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Aug 02, 2024 02:12 pm
Android Version And Progress On Penny's Update
Good afternoon,
the new month just started and I want to give you a review on what I did over the past days.
As mentioned in my last report, I continued work on the Android version of the game this week. I added an extra plugin for the overlay, which is similar to a gamepad. Originally my idea was to have both touch and pad controls active side by side. similar to the pc where you can play with both the mouse and the arrow keys/wasd. But after testing the whole thing on the smartphone, I realized that it doesn't work that way. The game then sees clicks on the gamepad as clicks on the map, causing the character to run wildly through the area when you want to use the pad. For this reason, I added a toggle function that makes it possible to activate either one or the other control.
So far so good, but the real problem with the android version was the porting of the game into an .apk file (the one that you download to your phone, click and bam you have the playable app). This process is partly documented in some forums, but it requires some outdated scripts, which don't work together if you don't use the right version. In the end this meant a lot of try and error for me. So it took until Wednesday evening until I actually had a working version on my smartphone.
And even if I think the controls on the smartphone are rather wanky and I would always prefer the pc version, I know that some people don't have a pc. So for them (who find the maldives emulator too complicated to use) there is finally a version of the game that they can play.
However, I have not carried out any in-depth tests. I just didn't have enough time this week. I also don't plan to edit all game messages like "you can press key M to open the map". However I plan to update the android version now with every update and if it doesn't mean too much work I will most likely optimize it a bit in the future. But the main focus will remain to work and release the game for the PC, so don't expect of me that I will go full android optimization mode!
I originally wanted to release the android version together with the next update of the game, however since I now uploaded a testversion anyway I might as well give you all access to it to get some more feedback. Please still keep in mind what I said in the paragraph above.
Now back to Penny's update:
I continued working on that yesterday morning and I began with working on some 3d rooms for new scenes as well as some sprites that were still missing. Today I than also worked on the dialog with Giron about Penny's options to get more income.
I don't want to spoil my ideas for the story just yet, which is why I'm keeping it a little vague, but it will have to do with the new map that I made to the SE of Arenfield. I also plan to enable hiering workers from the Coldstone family that will then work on the field for you. Another thing that I want to add is Giron actually collecting taxes from Penny regularly which will result in regular visits from Dave at Penny's house. Depending on route you can then deal with this problem.
And yeah there is of course the Penny lake scene (That I teased last month) which I also want to work on this month and some interaction with the Coldstone family.
So a lot to do this month. I hope by the end of it Penny's update will be complete.
For now I'll continue working a little bit longer before it's finally weekend.
With that I wish you all a nice weekend!
