This week work simply continues on a variety of topics.

And one big change: For now we probably will switch to roughly monthly updates instead of weekly because there is so much work yet to be done in the background of our framework and custom engine that I fear that weekly updates will simply feel to irrelevant. Be assured this does not mean that work slows down… it just gets more focussed on things that matter.

As soon as I feel that update posts get too long and extensive we’ll again return to a somewhat shorter time frame between updates.

Started mouse integration

So far the game has been mostly usable via keyboard only (except for tooltips). I have started the work to extend my framework so that mouse clicks can be used everywhere. Contrary to my initial estimate it takes far more effort to extend my framework with this feature than I had expected. Therefore this story will continue for a while as I add more and more mouse support.

Sadly some early architectural decisions that worked splendidly with a keyboard-only game now return to bite me and I yet have to find smart ways to get the ensuing trouble under control. But eventually Realms of Ancardia hopefully will be completely and easily playable by mouse. Stay tuned!

Color scheme improvements

We have changed the color scheme to feel a bit more consistent and darker.

Before:

After:

(yeah, my bad – I forgot to take a “before” image and thus had to use an older screenshot that also lacks the border lines – sorry for that)

Entering settlements

Work on this feature continues. Still not completed but evolving and lots of general framework features come out of this that will speed up the process a lot for other encounters in the game:

Miscellaneous minor changes and additions

  • Tooltips now show up after a short delay. This feels a lot more natural. Also delays can be individualized per tooltip type (e.g. button explanations might show up after 500-1.000ms while map tooltips explaining map features already show up after 300ms).
  • Internal color handling has been refactored. The number of color definitions we used started getting out of hand. About 50% have been scrapped and the naming now is a lot more consistent. This is somewhat important to (some) players because it is possible to change the color scheme(s) by modifying an external configuration file.

Total size of the codebase after this week

  • 39,595 LOC in 655 files for the actual Realms of Ancardia game
  • 28,656 LOC in 460 files in my own underlying TBRLAPI framework library supporting my most recent roguelike games
  • plus extra external configuration files, images, tilemaps, audio files, etc.

The running total is available here.

State of our internal ticket system

We use YouTrack to manage ideas and bugs that pop up. The listings are by no means complete – it’s more of a “don’t eventually forget to fix this bug / add that amazing feature” pipeline that gives a little structure to our development process without turning it into a managed project 😉

  • 161 open issues in total
  • 63 closed issues in total