Cosmic Construct News

[p]Welcome to the 34th week devlog for Cosmic Construct. Sorry that this one is a little late. I really need to get the schedule back on track. This should be a week 35 post, these posts are more than a week behind. I think I'm going to do two short weeks just to get them lined back up.[/p][p]So sorry for remainder of this month. I'll get it back where it needs to be with some short posts.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]As usual, I will be covering the goals set in the previous posts, and discussing ongoing work for and about the game.[/p][p]---[/p][p]Finish the new biome.[/p][p][/p][p]There was a bunch of art needed for this one. 135 frames total, which is more than any other biome I think. Discounting the farmable resources. I've made a new tree type, which isn't just a repurposed general tree, and these took a while to figure out, because they are just trunks. I wanted the tops to be "cut off" at the top, but didn't know how that would turn out once everything was put together.[/p][p][/p][p]Visually, 4 varieties of mushrooms were added which each have 5 variations. This biome functions as a sort of "mooshroom" biome, for Cosmic Construct. Food and wood is plentiful. It's a biome that exists purely as a boon to the player. A place that the player can seek out get out of shortages through simple passive grinding. It's the AFK chop, biome so to speak.[/p][p][/p][p]It's important to show this, as its hard to describe, and see. Many of these just looks like copies of the same drawing over and over, and in a way they are. Squigglevision animation requires small changes between frames to look convincing. It quadruples the amount of work compared to just putting flat static images in an environment. I could probably get away with using a distortion shader, but I feel that the squigglevision animation is more  "genuine". You can feel the hand drawn aspect of things. I don't want people to look at the game and think it is lazy.[/p][p][/p][p]Anyhow, here is the finished biome which I have named the Akyulands. I didn't even talk about the grass, which is yet another thing I needed to draw. The shapes are simple, but they have a very distinct appearance. To think I have another 4-5 biomes to make before I feel comfortable saying that I'm comfortable with the amount of exploration content.[/p][p]Do some new structure art.[/p][p]Didn't get to doing this, the biome took alot of work to complete, due to 6 new interactable objects being added.[/p][p]Continue work on the first minigame.[/p][p]There are two minigames I've been considering and working on them concurrently. One is a pretty normal dice game. Most people will be familiar with it. I want to have a betting component, and luck modification to make a combination of skill and luck based.  This will be the first minigame, called "Sparkle". The second minigame I am working on is far more complex, and I'm not sure if I can even pull it off given alot of factors. It's something difficult to do in gamemaker, but figuring it out as a puzzle has been fun. I am happy to say I got it working, and has to do with optical character recognition. I'm not going to describe it further, because I want it to be a surprise.[/p][p]Make improvements to Pawn AI, to allow the game to be played further in.[/p][p]Discussing Pawn AI is pretty dry. The details of the state machine, and small adjustments made to it are just boring to detail. Its like showing code of, nobody really cares. All you need to know is that the pawns are being integrated into the buildings that are already in place. The garrisoning, works and the pawns are processing resources from the garrisoned buildings. I have some of the businesses set in an "open for business" and "closed for business" state. So if a pawn responsible for say a Tailoring building, if they are sleeping; that function will be disabled until they wake.[/p][p]Another thing I am working on is pawn retirement. When a pawn leaves the settlement, they can later return. There is not an age mechanic, so they pawns never "die". But they can leave due to unhappiness or stress. I would like the pawns to still visit as tourists, or ask to return to the settlement if it has improved.[/p][p]---[/p][p]This week will be very short to get the devlogs back on track. I'm tired of them not being correct.[/p][p]- Do structure art.[/p][p]Yep that's it. My level of success will be determined on how many new buildings I add.[/p][p]See you next "week".[/p]

