Shards of Suravani Devlog #2

This a general update for the next release, still TBD but maybe not too far out in the future. Most of it has been on the battle system, but there have been some bug fixes here and there.

Here's a video: https://streamable.com/vuzaex

We've got Self-targeted moves, such as the AP heal, Single target heals with an additional targeting window just so you're not healing the enemy by accident, although leaving in this functionality means maybe some enemies that are weak to heals can be hit.

We also got a basic AOE in Blaze. Right now the maximum is 3 battlers per side, but there's planned to be 6 player slots, and 9+ enemy slots, so maybe stronger, more positional-based moves could be down the line, although they're not particularly interesting when the enemies don't have freeform movement.

The big thing is status effects, which is anything that gives you a little icon under the battler: Defend, Invigorate, Bleed, Strengthen, and Poison so far. Defend isn't normally considered a status effect, but I'm including in the umbrella of anything that modifies the character outside of their action phase. Also, some status effects, like Bleed and Poison, deal damage at the end of a turn, before the input commands phase of the next one starts.

Invigorate and Strengthen increase VIT and STR by 25%, respectively. I'm not sure how debuffs will work, if they'll erase the buff or just apply both at once, but we'll see. I'm a big fan of Shin Megami Tensei and hitting enemy status weaknesses, so down the line there's a Resistances system which will affect whether a particular enemy can be hit by a status effect or not. I haven't introduced the concept of enemy 'phases' and changing vulnerabilities/movesets based on phase, but that could be explored later too.

I painted the dungeon as well. I'm not experienced with this stuff, and after showing it to some people, I realize that the wall heights aren't consistent, but I think it's ok for a first try.

I'm trying to narrow down the scope of the next release so it's something I can finish in a reasonable amount of time. Maybe some new enemies that use the new abilities, existing enemies using new abilities, reworking the menu a bit so that the rune selection is a bit better, maybe adding a puzzle or two. 

The scope of this first-timer project is getting a little too big, so I'm not sure how to proceed. I feel like there's nothing wrong with working on it bit by bit, but I shouldn't let myself be hamstrung by it. I have some side project ideas, and maybe a fresh perspective would help. When it comes to these prototypes, the more you do on it, the less you have to show. I feel like each release should be 'big' to justify me sharing it, but the definition of a big release keeps getting bigger itself, due to the percentage of new stuff compared to old stuff. Like here, I think the status effects represent a lot of progress, but it only changes some things in battle, whereas everything else is the same. Not sure how to handle the cutoff for a release going forward. I guess it should be 'what do I want to see feedback for?' Which might mean a big release, or a small one.

I think I've actually found some BGM/SFX to replace the licensed stuff, as well, but if any 16/32-bit era sound engineers got an ideas, hit me up. The sounds I have present (Chrono Trigger) give a pretty good feel for what I'm going for.

No idea when I'll ever get to this stuff, but here are some things I still have in the backlog:

Stat growth rates. Equipment. Rune evolutions. Items. AUTO command in battle. HELP mouse-over that gives some info about interactable areas. More status effects. Fixes for technical issues. Puzzles. Combos. A dog party member. A dragon party member. Various changes to the War Battles section. Settings menu. Save/Load.