So I've been working on this game since last November, and I recently took a short break from it to participate in some game jams. Jumping back in, I've been taking stock of the state of things and figured it'd be a good time to post it all in one place! 

Tentatively titled "Daydream Skies" It's an RPG with grid-based combat that follows a girl named Trixie and she tries to save her brother from AIR PIRATES! 

Up front, my main focus was getting the combat to a place where it worked relatively well. It's very simple right now (hit and take damage) but the placement mechanics seems to be functioning well. I can even program different movement AIs for the enemies!

(Some more player feedback like animations are definitely the next step for combat!)

Once I got the combat stable, I wanted to move into some overworld stuff. I worked on rough tilesets, camera stuff, and controls for what would likely be the first area you can explore.

After that, I wanted to get "cutscene" functions in place. I spent a lot of time on a dialog and cutscene engine that would let me call dialog, show portraits, and control a variety of elements on screen when the controls are locked.  SIDE NOTE if you want to use my cutscene scripts for your own project, I uploaded them for free here itch!)

So what's next? A LOT! I've got a hefty to do of taking all these rough elements, polishing them up, and sewing them together into something playable. My dream is to make a small playable demo and see where it goes from there! I'm making this in Gamemaker and beyond some extremely tiny games, I've not really programmed a "larger" game like this before. This is the longest solo project I've worked on! It's an evenings-and-weekends-and-I'm-teaching-myself-coding situation over here 💅

Watch this space!