[p]Welcome to the 33rd week devlog for Cosmic Construct. [/p][p]Each week in these devlogs we typically go over development goals established at the end of the previous weeks post.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Framework for the first minigame.[/p][p]Because minigames are a new feature. I don't want to share visual progress on them before they are complete. I'd rather dump them on you all at once. The frame work code for the first minigame is a little complicated, as I can't just pause the simulation in the background. Doing so would sort of defeat the purpose of including minigames in the first place.[/p][p]There are at least 5 minigames that will be included with the game. All of them will generate currency or a particular valuable resource. There is even a building dedicated for pawns to play these minigames for recreation; the Casino. Not all of the games will be "betting" or "gambling" games, but most will. Almost all of the games will be "skill and luck" based. I do plan to add a slot machine which is pure luck. Of course, these use the in-game currencies; there are no microtransactions or anything like that.[/p][p]Get the market UI and trading done.[/p][p][/p][p]The base of the UI is done. Trading wasn't fully completed. I found that the trading and exchange system is more complicated that I originally realized, as I need to add a bunch of corner case event handling. For example, what if the storage lacks the space for the coinage being given as change? That and the conversion itself is a little complex as the currency denomination conversion is in base 4.[/p][p]Anyway, most of the visual work has been done to implement this feature. I'm going to let it hang out until I get it finished. I might do the pawn AI to operate the buildings related to it first. We'll see how I feel about it.[/p][p]Art assets for the next biome.[/p][p][/p][p]I've done a few of the assets needed for a new biome. This biome will have a new kind of large tree, which will produce more logs by requiring more chops per tree. I plan to have it automatically chop the tree until it has fallen. This will be a good biome to find for the early game, if people take the option to explore. Building a chest will give access to the storage array. Since all chests are linked (they function as Minecraft Ender Chests), you can contribute to the colony at any distance.[/p][p][/p][p]Here is the ground layer shape. The layer art is fully complete, I'm just lazy and didn't want to take a new screenshot.[/p][p]I still need to make two kinds of foliage for the biome, and determine a good color scheme for everything, which is much easier to do when I'm coding it all in. As I can rapidly prototype. I want this to be the "useful to early game" biome. That if someone is stuck not having the basic resources they need for some objective, they can look for this place to get them out of that rut.[/p][p]New structure art. (if I have time)[/p][p]I didn't start on any new structure art.[/p][p]---[/p][p]That is what I got done this week. After writing about it, doesn't sound like much. Most of what I've done is in code.[/p][p]Here is what I have planned for this week.[/p][p]- Finish the new biome.[/p][p]- Do some new structure art.[/p][p]- Continue work on the first minigame.[/p][p]- Make improvements to Pawn AI, to allow the game to be played further in.[/p][p]That is all, thank you for reading.[/p]

[p]This is the 32nd week devlog for Comic Construct. Now that the new demo version is out, I've been getting some feedback about the game systems, and some of them aren't working as intended. As is to be expected with a large changes like this.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]Each week in these devlogs we typically go over development goals established at the end of the previous weeks post.[/p][p]---[/p][p]Supporting the demo release.[/p][p][/p][p]With the new demo versions changes, there is a lot of testing and bug fixing that needs to happen. Most of these revolve around systems new to the game such as energy consumption and the totem sacrifices. Thankfully, the new demo version was finished and made live right around the next Demo Day deadline. So I was able to submit the new demo version to Demo Day 63, and update game jam hosted bi-monthly by the AGDG (Amateur Game Development General) community.  Which has had about 20 downloads on itch so far, and a couple people giving extensive feedback. You guys are awesome, and I know you all are gonna make it.[/p][p]Getting Pawns to consume food like they should.[/p][p][/p][p]This was easier to get working than I expected, considering the amount of things I needed to change. Which reminds me I need to update the github repo... and done lol. Pawns now consume energy while performing tasks, when they are low on energy they will become slow, and unwilling to work on their assigned job. They will change their job to gathering berries. Their energy consumption is considerably slower than the player's for balance reasons. I might need to adjust this in the future.[/p][p]Add achievements for exotic items that are missing from new biomes.[/p][p][/p][p]This is a simple database edit. However, I had other things I needed to set up for future integration because of the way I have the database managed (which is super naive). Thankfully, it works well enough that I will likely never change it. Considering the entire game pauses while menus are open, it's efficiency doesn't really matter. The only trouble it causes is on objective checks, which only check part of the struct infrequently. Which causes the same issue as storage updates. I have fixing both of these things on the todo list, but they aren't game breaking. Just slightly irritating when they rarely trigger at an inconvenient time.[/p][p]Get some more structure art done.[/p][p][/p][p]I finally got the Abattoir done. The building is a little plain, but there will be a bunch of Grubs moving around behind it, which will give more motion.  The Abattoir will passive produce meat, bone, and hide which will reduce the need for pawns to hunt. If or when I add new creatures to other areas, I can have it produce their resources too.[/p][p]---[/p][p]No unplanned work was done. I did do some marketing related stuff, which I'm not sure I'll see results from, I'll let you know if anything comes from that. Here is the planned development work for the next week.[/p][p]- Framework for the first minigame.[/p][p]- Get the market UI and trading done.[/p][p]- Art assets for the next biome.[/p][p]- New structure art. (if I have time)[/p]

