Next update will be capped for Tier 2+ as always.