Post GGJ #2

As the GGJ showcase for Portland Indie Game Squad (PIGSquad) -- our GGJ satellite host and local game dev community -- has been rapidly approaching, I tried my best to get this project to a more robust, possibly completed state; however, I still unfortunately fell short from actually implementing any meaningful gameplay.

In this updated build, practically all underlying systems necessary for me to begin coding actual gameplay have now been implemented, although some are in much more presentable states than others.

- The mushrooms now drain nutrients from the soil and will decay if not picked after a while. This was the big one: a major mechanic first discussed way back in the brainstorming stage; but visually it is quite rough as is and needs some aesthetic attention.

- The communication of desires continues to be improved and is now at least partially taken into account by the mushrooms refusing to be planted if the one they wish to avoid is within view.

- A stock limitation has been imposed on each mushroom type.

That last point was an idea that came to me while in the midst of coding the decay mechanic and thinking about ways in which to pressure the player as part of the soon to come gameplay. Roughly, my thoughts are: instead of utilizing a numeric score, the game play loop will be pushed forward by an increasing sense of urgency to rapidly plant and pick all mushroom types before too many rot away -- by being left for too long in the garden or even in the player's "hand" of stock to plant -- and while the speed pressure continually increases, the garden space will become increasingly juggled as the player will be required to pan around the view due to mushrooms refusing to plant within view of avoided types or atop unhealthy soil that is still healing itself. Ultimately, the game I see coming out of this will be more arcade endurance style -- try to play as long as possible -- rather than the high score style I first had in mind.

Hopefully, one more week, and we'll all see where this has got to... and if I had the right idea(s).

-Roh