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I was bored so I wrote up lyrics to my game's theme song:

Yay, I have actually been doing stuff related to my game for once! For example. made a basic sprite for a character I have been thinking about adding to my game for a while. I present to you, "The Azure Demon": She's the owner of one of the dungeon areas in my game, a mansion near a misty lake I called "The Azure Demon Mansion". I know, I know, a color themed 'evil creature' girl who owns a mansion, never been done before! She also has an army of ninja maids! 'Original character do not steal'. Maybe I should populate the mansion with more wholly original characters! Like a lazy gatekeeper, a sickly librarian with a cute imp assistant, a head maid that can stop time, and a sister she keeps locked away in the basement because she's too wild. Woah there maybe I should spread some of that originality around a bit! Thinking of having her actual name be something like Lapidea Lazul Lājevard. ... Though I could imagine her fairy name being Lazzy Lass Glasgeamchloch if she was a fairy. Personally I think that name is muuuuch cooler. Maybe I will use that as a pet name! Think it would annoy her? Edit: Oh! Almost forgot to say what her roll in my game is! Looking like she is going to be the second major boss in my game, and probably going to be the leading character in what I have called before the 'demon subplot'. She's also cute as a button. That's a very important plot point that needs to be addressed up front. So be warned, I intend to make this demon super duper cute.

As I said in a status update, today I added a second actor who was intended for puzzles and special dungeons. I wanted to talk a bit more about my ideas behind them and how they will work, but didn't want to ramble on my status for 50 pages like I often end up doing so... Hey, I haven't made a blog post thing in a while, here is a good excuse to! I have said before, but Dwimmerdelve is based a lot on the Mystery Dungeon series of Japanese roguelikes or other games in the same style. While I do plan to do my own little twists on the formula, I want to implement as many features from the series as I can. I think at this point most of the basic stuff has already been done, but I still have a ways to go. Anyway, a common feature of the series is to have a little puzzle/tutorial mode with hand designed puzzle maps, and special dungeons that the player basically need to complete from a fresh character (if the whole game isn't that way already). Both require the ability to "reset" the character. Now originally I had the game do this anyway after every death anyway except for any items the player kept in storage, which is the way Shiren the Wanderer handles things. But I decided that although all your carried items should still be lost and all the player's progress toward your next level, it was better to allow the player to keep their current level and skills and make level 1 challenge modes/dungeons for those who want a more classic hardcore experience. So I needed to think about how best to let the player keep their progress mostly safe even if their character is reset. I found it the easiest (for now anyway) to just have a second actor who more or less is an identical copy of the first who's status can be discarded and reset at the start of a run. I did come up with a kind of neat idea for how that would work in lore actually. I decided to make puzzles and such take place in a special dream world under my control, hence why the player can't bring anything and the player's character reverts to their 'natural' state. It's not really their body, but a 'dream pawn'. As a bonus it also gave me a more direct way to play with the player! After all, I abducted them to play, but I mostly ended up standing around in my house in game not doing much. Not anymore! Now I can play in their dreams! Even added a little cutscene that shows me casting a sleepy spell on them, and they wake up in bed after. That also gave me idea of calling the special level 1 dungeons "Nightmare Dungeons". I haven't made any yet, though I have a bunch of old bonus dungeon maps I made ages ago before I really started working on my game properly that might make some good ones. One of them was eventually changed into a normal dungeon, but some of them are a bit too weird to really fit in anywhere. Such as one being a sort of half lava cave half swamp and another being a sort of bathhouse with elevated walkways. Not sure if I should go with my original idea for them though. The way I designed them originally was they were all parts of one big dungeon, and one of the dungeon maps was a kind of 'hub' map with like 5 different exit teleporter places of different colors, each which would take you to a different map next floor, which would have an exit back to the hub. Each map had a completely different look and feel, but one thing they all shared was wrapping borders which could be disorienting unless you were looking at the minimap (wonder if I could make the minimap kinda scroll centered around the player and wrap around too, but eh, maybe later). Anyway, still have lots to do before i quite have everything working the way I want it too, but the basic idea seems to work pretty well!

Since I have become a bit more serious about making an actual game I might as well explain a bit about what I intend to do with it. So, here are my current plans about what I am doing. First what I have already done: I have a pretty okay random dungeon generator script and several existing dungeon 'themes' which all look a fair bit distinct and decorative. I have a basic roguelike combat system in place. The kinks need to be worked out, but it works. For a one actor party anyway. I have a inventory system with features such as equipment enchantment and roguelike style item identification. A fair bit of different monsters, skills, and items. Here is some stuff I am going to need to do: Right now the only thing the player can really do is roguelike-style bump attacks. I need to redesign the menus/interface to allow for skills and items to be selected and targeted. Monsters chose skills from an enemy moves list, but I may need to think more about how I choose skills and how range works. Perhaps I should use visible projectiles even? Rebalance the hell out of everything. Here is some stuff I may or may not do: Add support for multiple party members. I have been trying to write stuff in a manner so this is possible, but I may need to totally rewrite how I handle inputs if I want to allow the ability to take full control of the party (which if I am adding party members at all, I absolutely do). You might notice I haven't mentioned much about the story/setting yet. Partly because I want to get the full gameplay system worked out before I bother that much, but also party because I am still not sure about some of the details yet. That it will be heavily based on lots of the things I have said about fairies over the years here is not in question. The setting will definitely be fairyland... or a fairyland anyway. Perhaps more then one. The simplest basic plot outline I have in mind probobly is that the player character is a human who was abducted by fairies and perhaps transformed into a fairy. I might want to allow the player to create a character, but that might be tricky to do in way I am happy with. If I can get one of those visual equip script things working, perhaps I will use that to let you choose what the player looks like. Perhaps I could even have transformations and stuff. It might be fun to make it a bit like Corruption of Champions actually. <3 I mean not necessarily the naughty stuff (though I would be tempted), but the way items can change your body parts. And hey, mutation is a thing in some roguelikes anyway. But it would probobly be a lot easier if I just used a set character, at least for now. Right now the one delving in those dwimmery dungeons is me! Kayzee the fairy! Hehe... I am not sure I want to be the main character though. I think if I show up I am much more suited to be a sort of trickster mentor who helps guide the main character. Though I could also tell my own story, it might be interesting to tell how I became a fairy in the first place, if a bit embarrassing.