Hey folks!

First of all, I have had another game guru moment working on my dungeon. You see, that dungeon is planned to be at the middle chunk of the game and I felt that was a good place to prototype the general gameplay and make an alpha video of it. I'm not exactly surprised but...of course game guru decided that once the level had an increment of complexity to refuse to lightmap it. Now, I always appreciate input but let me just say that yes....I tried all tweaks to fix that, there is nothing wrong with the level, it just seems to be too large for the lightmapper to operate now. Its not really a biggie, as I fully intend to migrate this to GGX (if it holds up) eventually but its frustrating because I did indeed want to show that video later on. Oh well, I will have to pick another map to showcase then.

Entrance to the dining hall. You see the collapsed entry is quite well hidden here. All areas in the game should feel connected and natural. There isn't a clean cut between "outdoors" "city" and "dungeon" as it is with some other games. A dungeon might lead into a cave or out into a valley and then back into catacombs.

Anyway, on to a different topic: I have seen DenZeliks Neir lately and he has quite the inventory and store system whipped up. I am always amazed by what some of you can do in LUA and that makes me re think my own design choices. You see, Shavra originally based its store system off of Dvaders work. Meaning, you would get currency from activities,or finding jewels, valuables or coin. This would then be added to a sum completely disconnected from the inventory. But seeing that an inventory system can actually communicate with a store system made me scratch that idea in favour of this. No idea how to do it...but now I know it can be done. I'm always fond of the creativity in this community

This also gives me hope for that alchemy system I always wanted to make.

Other changes to the game are rather simple but add up. Foliage has been added, some props have also been created. Slowly making progress as I want to have a decent chunk to be somewhat ready when the GGX update hits. It then either works as intended or I convert everything to unity... we shall see.

A project like this is quite enjoyable to make but also demanding. For example, I have finally decided to make the climate of the swamps to be colder and more pseudo-european. Initially I had a more tropical feel in mind but didn't like the look of it.. All little things that need to be considered and that pile up. Also I have chosen to go with tribal and folkish drums and flutes rather than an orchestral track. easier to make/come by and gives it its own personality.

As always, thanks for checking in! Let me know what you think

***Changelog***

Improved and added to Sunken Temple and Dark Valley levels.
Added several wooden items and detail props
Added new foliage and improved existing foliage.
Added enter-able huts for villages
One new ambient music track.