August 2025 status update #3 (detailed progression report for my new game) (Patreon)

Time for an intermediate update! This post will elaborate what I did so far on my new game. Prepare for a long text.

Lighting:
The first thing I started working on was the lighting. PSS uses a certain type and I wanna build upon it in the new systen. Interestingly I was quickly done with it. Shadow casters will be a thing (it simply casts a shadow behind an object, depending on the position of the light). Will work nicely for static furnitures for example.

I also expermimented with NormalMaps (let's the light shine more realisticly on 2D sprites; making shadow areas even darker, for example). Again, I can use this for things like crates or trees, but I won't really use it on the characters. I will see.

Bugfixes/adjustments:
Next, I worked on a few features and bug fixes that I won't go into detail much. There was an animation bug where the MC can get stuck in the jump animation, for example. I wanna get rid of all this little, but important bugs right away.

And now the complex stuff started:

Pathfinding:
My plan was to sketch out the levels, especially the first one. But before I did that I figured that I have to experiment with enemy movement some more. Since my next game will be a platformer, enemy behaviour is an important part to figure out before designing levels. The question was: What is generally possible for the enemy?
And that means:

Pathfinding.

I worked on that in the past (not my favourite kind of work). Back then I built the same system as in PSS, using A* pathfinding. There were problems though with the enemy following the MC after she jumped to a higher surface. I needed to get something good to create all kinds of cool behaviours, so I bought a really expensive pathfinding tool. After a frustrating time I figured out (and the dev confirmed) that it was not suitable for platform games. I won't ask for a refund though, cause it still can work with flying enemies, right? And maybe I need it in the future. At some point we wanna play Potion Shop Schwesterherz IX 3D: Resurrection, right? And since this tool is the best out there currently, it will get support over the following years.

Luckily, I also saved another asset in my favourites, which was perfekt for platformers (and not as expensive). Playing around with it gave me great inspiration of all the cool enemies I can create with it. And it even makes things for the MC possible. Like I'm pretty sure the MC needs to be able to climb ledges; and maybe even crawl in tiny spaces?

In any case, I need to check the pixel size of the tileset that is needed to build a level. I might need to make it smaller. The one for PSS is currently 200x200 and my new game uses the same. But I at least wanna try if the heigth and jumps of the character are better if the platforms can be placed more precise in the levels.

New information about my next game:
Speaking of platforms, the new game is definitely considered a sidescroller/platformer, but the platform part is still kept to a minimum. It's not like the MC can jump 100 feet through the air. The action will be the important part (not talking about the lewd action; well, this will always play a big role :))
Btw. the pixel artstyle will be the same. Technically I could replace the MC with Sonja 1:1 and it would work with the environment.

Continuing work for a little more:
I wanna implement that climb animation (and code). And I need to check how everything works out if the tileset is smaller, as explained above. Then I should be good.

Everything I did so far for the new game, saved me at least 2 month's of work, after PSS is done. Looking at it makes me realize how much of the core mechanics I already implemented. I just need to build up on them.

And that's it! Not sure how you folks like those more detailed posts. I wanna show you that I'm working on things, even if PSS gets delayed for this reason. Feel free to ask me more about the new game :D

You will hear from me soon again, when I pick up work on PSS again.

I wish you a nice day!

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