The much awaited shop feature finally got done. It took a longer while than I expected beacuse of many other deadlines at my real work. You can watch some of what my company's doing recently at www.machinesayshello.com
As my #1 follower Snipercharlie earlier discussed, the best way to move forward in the selling gameplay mechanics is the alternative also known as "full-fledged build-gather-open shop-work the counter deal". So basically you can now acquire the blueprints, gather building materials, build your little shop, find or grow stuff to sell and save up some money. Generally these features need not take too long once you pinpoint their different code stages. And I had clairvoyantly created a villager class that could do much more than what was previously demonstrated in gameplay videos. What took so long is lack of time and most of all the feeling of tiredness that gets to you once you realise that you've forgotten how your code is set up around classes you haven't touched for a while..
In May 2013 I created a villager class that was quite similar to the animal class. The functions included not only speech and an ability to request items and favours, but also to search and find items, set a goal, some super-easy path finding and an ability to give back items to the player. In this case I simply added an item to the counters in the start menu, namely GOLD: now you can receive gold by selling stuff in your little shop.
Villagers now stream to your new boutique and ask for specific items. If you were clever enough to stock up on them, you'll make a fortune real quick. Otherwise you just have to close it and go fix some more sellable items. The villagers as for now never cease their pilgrimage to your shop, and the only thing that will work against you getting rich is how many items you have in stock. Some villagers are particularly outlandish, and if you meet their requests you'll be handsomely rewarded!
I'm soon posting some pictures and a video demo of this lovely new addition, so stay tuned!
Lastly I should apologize for not making the 1st Nov deadline, but it's not a long wait left ahead of us. This little game will be out beginning of december, in time for your christmas shopping and vacation!
