Finished critical bug fixes and cleanup for technical playtest. Very strictly kept to only items that were breaking the game. It’s very difficult not to get into bigger changes.

Notable changes:

• Cleaned up bird output.
• Added support for full HTML transcript saving (was previously cut off because output queue trims items as they disappear off the top).
• Made it impossible to not have the rainbow sword.

Think it’s ready for a technical playtest. Just gotta let it go.

Busy day, small update.

Changes & Updates:

• Added verbiage for passages from hot springs: back to path and down to lair.

Changes & Updates:

• Altered bird behavior to more directly telegraph what the bird wants.
• Bird now returns to the feeder any time the player is there.
• Added aliases and tags to draw the player’s attention to the feeder.

Weekend goals:

• Clean up bird feeder segment of ice key puzzle.
• Give the player more guidance for their overall goal and steps along the way.
• Properly link lair to hot springs location (they’re invisibly linked right now).
• General bug fixing to get Prologue ready for playtesting.

This small round of playtesting is intended to be somewhat high-level. Is the game fun? Are the objectives clear? Are reasonable commands understood by the game?

Got through about 40.3% of my to-do list for the long weekend. Reasonably happy about that given the unexpected number of pre-existing bugs I ran into. The prologue is feeling a bit more polished, but still needs a lot of love. I have a few known items to clean up, after which the next step is to have a couple people playtest and give feedback. In particular, I want to get transcripts from a couple play sessions so I can see exactly what everyone tried to do (whether it worked or not) and where they got stuck.

Changes & Updates:

• Prettified quest outputs using box handler.
• Made player input stand out more.
• Fixed wyrmling onTick running twice (wasn’t checking System, wyrmling belongs to two).
• Fixed bug where certain queued outputs wouldn’t get displayed until the beginning of the next tick.
• Fixed “New Quest” output displaying before action output in some cases.
• Cleaned up chamber sequence and ending.
• Creepified black box entry.
• Added visibility support for objects in multiple locations.
• Improved key handling of action overrides on entities.
• Added temperature feedback for hot springs.
• Fixed internal rules with no output canceling other rules.
• Fixed chamber entrance sequence not working.
• Added prologue outro.
• Cleaned up some sequence timings.
• Improved handling of input area to make it more obvious when more text is incoming.

Pie day!

Changes & Updates:

• Significant refactoring of the NLP to use an action stack. Needed to preserve original action data when an implicit action is triggered.
• Got doors and locks working (mostly). Needs some visibility/accessibility work for the target location, since currently objects are only visible in their primary location.
• Added thermal system to support ice key quest. Prologue is officially playable end-to-end in its current state.
• Added list (array) support for ‘in location’ checks in rules.
• Fixed combat actions to use new Action object.
• Fixed open/close actions to use new Action object.

Changes & Updates:

• Added ‘put in’ command for containers.
• Fixed several inventory bugs related to containers and locations.
• Fixed being able to pick up objects you’re already holding.
• Fixed ‘drop’ conflict (dropping an object on the ground vs dropping it in a container).
• Wired up two riddles for the twins with success/failure states.

I have a 4-day weekend, and I want to make the most of it by using my extra days as “SRPG Work Days”. With that goal in mind, here’s my spoiler-filled to-do list:

• Wire up riddle solutions for the twins. The first riddle and options are in place, but the solution process isn’t finalized. Needs to give appropriate response and make 2nd riddle available.
• Place gate blocking access to the black box chamber. Getting through the gate is the final goal for the prologue. Need to finish ‘doors’ module for this, plus lock-and-key support.
• Hook up time button and resultant temporal paradox.
• Link up new locations and write descriptions for them.
• Build ‘devices’ module with generic support for items that can be manipulated (pressed, turned, etc). Needed for wheel on bridge.
• Dynamic rotation of the bridge wheel.
• Improve quest reward output. It’s really bland right now.
• Finish wiring up ice key puzzle mechanics. Needed to make gate accessible.
• Add interlude/transition from Black Box to Act I. Most likely some communication from the sword.
• (Low Priority) Work on basin puzzle. Optional usage during the prologue.