[p]This is the 31st week devlog for Cosmic Construct, and a big new thing. As I mentioned last week, this devlog was going to be a patch notes for the new demo version. There is nothing to review, as I set no goals during the last devlog.[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]The demo is now available on itch again.[/p][p]---[/p][p]\[] Demo Version 0.2.0 Patch Notes[/p][p]Access Changes[/p]

• [p]Increased max Totem Level to 8 from 5.[/p]
• [p]Increased max Pawns to 16 from 10.[/p]

[p]New Features[/p]

• [p]New open ended objective and achievement system. There is a short tutorial objective list. All other objectives are accessed by pressing the "O" key.[/p]
• [p]Added skilling. There are now 10 skills the player can increase by doing various activities while playing the game. The skilling menu can be accessed by pressing the "K" key. Not all skills are available in the demo.[/p]
• [p]The energy bar in the top left is now functional. It will decrease over time. It is restored by eating food items. Pawns currently do not consume food, that will be coming sometime soon.[/p]
• [p]Pawn social interactions. The player can now talk to Pawns by interacting with them using the "E" key. This is replacing the Log Menu, which is currently unused. Still need to echo those messages to the Log.[/p]
• [p]Added new pawn jobs.[/p]
• [p]Added 14 new harvestable crops.[/p]
• [p]Added the Lunland Biome[/p]
• [p]Added the Grotlands Biome[/p]
• [p]Added the Omnilands Biome[/p]
• [p]Added many new items.[/p]
• [p]Added new BGM tracks.[/p]
• [p]Added many new voice lines.[/p]

[p]Quality of Life[/p]

• [p]Added a custom mouse cursor, which respond to clickable elements.[/p]
• [p]Correctly colored non-clickable elements in some UI pages.[/p]
• [p]Changed the way attacks are made by the player. The player can now draw back and hold an arrow before firing. You can now also move while the arrow is drawn, and strafe.[/p]
• [p]Decreased the length of Tudi's voice lines.[/p]
• [p]Crafting stations now decline crafting immediately.[/p]
• [p]Crafting stations now craft all items in the inventory without reselecting the inventory.[/p]
• [p]Crafting stations will now display what item they will craft when nearby.[/p]
• [p]Storage crates will now pull out partial stacks of 10 items if 10 items are not available.[/p]
• [p]Silk items have been renamed to Satin.[/p]
• [p]Unassignable professions are not displayed.[/p]

[p]Performance Changes[/p]

• [p]Map files now use a new seeding system which decreases map file size.[/p]
• [p]Changed the way save files are structured meaning old save files no longer function.[/p]
• [p]Changed pawn checks to use Manhattan distance.[/p]
• [p]Changed pawn checks to check nearby grid cells more efficiently.[/p]

[p]Bug Fixes[/p]

• [p]Included and corrected some build menu icons.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue that would cause legacy options files not to load.[/p]

[p]---[/p][p]Let me know if there are any issues you experience. I'll roll out fixes for them as fast as I can.[/p][p]Most problems can be fixed by deleting all files in the save file directory in %appdata%/Cosmic_Construct[/p][p]---[/p][p]This week I'll be working on the following things.[/p][p]- Supporting the demo release.[/p][p]- Getting Pawns to consume food like they should.[/p][p]- Add achievements for exotic items that are missing from new biomes.[/p][p]- Get some more structure art done.[/p][p]That is all, and thank you for being here.[/p]

[p]Welcome to the week 30 devlog for Cosmic Construct. Here I am apologizing for missing my schedule again, but what can you do.[/p][p]I was waiting for the results of the Rising Tide trailer contest before making this new devlog. To make a long story short, my performance wasn't very good. But what can I do than learn how to make a better product for you all.[/p][p]I usually mix up the below link section, but I'm tired of doing that, so it's going to be boilerplate from now on.[/p][p]---[/p][p]To follow the game's progress you can join me at:[/p]

