[Starlight] system playable + demo roadmap (Patreon)

casually writes this post in notepad because patreon's text input is lagging for some reason...

so as of like an hour and a half ago, i can officially say that starlight's skeleton battle system is playable.
it's not good.
it's not complete.
but it is playable to the point that a player can win or lose a full battle now.

that point was pretty close since i got AI running before surgery... and afterwards once i started working on it again, it was easy to make AI attack too, rather than just move. the missing piece was letting the player defend from enemy attacks, but now we're in it. 

...frankly it probably could've gotten there two days ago but i spent most of my time over the past couple days cleaning up a variety of bugs that had come up during that last step (among some earlier ones)... and while it's not like we're bug free right now, we are a lot better off.

so, at this point i've allowed myself to stop considering the amount of work that still needs to be done on the system infinite, and i've got sort of a roadmap to finishing the system for the demo now.

before we get to that, let's talk about exactly what the demo is for, and what it's not for.

the main purpose of the demo is, first and foremost, to let everyone get a feel for the battle system. normally i wouldn't prioritze that as much, but since i don't know of any existing system quite like this one (that i can just point to and say 'its that kind of game'), i consider it important to be able to show it as cleanly as possible. the secondary purpose is to give a preview to the story and world. 

cass has mentioned it in a recent dev blog post already, but i am planning to get this demo out before finishing reborn. in most other cases, i'd really just rather focus on and finish the thing in progress first (and the temptation there is pretty high, trust)... however, i think it's very important that i have something concrete i can show both to you guys and the main community. for you all, it's so you know exactly what you can stick around for and expect after reborn and make a well-informed decision about whether or not you want to stay. for the community, it's to prove to everyone that the site does have a future, and it's not about to just die once the initial hype from reborn's final version wears off.

that said, i am also sensitive to the fact that some people, especially out there in the Wilderness, might not be super happy that reborn will take a little longer for the sake of a different game. because of that, i am also trying to keep a narrow scope and be exacting about what i am not going to do for starlight until after reborn is finished. for that reason, here are some things that will not be included in the starlight demo:

• battle prep
• exp gain and levelling systems
• class systems
• skill progression
• loot systems
• support systems

also of note, as i may have mentioned before: the demo chapter is not the start of the game. since we're not including progression systems etc anyway, there's nothing to be lost by not starting at the beginning. currently the demo chapter is what's looking like chapter 4, but that number is liable to change as i continue to refine the intro. i've chosen this one because i think it's a more effective teaser both story and battle-wise, and it'll better allow me to limit the number of assets that need to be created.

so, progress from the demo naturally will not carry over to the beginning of the game, once it is released (after reborn is finished)... but i will be sure to include a bonus in the main game's start for everyone who completes the demo.

so, with all of that established, let's talk about what does need to be done now instead.

the following is my working list of what core features need to be implemented into the system before the demo can be finished. it does not include minor things, polish, QoL features, etc... it also doesn't include anything for making the story or chapter scenario... just the Big Mommas™ for the battle system itself:

• Counter-attacks
• Parries
• Ranged Combat
• Critical Hits
• Unit Summary
• Win/Loss Conditions
• Item Usage
• Combat Arts
• Passive Skills

i'll save talking about those in detail for when i come up on each of them... and given that i made this list an hour ago it's certainly possible i've forgotten something, but while it may not be exhaustive, that's about the size of the checklist i'm looking at right now. i would like to say something encouraging and provide a reason why each of these things won't take too terribly long ... but currently i have no evidence to support that. so we're just going to have to do our collective bests here...

for tonight at least, i'll just appreciate having reached this milestone.