Final Eclipse Updates - 2022/11/21

So after a bit of a hiatus from this game during which time I made some progress on my other projects (Notably finishing up with Winter), I have started working on Final Eclipse again! In the past few weeks I have converted the game fully to widescreen instead of the 320x240 mode it was using originally. This gave room for more UI elements. Inventory was able to be expanded by 1 column, equipment is now at the top left with new slots for head and feet, and at the bottom right I was able to use the space as a multipurpose area, for movement buttons, door keypads, and for additional “inventory” areas for crates which you can loot, as seen here:

The map has also moved to the bottom left. As for the map area that used to be in the bottom, I may repurpose it to be a more general “wireframe” area map of whatever deck you are on, but this hasn’t yet been decided. Of course that area is still used for log entries/objectives and stats as well. As a quality of life feature, you can also use the mousewheel when reading logs now!

There are still a couple features that need to be re-added to the pygame port, such as the air pressure system for hull breaches, and the “smooth” movement which transitions when walking between squares of the map. This will be an optional feature since not everyone prefers that look, though it does make more clear especially in videos which way the player is moving. Long term, one big feature to still add is saving and loading, which is a bit more complex than just saving player stats because the world is not static. But I have a few ideas on how to handle that.

All in all, it is already starting to feel less like a tech demo and more like an actual game. Soon enough I am hoping to get into the content creation phase and add some actual levels, more equipment/items to find, enemies to battle, and even some story surprises! I have always been a bit sporadic with making updates here, but I will try to be a bit more consistent going forward. As well, I have started posting on Mastodon since who knows what is going to happen with Twitter. Feel free to follow me there at https://mastodon.gamedev.place/@Hatchet

I should probably get my Youtube channel updated too with a bit of a summary video of how the game plays.. we’ll see!