Researching Herbs and Making Potions
Intro
So first off I decided to post these every two weeks instead of every week. I found that I was only halfway through the next feature when it was time to post a new update and decided it would be better to have a full feature shown off rather than half of one.
Researching Herbs
Speaking of the feature, the main feature that I designed and prototyped this week was the researching mini-game that the player interacts with everytime they discover a new herb. Contained within the player's house is a research station that the player uses to discover each herb's properties. Here they learn various things about the herb such as elemental properties and the ideal preperation method.
For the actual gameplay for this feature I struggled for a while trying to figure out what would be the best way to convey a "research" game. I knew that it had to have a few components:
- Mechanics must be relatively simple to understand since it's a section of the gameplay not all of it.
- Must be scaleable to be harder for rarer herbs.
- Needs to be a puzzle so players feel like they are researching.
For those unfamiliar, Masyu is a logic puzzle laid out on a grid with white and black dots ocupying a select few grid spaces. The goal is to connect all of the dots in a loop while obeying each colored dots' rules. For black dots, you need to turn as the line passes through it and for white dots you need to go straight through. Additionally, the spaces before and after the black dots have to be straight while for the white dots they need to turn.
Base Game
(Green == Start, Red == End)
Completed Game
I decided to change around the game slightly and remove the requirement for the before and after lines as well as the requirement for a loop. Each mini-game will differ based on the herb and will be hand crafted to said herb. Instead of a loop there will be a set amount of end points The difficulty of each puzzle will involve the placement/number of dots as well as the number of end points. The white and black dots are replaced with elemental runes corresponding to the elements contained in the herb. The player will need to connect all of the runes in one or more lines with the end of each line connecting to an end point.
This system would allow for the player to come up with their own solutions to each game as well as scale complexity as needed. While currently the mechanic is mainly functional, I am really happy with the puzzle mechanic as I feel like games similar to mine struggle to make progression harder within the later stages of the game.
Using the Cauldron and Making Postions
In addition, I worked on a bit on the cauldron component of potion making. I implemented three seperate devices that the player can use to increase or decrease certain attributes. These devices are a distiller, a mortar and pestle, and a smoker. Each herb can also be included into the cauldron as a raw ingredient to use it's base attributes. Currently I haven't implemented the herb attribute system so it only outputs the same potion no matter what.
(Red = Distiller, Orange = Mortar and Pestle, Blue = Smoker, Green = Make Potion, Purple = Cancel, Black = Cauldron)
Next Sprint: Art
For the next sprint I'm planning on figuring out more of the artstyle and attempting to create some of the assets. While I am not particuarly good at art, I have done some pixel art, like the character currently in the game, however I'm still not sure if I want to do a pixel art style for the game.
