Things have been a little slower on the module building for me of late, simply because of real life demands. I have still been making gradual progress, but nowhere near as much as I would have liked. The brevity of this report will reflect this ...
Juggling The Story
One of the most frustrating time dumps (for me at least), is when I have had to take a break from module designing and then come back to it, only to have to go over my notes and code to catch up with where I last left it. It takes me time to work out what stage I had written some of the conversations with respect to the overall plot.
This happened on my return to the module this time around and I had to refamiliarise myself with the systems I was working on and how they interacted with the story. In module two, the player is going to be introduced to some new mechanics that tie heavily into the gameplay. Therefore, to make it work well, the systems and conversations all have to work together to make one practical whole. Thankfully, I have finished these main mechanics, and now it is the case of integrating them into the areas in which they are involved and finish some conversations that help to inform the player through NPC interaction. Believe me when I say, this sounds much easier than it is to implement, simply due to trying to accommodate potential player actions and choices.
One Area At A Time
To help me overcome the issues I am facing above, I decided to approach my building style a bit differently than previous, in the hope that it will help me when returning to building after any future small breaks. To this end, I decided that I am going to try to focus on one area at a time. That may be how people do things already, but for me it is a change, because previously, I used to follow the main plot through various areas until completed, and then finish off accompanying side quests that had come out of the main quest. The problem this time around is that the side quests are much more involved and integrated, and so, at the moment, I find myself following about three paths. It is quite fun to build this way, as it offers diversity for me. However, switching between them is when I have to add extra time to recall what stage I was at for that story line.
How dealing with one area at a time is going to work out (or not) is still open to question. After all, plot stages being addressed in one area are subject to plot stages set in other areas. I intend to add placeholders for these journal entries now, instead of working my design with them as I go, so it will be interesting to see if this works out. The advantage of working an area at a time (especially when it comes to a tighter story line), is that I can focus on all the details for each area as I work with it, as opposed to come back to half finished areas and try to consider elements for it that complement its design so far. Basically, the style and flow of module two requires me to have to reconsider how I can approach its design to make it easier on myself, and avoid wasting time going over my own notes.
Other News
Soul Shaker is undergoing one final play through by a couple of testers. Once one of them has completed their run, and if there are no further issues, I will upload the revamped Soul Shaker v2.00. I have not yet had to make any more fixes for it in its latest testing, and so I think it is probably stable now, but I will wait until the final play. This is why I am back to working on module two of The Scroll - where I did happen to notice a couple of minor issues as I worked on it. These issues were so minor, however, that the latest release (v1.35) was considered an optional update. It addressed lighting for some conversations, player name feedback and some chat text. All very minor fixes, but hopefully the last before I upload for module two. Time will tell.
The screenshot this week, is just another shot for the latest written NPC conversation, which again demonstrates the new PC background options that are available in some conversations ...
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