Updates for this month:
- Asset Bundles
- Cats finally look unique!
- Updated book
- Use pop up
- New Sun Cluster art
- Updated “wood cutting” mechanic
- Tapping icons
- Different difficulties
- fixed animations
- Updated Dialogue
- Icons ❤🎵
- More then 2 speakers
- New bubbles
- See through walls
- Updated interactable objects
Asset Bundles – Breaking the game up into “smaller chunks” so that it can be uploaded to the Google Play Store
The Google Play store has an app size limit of 150MB. In order to upload an app larger then that, you must break the app up into asset bundles or packs. In June I want to start rolling our a larger Closed test, so I put a lot of the terrain models into bundles so that Misu would fit the size requirements. As the game gets bigger, I can work on optimizing both the game itself and the asset bundles so the files aren’t unnecessarily large. The game should not take up gigs on your phone!
Cats finally look unique!
Something I thought would be troublesome and take a lot of work, changing the cat models, ended up being super easy and took only a few minutes. Therefore, may I introduce a more appropriately looking Beans, Patches, Spots on White, and Louie!
Updated book – Clearer differentiation on inventory items that can be used as well as a “Use” pop-up and new Sun Cluster art
In Misu’s Book (main menu) inventory section, there is now a clearer distinction between items that can be used (tapped) and those that cannot, as well has a pop-up window that confirms the use of said item with a dynamic use message.
Since the maps and Sun Clusters have changed since I last created the Sun Cluster entries, they too, have been updated. I am testing a different art style, having the Sun Clusters look more hand drawn.
Updated “wood cutting” mechanic – Added an icon tapping version, a visual timer, difficulty can now be changed, and an animation bug was fixed
I added an icon tapping version of the “wood cutting” mechanic. Previously you just tapped anywhere on the left or right side of the screen (either as fast as you could or rhythmically). Fearing it might not be super clear what to do, I added a 3rd version, where instead you just tap the icons as they appear, similar to a rhythm game, except the icons don’t go away until you tap them. There is also now a displayed timer in the shape of a cat face.
Previously only the length of time of the tapping mini game was dynamically changeable, now the difficulty is as well. Not sure why I didn’t just do that before. And last, but not least, there was a bug with Misu’s swiping animation where occasionally she would just stop animating mid minigame. It made the versions of the mechanic without icons a lot less clear what what was happening (if it was working, not enough feedback). But now that has been resolved and Misu always swipes and with the appropriate arm when the minigame is being played.
Updated Dialogue – New dialogue form almost all characters, icons 
, dialogue can now have more then 2 speakers, new yelling bubble type
The dialogue in the game has been updated since it was last written to accommodate quest changes, additional characters, and more concise storytelling. Icons such as a heart and little music note can now show up in dialogue (using Text Mesh Pro). I have added a new bubble type for yelling. And most importantly, there can now be more then 2 speakers in a dialogue conversation (potentially ~unlimited~). Makes for much more interactable conversations and cute character dynamics.
See through walls
Although not final, the caves inside the Northern Mountains can be a bit small/claustrophobic so I thought it might help to be able to “see through” the walls, instead of have the camera collide with them and get pushed too close to the player in the already tight space. Although the function is not 100% refined, it’s good enough to test and see how it can be improved.
Updated interactable objects
Updated the somewhat janky system I had created for interacting with objects in the world to using the system that I had previously been unaware of that came with the animal controller I am using. Now world interactions are a lot cleaner and using a pre-existing system. Nothing flashy, but nice under the hood update.
**Models, animations, and images are not final**