Esoteric Update #234 - What Is A Frame? A Miserable Pile Of Pixels!

Ok, so... we have a lot to get through since the last two weeks have been pretty busy around here. Especially considering I've not felt the best. We'll be skipping out on lore today, as I'm just struggling to stay awake anyway.

So going over things in no particular order, there are a few things I don't think really matter to show in any detail, so I'll just quickly go over them together. There were a number of layout problems that were identified and fixed over the last two weeks. This ranges from too many icons messing up text choices, through menus that would not layer correctly with other elements, to images "falling out" of their containers when zooming in too closely. Overall, nothing that would break the game, but it would negatively impact the appearance of the UI when it pops up. I've also worked on the engine's image processing capabilities, bringing in a few extra options, like fast, pixel-perfect flips and rotations, as well as some more technical things, which are used for the frames (see below). I've also taken some time to grant the characters the ability to adequately express various concepts of time, such as dates and the differences between two points in time. I later realised that I forgot about giving them the ability to talk about hours within a day, but I'll get back to that later.

Next up, let's talk about some changes to the document generator. There are some small ones, like many additional options that allow for styling beat-up and damaged books, like so:

But we also extended the document system into... picture frames. This is a very extensive, parametric system that can combine a large number of different elements to create a frame around an image, which is then also geared to work with some of our existing image functionality, like our point-of-interest mechanic.

(The cat-shaped image frame does not exist; it cannot hurt you. The cat-shaped frame:)

In this case, I was happy that people instantly recognised that this was meant to be used in puzzles. Due to both this and the changes to books, the game's library of textures did expand by a few dozen new images.

We've also returned to clothing and implemented a few new items. These additions bring us up to 200 item templates and over 4000 individual items. The added articles are:

• torn denim pants,
• torn denim bellbottoms,
• torn denim shorts,
• torn denim skinny pants,
• sleeveless and blackless button-up shirt (with collar),
• long sleeve crop top,
• sleeveless crop top,
• sleeveless crop top with v-neck,
• short sleeve crop top with front tie,
• bralette,
• bandeau bralette.

We've also revised some items... in particular, the Marat t-shirt to actually feature the painting in question:

There was also an attempt to bring demi-skirts/half-skirts into the game, but it turned out our systems poorly support them, and as such, the idea was scrapped, probably permanently. We might look into some fetish wear with similar ideas, but this will not be possible for daily wear. (I'm also still slacking on the pinstripe suits, as dual-colour items require some more setup and, in everything that I've been doing, I failed to allocate any time for it!)

Finally, let's talk about the glossary, as there are a few things that changed there, and one of them is related to the above, even. In response to some criticism we've received, glossary term definitions were expanded to be more verbose, and we've introduced a glossary of fashion terms to help explain the sometimes minute differences between some items. You might also note a new "table of contents" feature. We're implementing these in places where they might be needed. For the moment, they've just been added to relevant entries in the glossary category, but they will spread from there when I have time:

Finally, there's the matter of this:

It's just not ready. I tested it myself and found it lacking. Fortunately, the issues should be fixable with some more writing, so we'll try to get through that for the next update.

Unfortunately, I also have the following bad news. I will be in the hospital next Monday, so the next update will be on the 14th. I'm just choosing to do this to similarly not stress myself over having to post an update while getting ready for the procedure. It's a minor outpatient deal for most people, but considering my health, I might need to stay for a day. We'll see. I'm sorry.