New Sprites
This is going to be a rather lengthy update, so prepare yourself; The majority of all existing sprites are over 10+ years old, so it's about time they got a graphical upgrade to properly reflect their designs.
I personally like the updated sprites, the frog still needs some touching up on it's shading for sure.
Also gave the DrillPig a much needed graphical upgrade.
Dalle-3 Concepts
I've been learning how to use a lot of image generation in my workflow, and some of these designs were fantastic to not use as an interpretation.
Gameplay and VFX
As for in-game updates I've got a few things to share regarding gameplay.
The objective of this is to build a world to watch it all burn to the ground.
That's why the game project has been a fifteen year love project. If other people like it, that's cool too.
It will be released for the public to enjoy probably for free, but I'm making the game that I want to play.
As for the actual gameplay loop, I'm thinking of turning the main hub into a tower defense wave type phase. I added a "tipi", perhaps you have to protect and upgrade your shelter with coins. Something along the lines of the player growing their own world tree and protecting it while it grows. Have yet to implement that, and unsure if I will actually use that idea. The player could maybe upgrade turrets or "Zen Trees" to protect the base, ect.
"Like the Genesis flood narrative, the Genesis creation narrative and the account of the Tower of Babel, the story of Eden echoes the Mesopotamian myth of a king, as a primordial man, who is placed in a divine garden to guard the tree of life."
The game has generally been geared towards more of a non-game simulation thing than a traditional game in any sense. The new version has 3 endings planned, originally it was just a linear one ending game.
Prior till the new update, the trees didn't even actually have any gameplay mechanics they were purely aesthetic, where as now the trees control the creation of Apples to heal the player.
This is the gameplay, just have to begin designing the levels around the world system and enemy interactions now.
The trees also respawn "Grubs" if there is less than 3 in the level. This occurs after a tree finishes shaking from either a sword attack or a medium/heavy enemy walking passed. Grubs are the most basic unit in the game, they create seeds which can create trees, which in turn, create grubs.
It's essentially a very simple self sustaining ecosystem now. With the day and night system I can add things like special events in levels that only take place at certain times of the day. I'm thinking night time might be a good time to do the "wave attack" on the main hub. An example of this is the clouds will generate rain based on their distance to the sun, which in turn helps grow more plant life.
Or certain enemy units might only be active during the day and sleep at night.
The world systems exist to create emergence so interactions will happen that I can only predict so much. This way enemy reactions aren't limited to only the players input but also the other enemy units or items around them. Including output from the world system I've created.
If players want to speedrun to end of the game, they are free to. But for those who want to stick around the garden and smell the roses. This is stuff more geared towards a casual player or curious players like a zen garden, with the deeper game being for the hardcore players. With the casual players probably just scratching the surface and only playing for a short time.
παράδεισος
Not saying our physical earth is flat, but this virtual one is.
Simple NPC Dialogue System
Started making a new basic dialogue system which can have multiple sets of dialogue in them.
Originally had the text breath with the bubble but found that to be difficult to read.
It works with multiple dialogue options, trying to work on getting asking questions to work.
Might make it a menu the player can control with up and down. Not sure yet still figuring that out.
The Element of Air (Wind)
Things in life are a bit stressful lately felt like animating some wind.
Also got it working in-game with precision frames, so it blows the player just slightly if they touch the wind.
