[DEVLOG] Week 4

Current Goal 

Working on recreating a similar experience to the classic "a dark room" game, with personal TWIST's and stuff...

Newest Progress 

Added a sneak peak of the Cat NPC character...

Added multiple save file's support... 

Can load, delete and rename the slots. 

Each stores game-data and meta-data.

Also, some style decisions... removed outline from non-buttons (left is new, right is old):

Next Week ?

• Close the resources game loop? (Have a final goal towards which all resources are building up to?)
• The beginning of the Cat NPC story questline ?

THIS WEEK BY DAY:

MONDAY - bug fixing the previous week, minor refactors and improvements

• fix firepit and house timers not starting after reloading save file
• fix null exception on loading "spent_" prefix resources 
• fix on_hover for mobile web players (add on_click since there is no hover in this case)
• fix pivot on buttons
• fix tween components (properly stop and dispose of tween when starting animation multiple consecutive times in a row)
• refactor unlock controller for changing resources
• refactor tabs to allow more control over any one individual tab
• add unlock tween to tabs
• add "+1 population" (label effect particle) on house button when it generates a new peasant
• center label inside margin container (label effect particle)
• remove outline from population worker role panels (only keep outline around actual buttons, i.e + and - buttons)
  

TUESDAY - support multiple save files DESIGN and UI

• added save file metadata (version, playtime, created timestamp, updated timestamp)
• added version label to settings ui
• design save file picker ui

WENSDAY - support multiple save files IMPLEMENTATION

• refactor SaveFile to use enums (create support converter for old save files)
• re-refactor SaveFile to NOT use enums (tried it, did not like how it looks and feels inside the Godot script)
• refactor SaveFile node to support multiple save files
• make main scene the save file picker scene, which then opens the previous main scene
• implement save file picker ui: display save files with metadata info and load/delete buttons
• implement save file picker logic: load, delete, new
• when saving new file name duplicate, increment file name suffix
• when starting game for the first time, skip save file selection screen
• new save file name and rename: input text field on mouse hover
• create string utils to sanitize file name and metadata name

THRUSTDAY - support multiple save files FINISHING TOUCHES

• move disable scrollbars method to scroll container utils
• create date time utils to format display of play time and last played timestamp
  
• save timezone to metadata
• sort save files by last time played
• show last time played in save file ui
• hide game version metadata in save file ui
• allow save file rename
• fix save file bugs: rename overwritten by preloaded save data, sanitize renamed text, corruption by not closing file access
• add save file "signature" to prevent unexpected corruption (sometimes end of file gets appended random junk, "signature" allows to detect it and remove it)
• fix corruption (properly close files)

FRIDAY - minor improvements

• set save file picker theme to most recently played save file's theme setting
• re-calculate efficiencies on save load
• on not enough resources event, show not yet obtained resources too

SATURDAY - refactor rest day

• refactor and organize the source code for readability and maintainability

SUNDAY - relax and pet the cat

• npc cat introduction

Long-Term Goal 

I have a dream to make the best game ever or die trying.

I will post a weekly update while trying to work on this project every day.

The game genre and everything else is subject to change.