I can't believe I've been doing this for three weeks already.
Hey guys, welcome to another edition of the Construct Stream Companion Blog! I hope you've been enjoying the streams so far, and I want to thank everyone who's dropped in over the last few weeks, it's been great to have you! Last week was a bit rubbish because I was tearing my hair out trying to build a system that would trigger layout changes and have a little fade transition. But the good news is, we sorted that out this week! YAY!
Yep, in the current version of 'Definitely Not Pokemon,' you can now stroll around the whole city, through each of the four districts. The nice thing with this system is that it's also scalable, so I should be able to use it for doors and stairs too, not just switching areas. I did run a quick test on Tuesday and managed to get a working indoor/outdoor transition going, so I have hope. I just have to remember to keep my instance variables in the right order!
And, if you missed our Tuesday Tips this week, then do check out the tutorial I've created based on this transition system.
But what's next? Well, currently our player character is the only lifeform in the city, so I think it would be nice to bring in some NPCs. This will give me the chance to figure out how to make them move around town on their own, and how best to display loads of different characters. Plus, we then have something in place which will use the dialogue system - that's my current 'big' project.
So while I'm figuring out NPCs and continuing with the NEVER ENDING task of creating artwork, I'm also trying to work out how best to implement an XML based dialogue system. This one's going to take me a while, but hopefully, I can have a basic mechanic set up soon. Then we can have our player talk to a handful of NPCs or read some signs!
I've also decided it's probably time we stopped calling this 'Definitely Not Pokemon', so I've been putting some more thought into the lore of the game. I already mentioned some bits about this in the second post of this blog, but there's no harm in a little recap and expansion eh?
So, instead of Pokemon, we have Divimals - shortened from the name bestowed by the planet's human ancestors, Divine Animals. These are creatures that can manipulate the planet's natural mana giving them great power. Humans that resonate with Divimals become Keepers. Some Keepers fight with their Divimals, some just like having some company.
Society has long been divided over opinions regarding Science and the Divine, which comes into play when we look at the history of the Starting City - which finally has a name! The player is from the great city of Inott, the scientific hub of the region and the place where all aspiring Keepers begin their journey.
Inott got its name from the ancient scholars who used to study at what is now the research lab. The name is derived from words meaning knowledge and beginning, as the city was seen as the birthplace of humankind's foray into research.
Scientific and theological scholars worked together to further the collective knowledge and to learn more about their world. However, one of Skirah's most famous theological scholars claimed to have had a vision from the divine. A vision that told him that humankind was seeking forbidden knowledge - knowledge that would ultimately lead to their ruin.
This epiphany led the scholar to challenge his peers, wanting them to stop their research, and instead focus on the message he received and appease the divine. The scientific researchers dismissed his claims due to a lack of tangible proof, leading to the start of the great opinion divide that still exists today.
The theologists took their ancient texts and artefacts and left to set up their own settlement, that they hoped would offer a home to those who believed the words of the famous scholar. And would act as a shelter for when the divine reckoning did come.
So there you have it. A bit more background into the story, and we can finally stop calling the area I'm working on 'Starting City'. I'm still working on making sure Inott looks the part, and hopefully, soon it will start looking like a proper city.
Thanks for reading another rambling post about not a lot, and I look forward to seeing you in the stream on Tuesday as work continues on Divimals.
Even as I write this, I almost type Digimon. Every. Single. Time. 😑