august 25, 2023

hello again! happy friday!

after the low-point of last update, today's update is instead a high-point. what I mean is that this round of updates has a lot of new stuff, which I'm very excited about! the main thing is that there are two new buildings that utilize the "fiber" item introduced last week. these are the "den" and the "lantern." the names do a pretty good job of describing what they do, but I'll go over them anyway.

the "den" is a way of taking shelter, and the design was inspired by the burrows of trapdoor spiders. I didn't want to use the name "burrow" though, since it reminds me of a rodent. so, I went with "den"--a cozier name, in my opinion.

now, why do we need to take shelter. well... remember that other status bar that I didn't talk about, from june 29th's update?

this is an indicator of how much longer there is until a "silt storm"--the main environmental danger. over time, this bar will slowly fill up, and when it reaches capacity, a silt storm will begin. if you're caught outside of a den while there is a storm, it's game over!

next, the "lantern" building doesn't need as much explanation as the den. partly because it's very simple, and partly because there is another use for it that doesn't take effect yet. so for now, all you need to know is that it emits a lot of bright light. this is why it's pretty cheap to make compared to the den!

to wrap up, there is one more feature in this update! (I know, I can't believe it either). we can now eat pollen and fiber to replenish some hunger. for testing purposes the hunger bar decreases really fast, but for now nothing happens when it reaches zero. so, it's just for testing the ability to eat items.

alright, that was a lot! I hope this update feels like a major step into making this little project into a proper game. see you all next time!