engine v0.26 and beyond...

Testing a possible public release now...

The system for Spending Karma for Upgrades has been disabled for now due to bugs in the new interface, and incompatibility with the old interface (due to changes in the data structure). It will be added back in at a latter time, and much improved.

All other methods of training stats appear to be working correctly, and the buff system is running smoothly.

I am going to refactor Items and Encounters, along with the Time-system in v0.27. It will allow us to have far more interesting content, including having multiple encounters/situations occurring at the same time.

I am also starting a new branch (deviation/post) here with v0.26, since the data will not be compatible with older saves. I will try to maintain compatibility between engine/data v0.26-v0.30, and after v0.30 there shouldn't be any more compatibility issues, as all the data will have been refactored into the new (permanent) format.

This branch will continue to v0.30, then a new one will start at v0.31, v0.36, v0.41, and so on. The game will maintain continuity, but the major engine releases (multiples of 5) will be posted separately here for comparison.

I have an expanded and revised list of features planned all the way to engine v0.66, at which time I will begin building another game on this engine (Kendra), and over the course of the next few versions build the additional engine features needed for that game, while continuing to add content to HardLife.

The process will repeat every major engine version from there, for a total of 8 games on the HardLife engine, leading up to v1.0, where I'll start a twine-free branch tied into the full PSL system for online play and the eventual HardLife 2.0 game.

Back to the engine, graphics support for icons, portraits, layered characters and layered scenes are planned to be added in stages from engine v0.60-v0.65. I'll try to get a (dynamic) graphical map in the game well before that point though.

The big challenge graphically comes from all the possible combinations, including colors/tones. To that end I've been researching ways to run pallet/hue tricks in CSS, and I think I might be close to making a reasonable skin spectrum for characters. That will leave just the body-shape issues to work out, and of course the equipment/clothing layers for those shapes, which is still a ton of graphics to plan and render, but we'll get there sometime in late 2019.

The good news is that most of that graphical work can be used in other games as well, so the more games we build/design on the engine, the easier it will be to create new ones. Eventually I'll offer to build custom games on the engine, for those who want their own games.