This is an ongoing dev blog for Rapala pre-releases. These posts also appear on itch.io for those who have beta access.

If you want beta access to help test and provide feedback, please sign up for the Kitty Lambda Freestarter email list and send me a message on Mastodon and I will send you an itch.io code. Thank you!

2023-02-11

A lot of things updated; I've been working in a focused way since the last update about a month ago, actually I can't quite believe it was only that far back! Summary:

• All art is now coming from the physicality system
• This produces more organic, harmonious, better-looking visuals and they can be creatively created in the Forget
• This also means I've deprecated some of the old wall types, so if you load a map and have no walls, that's why :( I'm sorry
• This includes the character art; your symbol (randomly determined) may change
• Movement is simplified
• Menus are page-able
• There are keys/doors
• You will have to create and experiment with these if you are curious
• Bunch of work on descriptions
• Some UI tidying-up
• Other things I'm forgetting

Recommended things to try:

• Enter your psyche and play around with doors/keys
• Create some wall types
• Again, you will have to experiment
• Use objects/blocks in your psyche to modify existing maps

My next goal will be to create a simple mini-game. I have the rough design for it on paper already. I tend to like concrete things, and this is a bit of an anvil for me to hammer out a variety of things that are maybe missing where it is difficult to see what are the biggest priorities.

In other words, I will implement features that move me towards a concrete implementation of a simple proof-of-concept game.

If you are interested in trying Rapala please sign up for the Kitty Lambda Freestarter email list and then send me a DM on mastodon. Thank you!

Calvin

2023-01-09

Looking back, the last update was over a year ago, October 2021. I guess that means 2022 was largely focused on Paradise Never for me, however the last few months of 2022 I did crunch away at Rapala and happily made good progress. 

Rapala is still not a game but is getting a cohesive visual style and the tooling for creating/editing worlds is coming together.

This is a fairly major update versus the prior version 0.9.0 but I honestly can't remember what has changed. The most recent additions center around editing blocks. The tutorial in the 0.9.0 blog post looks correct to me, but now you can create new blocks via the physicality editor in The Forget.

Defining blocks with the physicality editor is meant to feel intuitive, but it may not be clear exactly how edits you make to the physicality map to the generated blocks. This is by design. There are internal parameters and a fair amount of randomization designed to give an organic-looking final output while still giving the player creative control.

This build should actually have full compatibiliy with your existing maps/&c., but in general the project won't fully commit to that yet. 

Recommended actions if you try this out:

• Create a new map for both The Fountain Path and The Dream Crescent
• Try out the block editor in The Forget
• Edit some maps, create some things

Thanks for reading/playing, as always feedback is welcomed.

I'm not sure the next steps yet, but will continue working on Rapala for now as I like the momentum.

Calvin

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