Week 6 of Lunar Pioneer was a bit slower than previous weeks. I’ve been working on real-world jobs this week, keeping the day job running smoothly. Over the weekend I took part in the Game Makers Toolkit Game Jam, my first ever game jam. The result of that was my first ever released game, DrillBit! You can play DrillBit in your browser now for free https://tommusrhodus.itch.io/drillbit

Week 7 is likely to be a slow one too, as I am away for half of the week, really looking forward to week 8 and getting back up to speed with Lunar Pioneer.

Portraits and cutscenes

One thing that I did complete in week 6 for Lunar Pioneer was a portrait system for the dialogue boxes. I also added a bunch of portraits, and also a basic cutscene system. The cutscene system simply switches the displayed portrait, but it works, conversations feel more real now.

Saving and loading!

Thanks to the marvellous Shaun Spalding I now have a full saving and loading system in Lunar Pioneer, and the system works on JSON. I have been wondering how to tackle this for a while now until watching a short and simple video produced by Shaun, I knew that the JSON method was right for Lunar Pioneer. It’s a markup format I’m already familiar and happy with. Implementing was rather simple, within around 2 hours I had a full saving system that triggers each time the player sleeps, and a loading system with 4 different save slots.

Text input

The player finally has a name! When starting a new game there’s now a text input system that was created by hijacking the inventory system. Apart from some time spent getting the art correct, the system came together really quickly. I’ll be using this same system to name ranch animals when I get around to putting that system together.

Weekly Changelog

• Added basic cutscene system (portrait switching)
• Added local Builder sprite
• Added Builder portrait
• Added text input screen for player name
• Basic Saving and loading added – more work needed
• Game load screen with 4 save slots added
• Saving system tied to day change event.
• Loading system improved and functional.
• Added name check when creating a new character to ensure that existing characters are not overwritten.
• Using boost in the combat area allows you to dodge damage – allows for a decent escape mechanic
• Using boost costs Oxygen, this will likely need balancing
• Crop growth, stage change, Oxygen reset, dust etc. Now happens on day end (save) rather than entering the farm on a new day. This means all random elements (dust) are correctly stored.