Realm of Darkness - Refactoring Edition

Hello! It's time again for an infrequent update about the game I've been working on.

This week has been pretty rough because I've needed to completely rework how the UI is going to operate. I wasn't at all satisfied with where it was at, and I'm much happier with it now.

That of course means there hasn't been a lot of content implemented, but the content that is there is looking much better.

I've recently played 'Degrees of Lewdity' and recognized superior design when I saw it. If you want to check out that game, it's located here: https://vrelnir.blogspot.com/

There are some fun and interesting transformations in that game, but in my mind they suffer because they're not true physical transformations. And while you can turn yourself into a cow and get milked, there's no real consequence or bad end for doing so. I would much rather have a hard end condition where you can indeed fail, and fail badly - because that's where the fun writing is!

Still, it's worth a look if you have some spare time.

Here are some relevant examples of UI design ideas I've borrowed from that game:

'Degrees of Lewdity' allows you to select options using keyboard shortcuts. This makes it a ton easier to navigate (and to debug). Using code from the below link, I've implemented this in all existing passages of the game (that took quite a while, the game is starting to grow).

https://www.reddit.com/r/twinegames/comments/5t73zc/keyboard_driven_twining_tutorial/

Better to get that done now rather than later, I suppose.

I have changed the sidebar to display your current state. This used to be in a menu window, but I realized part of the fun is seeing your body slowly succumb to the strange transformations of this world you're in, so now this sidebar dynamically updates during your adventures.

Adventure stats are TBD and will go in the side bar when I've figured out what they should be. While you are trapped in a dungeon, there will be different stats that apply. For example, you might have to deal with an 'intelligence' and 'obedience' stat while trapped in 'The Farm,' which will affect possible bad ends.

The side bar menu items now open in a window instead of taking over the passage display. This allows me to show inventory and other stats while keeping you in the same context of wherever you are in the story, which simplifies story flow tremendously. The inventory screen is not finalized - lots more changes are likely to come!

I have added an achievements menu which shows you what you've managed to achieve in the game so far. This state will persist across runs of the game on the same browser (using the local browser store). This should act as a guide to let you know what content you've seen, and what you're missing. Yes, I will be adding some bad ends that will be quite difficult to find. A bit of a treasure hunt, as it were.

With these changes in place, I'm finally ready to start working on some new content. Yesterday I spent time brainstorming three major dungeons:

1. The Farm - If you are unlucky enough to find yourself here, you'll slowly become more like an animal. The current possible paths will include male and female cows, horses (ponygirls, yes!), and pigs. I'm open for other ideas, but I need to keep the list short for now so that I can get something implemented.
2. The Cathedral of Domaya - If you join the church, you will partake in Her milk and help her to bring others into communion with her. The church is harboring darker secrets which you will get a chance to explore.
3. The Research Lab - Run by a literal computer, the lab is building a Hive of Drones to take over World's end. If you're not careful, you will end up a mindless Drone. The Hive is exploring ways to generate high end milk from its Drones. There might be a way to incur dissension in the ranks if you play your cards right.

Yes, there's lots of milking that's going to happen, and competition between the different dungeons. I wasn't initially planning that, but it's going to work out that way. It sounds like fun to me!

I have a few other dungeons on my list, but they're not fleshed out yet:

• The Bee Hive
• Dominatrix Dungeon

Eventually I'd like to to tie this all together by making a 'good' end for the story... and if you succeed in the dungeons, you ought to be able to unlock a management game to make good your gains. And I'd like to implement a simple sexual fighting system. And transformation items. And flesh out the town. And program in paths for the different hypnotic outcomes you will experience.

As you can see, there's plenty to work on. I'm hoping to be able to put out an initial version of the game by the end of this year, but no promises!