• [p]My bluesky account which gives more frequent updates.[/p]
• [p]The Cosmic Construct community discord server.[/p]
• [p]Also Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam and follow it's steam page.[/p]

[p]--[/p][p]Each week we go over development goals established at the end of the previous devlog.[/p][p]---[/p][p]\[] Demo preparation. (priority task)[/p][p]There is still alot of work that needs to be done here. Many of the things in this category are tiny changes to polish up how the game feels to play. It's difficult to describe visually, even with a video. Hundreds of tiny changes to code all over the place to squeak out performance. Texture page and preloading, Sounds. That kind of thing. I didn't do much in this category because I was working on other things.[/p][p]One of the things I've done in the demo prep is reworked save file versioning. So that I have a little more future proofing for changes to game mechanics and systems. I might show the save file version upon loading the game.[/p][p]\[] A secret feature. (What could it be?)[/p][p][/p][p]SKILLING! The secret feature is skilling.[/p][p]When the player harvests any resource, they gain experience in that gathering type, which will increase the speed they perform that action. As well as rare drop rate for stellar resources, gems, and many other upcoming items. The skills covered so far are:[/p]

• [p]Forestry: Increasing tree cutting speed, and stellar log drop rate.[/p]
• [p]Mining: Increasing stone and iron picking speed, and stellar ore and gem drop rates.[/p]
• [p]Farming: Increasing harvesting speed, and stellar crop drop rates.[/p]
• [p]Construction: Increases the speed at which items are submitted to blueprints.[/p]
• [p]Smithing: Increases smelting and smithing speed.[/p]
• [p]Processing: Increases the speed of woodcutting, stonecutting, and other mundane crafting operations.[/p]
• [p]Cooking: Increases cooking speed.[/p]
• [p]Merchantile: Gives a small discount when buying and trading goods, and increases tax rate as well as the frequency taxes are collected.[/p]
• [p]Gaming: Gives a small luck based advantage when playing certain games.[/p]

[p]These are the first 10 skills. I have it coded in to allow up to 20 skills. So there is plenty of room to add more to the save file later.[/p][p]\[] Totem ranks 26-30[/p][p][/p][p]I've finished totem ranks 26-30. Although, The totem art is getting to the point where I don't actually want to show it off, as to let players discover it when the game releases. This is probably the last full totem art you are going to see. If you want to see the rest of them, you are just going to have to play the game.[/p][p]As usual, each totem rank n mod 5 = 1 is a bare statue. Then I add a clock, flowers, stonework, and then liveries with a crown. This will be true up to and including totem rank 50. In the full game it will be possible to gain totem ranks beyond 50. I'm not sure what visuals I will add for that, but I will do so.[/p][p]\[] Structure art[/p][p]Didn't work on this at all. Sorry.[/p][p]\[] Finishing up the pawn complaints[/p][p][/p][p]This was the most complex thing I did during the week. The screenshot doesn't show much more than a new line of dialogue, however there was a significant change to how all complaints are handled by pawns. Before pawns would automatically submit complaints to the complaint log. I instead last week, pushed them to the pawns. This was not working as I had intended.[/p][p]Talking to a pawn would give a complaint but give the "hewa" line for all of those interactions, because I didn't have voice lines for them. Calling a category was using a reworked script which couldn't match voice lines to text. So it was pulling a random voice line for completed conversation categories, and Cosmish translations were not matching the text on screen; which defeats the purpose of making a conlang.[/p][p][/p][p]I've rewritten the entire database of dialogue and voices as a json struct. This is very robust, modular, and can be expanded ad infinitum. It will support the thousands of voice lines I have planned to include. Eventually pawns will have conversations between each other, and voice lines will be pulled for those conversations. When this happens, the game will be very lively.[/p][p]Also, I finally had an excuse to get the pitch modulation for pawns done. So now, pawns in addition to have masculine and feminine voices, can now modify that pitch. I'll add a section to exit this on the character customization screens sometime in the future.[/p][p]---[/p][p]This next work week will be dedicated to preparing the new demo for public testing.[/p][p]This new demo will then have weekly builds adding new content.[/p][p]The playtesting team will then have access to the full game under NDA. If you want to join the playtesting team, you can do so on our discord server linked at the top of this post.[/p][p]Therefore, there is only one task this week.[/p][p]- Prepare the demo for public playtesting. (priority task)[/p][p]The next devlog will basically be a long patch notes. See you then.[/p]