Expansion

Our development group is slowly starting to grow with other developers and other individuals. Regardless, development is still going on according to the basic idea. The new people involved in the development are just additional hands and additional ideas, not a rebuilding of the old

Development Update

- Pop-ups will now definitely close on a timer. You will still be able to close the pop-up window by clicking on the Hide button, but for the convenience of the player was realized timer automatic closing

- Game Optimization. For the ideal at this point, we take the 200MB of RAM that the game used at the point where only the prologue and no game mechanics were available. At some point, it became noticeable that the use of computer resources was growing too fast and it was decided to start optimizing the whole code. For a simple example and understanding, adding inventory increased RAM usage by 200MB, and new game systems could easily add another 200-300MB. 

BUT. We`ve reached the point that together with inventory, character statuses, NPCs, trading, cooking and locations, as well as updating game variables, the game still uses 200MB of RAM, as if nothing has changed since the project was almost empty. This`s a very important point at which we can understand that in the future the realization of all plans will remain possible;

- Cooking. The cooking system takes the main mechanics of crafting in the game as its basis. In cooking zones (e.g. kitchens) you have a list of available actions for one particular zone. Some kitchen may not have a roaster or even a fire source. Some kitchens may not have a knife and you can only chop vegetables if you have a sharp object (e.g. knife, blade) in your inventory.

Once in the right place, a list of cooking related actions will appear in the usage window. As noted, the list of actions is linked to the available tools. In a kitchen with a fire source and a suitable surface, you'll be able to roast something for yourself. In a room with a grain grinder, you might even be able to grind your own flour. In addition, the list of actions also depends on the character's skills. Some of the actions Tessa will not be able to perform until she becomes more experienced or at all, separately studied this particular skill.

Some ingredients can be bought from merchants, some can be collected in the open world, and for some ingredients you will have to spend a lot of effort and time. Either way - each ingredient shares one property. Ingredients are not food and cannot be eaten, but only used for cooking. 

Using carrots and cutting produce as an example. The available ingredient will appear in the cutting window. You can choose a specific ingredient to slice and choosing carrots will add it to the craft in sliced form.

Once you add something to the craft - you can reset it. It`s worth considering that you can't return the products, you will only clear the work done and you can start it from the beginning. 

The game world is filled with different food recipes that you can explore. Some recipes will only unlock after getting information about them, some recipes are available from the very beginning of the game, and some recipes will only work after a certain skill level. Following the order of the recipe is mandatory, otherwise it will only destroy the used products and produce nothing. In any case, the balance of the game is laid out in such a way that cooking will not be a requirement to progressing through the story, but will only make the gameplay easier or more interesting. In terms of balance, cooking is simply cheaper than buying cooked food from merchants;

- Books have come into the game. Expensive, rare and valuable. Sources of information about crafting, story, and more. 

Work-in-Progress

Books are just a basic title. Some books are really books. But it can also be a scroll, a huge old tome, a note, a piece of paper, etc. Books that can be used as a source of information about crafting are simplified for the player's convenience and key phrases are highlighted. On the example of our screenshot, in the porridge recipe the ingredients that are needed for its preparation are highlighted, and information about the order of cooking is located right next to the names of ingredients. 

Books that immerse the player in the history of the world and others don't have such highlights and require careful reading;

- Notebook. It's already clear that there's a lot of information coming into play that's hard to keep in your head. A notepad is available in the game, in which you can freely write down important information for yourself, keep a log of quests that you are doing right now and so on. The graphics of the notepad are still being worked on, but it will be a multi-page notepad where you can write and delete text for each individual page;

- Work on the Eastern District locations continues;

- Combat system has been redesigned;

- Work on the balance of combats;

- Work on inventory changes and structuring;

Unfortunately, IRL takes just as long and the plan to release the first act in September was a failure. I and the other developers are trying to implement all the features as soon as possible and release the first act of the story as fast as possible. I would like to express my thanks to everyone who is following the project and a special thanks to those who have donated. Again, i`m not raising money for this project, but in any case i'm insanely grateful for the extra money that can be invested in, for example, buying an asset