Shuffle Me v0.3.6 - Dialogue and Cutscenes Introduction

Hey, it's Sifa :D

I thought it's going to take the whole month, but we managed to implement dialogue system in just one week, and it's even better than we expected :D

(as usual, download links are at the bottom)

Dialogue and Cutscenes

So, as I said the last time, I didn't like that all the narration happens like a book, with all these "You thought it's time to act" and similar stuff. I wanted the common dialogue system. So now we have it. Using the previous events, it seems it wasn't too hard to implement for our programmer Devoidex xD

As you can see, dialogue isn't always about the text. We also included choices into dialogue modules. Up to 3 choices. So branching will be more appealing now :D

The best thing though is that now we can initiate cut-scenes during the dialogue. And it looks very smooth in most of the cases. Like player character can react on the words during the conversation, or on the choices they make. It's very cool :D

Sure it's not very perfect yet. And for some events I use just the NPCs, as you have noticed from the screenshot above. But still, it creates so many opportunities in Campaign Builder, you can't imagine. We can use any characters, any events, combine it with the animations and dialogue. So after more cleaning up I'll start making the big campaign :D

For example, I haven't finished the whole introduction yet. The "quiz" part still uses the old choice modules. Will remake it by the next Friday. Also, sometimes NPC can flicker or disappear. This thing might require even more work than the Cutscene modules themselves, because it has to do with how we load & unload most events in the game...

Plans and What's Next

So, as I said, going to finish reworking the intro, use dialogue and cutscenes everywhere.

Then, maaaaybe will adjust the campaign too. I mean, not full rework, probably can just replace the old choice events with dialogue choices.

Then unique idles, haven't done them yet. The time has come.

And also it's time to add some more action cards to the game. It's been a while since the last time I added new cards, so I'm going to add some, likely with a focus on simple cards. Because again, I want new players to feel comfortable when starting playing the game, without being overwhelmed by the amount of different effects and stats.

And we'll think where we can add "acceptance" mechanics to shields, because shield now blocks some animations. It's a draft-quality mechanic, I haven't tested them at all, not even talking about nailing it.

And for the next week that's pretty much all. I don't think I'll have time for sound again... But we'll get there eventually xD

Shuffle Me v0.3.6 Introduction - Changelog:

• Campaign Builder

  • Added a new complex Cutscene module that allows triggering animations and written dialogue with choices (up to 3)

• Reworked most of the introduction in "Floors" campaign to use the new dialogues.

• Added a bunch of cutscenes into Introduction. Some are small reactions, some are bigger actions.

• Reworked shield mechanics

  • Shield now decays by half every turn

  • Action cards that give shield now give twice as much

  • Shield now also blocks many animations, replacing them with other animations

• Introduction is more complicated now, with more possibilities to lose. It's not a problem though, it just opens new horizons.

• Fixed possible softlock in early introduction fights at higher difficulties-- those enemy cards raise arousal now, so you can eventually lose if you have no damage output.

So try it guys and give us feedback, because we don't do much testing xD Also try hard difficulties so you'll be losing in introduction.