Monday Meeting: Blog Revamp

So, after returning from a couple days on the mainland thinking about other things for a while, I had an idea about changing some things on the blog!

First, it seems like a lot of you enjoy the posts where I talk a bit more in depth on our design decisions and what we're currently working on, so I thought I'd make every Monday a "Monday Meeting" post. We don't really have meetings every week, but we do often end up having a bunch of design talks and so I thought it'd be interesting to go over our latest design changes and decisions in a weekly post.

This would also serve as a kind of "update" or summary on what we're doing right now and what will be done in the very near future. Sounds good?

Next, I know you all wanna see more stuff Teddy and Fred are doing, so I'm thinking every Friday should be "Fred's Friday", where I'll post a bunch of the animations he's been working on and explaining what they are for. If Fred feels like it, he can write some stuff about it himself, or do step-by-steps or whatever he'd come up with.

I'll also try to include more of the stuff Fred and Teddy are working on in the posts in between, which means they should become a bit meatier. I'm also thinking that instead of saving up a bunch of small things for "Mixed Bag" posts, I'll just mash them into the regular posts, meaning posts will more often cover more than one subject!

---------------------

Without further ado, let's talk about what we're currently working on: Housing!

Our basic prototype is more or less done: the items that have been made so far have all been implemented, and most of the ones that will move in some way have their proper animations. Teddy is currently working on two things, the light settings (which are coming along rather nicely so far), and the rather complicated systems behind being able to add more rooms and change the layout of your house.

You see, previously we decided that you'd be able to select between a bunch of pre-designed layouts for your house, which could be unlocked at the proper salesman or through your housing menu (not fully decided). As our conversation went on, though, we started thinking it'd be really cool if you could design your house however you wanted, adding new rooms and change their sizes freely.

Before we fully commit to that can of worms, our current goal is to upload what we have to Frontline (once it's been polished a little bit more) and let you guys try it out. We're still a little torn between having pre-designed layouts or having you design the house more freely, as the latter definitely would add a ton more work and I'm sure most of you would like to see the game finished sooner rather than later.

So for now, we'll upload what we have: a single layout, and the current housing items. The shop and house will be placeholder, with more finalized look for each of them coming later on, as we'll use the Arcadia redesign versions as a base for the story mode versions after they're finished.

With your feedback we hope to be able to gauge how much more work (and polish!) will be needed before the housing system can truly be complete, and as such will give us a better idea of which of our options to pick.

There's also a third option here, where if people are satisfied with the basic version of the house, we might just stay off multiple layouts altogether as that would save a lot of time and would mean we could add the proper housing system much sooner. Anyway, your feedback will decide! Stay tuned for that :)

-----

The rest of the week I've planned to take a look at some much-needed Housing icons that illustrate what tool you're currently using, some more Tai Ming Arcade stuff (a variety of walls!) and another portrait. See you tomorrow! :)