I made a new project... again.

I HATE the way the map works in both of the old Outcasts projects. It is the absolute worst, and the maps themselves could use an upgrade.

How did the old system work?

Well, the game didn't actually use tiles. I painstakingly made the rooms in Pix2D by copy/pasting the tiles where I wanted them.

I then imported them to Scratch, scripted the player to collide with them (collisions are way better now, by the way), and made a MASSIVE string of IF statements deciding which directions the player can go.

In the first project, every room had its own broadcast that determined where everything would go, and IT WAS A NIGHTMARE.

Fortunately, I can just Mario Maker the game now.

The game now has a full tilemap system (the same one used in LittleGame and Kyomu Kara, curtesy of Griffpatch), allowing for a bigger, better map, which in turn will allow the game more playtime, objectives, etc. and to draw the story out a little more.

I'm still working out some of the kinks in the new system (I had to record the above footage twice because I captured a glitch I don't yet know how to fix), but this will be much better for the game as well as my sanity.

The maps will no longer be divided into rooms, but will instead be full areas you roam freely, meaning I'll probably make new backdrops as well now that the others are way too small for the space I'm working with.

The battle engine has been plugged into the new project, and once the map is done, all I'll need to do is the events and cutscenes.

I know this probably doesn't seem super promising, but trust me. This is an excellent step in development.

Later!