Third Post, 10 March 2025

First

Thank you for following along and reading this dribble, lol. I have expectations for myself on this project and I plan on finishing it.

Now...

After overcoming my fear of setting up just a .gb rom and moving on to the .gbc, I've solved the sprite overlay issue (specific hardware issue for the original gb). Now I'm building Seattle... or at least, a fictional small part of it that doesn't include any water features. I just need a few streets for our heroine to wander around and investigate, or get prepared for the journey... But really she doesn't need to get ready. I'm gonna cut that part out, then. One street where exiting will pop a dialogue to get the story really started. There will be the necessary "in house" interactions to acclimate the player to collision detection, grabbing items, checking journal entries and inventory.

The other next step is figuring out how to move npc's between scenes. I have an idea requiring scripts outside the scenes as well as a few string variables. That's how I did it in "Aztec Story"; inventory items had a location and would show in that location after the room was "looked at" which called for a variable check of the items list. Anyone listed in the looked at room would get listed in the room description. Yay, global scoping!

The difference here is the npc's move on their own and need to react to reaching a scene change trigger, OR have their own trigger for scene changes... Or... I don't even know. A problem occurs that I can only show one npc at a time on screen, though multiple can be in the scene. I'll need to keep that in mind, as they have their own duties to perform during the day. I'll be thinking about that tonight at work.

Oh, day and night cycles... I'm still working that through. I'm initially thinking an hour will pass when a story point is discovered. I might have to specifically mark the story points in code. Every marked point advances time an hour. Trying to decide if 12 hours is appropriate or if I should adjust time advancement expectations. Also the game time limit. A week, five days, ten? All these need to be figured out at some point.

So day cycles should be 12 hours, but that would mean adjusting what constitutes a story point to advance time. Then, what happens? "It's been a long day of detecting. Time for bed." and then force her to bed? Some games give you from wake up time (6, 7, or 8 am) until 1 or 2 in the morning before making you character pass out. Once we're in the woods, there will be no passing out from exhaustion! That's wolf dinner! So I will have to work that out in my head as well.

Then the ultimate time limit... I wonder if that can be negotiated with the Sheriff when arriving in Astar. I'm thinking it'll be a confirmation conversation:

  "So, Ms Sweete. Do you think you can help us quickly?"

  "[I'll only need 5 days || It'll take a week || A thorough 10 days will be needed]"

  "Are you sure? That sounds [mighty difficult || fine, I guess || a bit slow]"

I seldom see these kinds of interactions in games, so adding it here should be fun.

Ah, but what is the limit for, you ask? Well, there're one of two special events at the end of the game that has to happen for the story. And it will happen, or the other will happen, at the end of the time limit. If the player figures things out before the limit, all the better. Adds to her reputation.

Hmm, maybe the difficulty changes how many hours a story point advances time? Hard advances 3 hours, medium 2, easy 1? I think I wrote that down somewhere. Well, here it is again!

That's all for now. I did a lot of reading up on development techniques in the GBS discord and I think I'm good to continue building things up... Until the dialogue *dun dun DUUUN*

tchuss