Amber development

[jack1974]

I've started slowly to fill all the locations with things to do. The added difficulty is also that some activities will be available only in young age, and others only in adult age. Studying for example will be a way to increase the crafting skills faster in the early stages by studying. There's a fixed cap for each skill though, so you can't advance to skill 100 just by studying!

[Troyen]

Obviously she needs to invest more into "Cancel".

[jack1974]

Well I can put "Go Back" if sounds better?
I need to have a button to go back/cancel since the various options will be eliminated as she advances in the various skills, and if all are gone, Ren'Py will crash

[Anima_]

Maybe use 'Later','Not now' or 'I'm done''?

[jack1974]

I'll try with "Maybe Later"

[Troyen]

I was joking, not really nitpicking. (Unless you want to make the button a different color so it's distinct from the skills, but I think most people would understand it anyway. Right?)

[jack1974]

Yes I think people will understand that
Now, some more screenshots:

getting a new task, in this case from Haros. During the young age he'll be obviously the one who gives most tasks to you, in adult age you can get them from various people/places.

and this is the "tasks screen", basically a list of active tasks (imagine it like a quest screen).
I asked Anima to make the "quest completed screen" since there needs to be a way for Amber to go in place X and, if the requirements are meet, complete the task. A function to check Amber's inventory and see if there are enough quantity/quality of item XYZ, and in this case allow the completion.
Note that we would just check the values - so if Amber found the requested items for sale in a market, she could cheat. I think this is fine: after all if someone asks you "bring me 3 healing potions" he doesn't care if you made them or not

Rewards will include money (obviously), reputation (which will allow you to access higher tier of recipes book to purchase and other "bonuses") and in some cases maybe also recipe books or box/bags of random ingredients. A feature already implemented, you can get those "container items" that contains various items once unpacked. Sort of gambling but I'm sure people could find it fun

[Troyen]

Hmm, is there a way to add a separator on the tasks screen? Like a horizontal line at the least?

[jack1974]

Yes that's just temporary GUI. I want also to display the item icons on the left. I'm just coding things fast to test, so that the game can be out in a reasonable amount of time

[jack1974]

Also, this year I'm taking things easier since I had some small health issues related to stress after the marathon of past year so I'm taking more breaks. I will still be the fastest indie around though For now I set my Amber beta release towards end of month. Bad bad timing, I know, but... c'est la vie
However if you want to "secure your copy"... http://winterwolves.com/ambersmagicshop.htm (link not public but you can see screenshots, previews and preorder).