--- DevDiary ---

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- 2024/03/02 -

This week, I worked on the first boss and miscellanea.

The custom script logic has been implemented - now when the game detects a stage with custom script, it will forego spawning enemies, and instead create custom objects depending on the value of the custom script. This essentially means that custom script value of 0 is now synonymous with enemy spawning, which means that for all other custom script values I can use the enemy data in other ways, saving some space in the stage's file.

In addition to figuring out stage transitions, I also needed to figure out the logic behind hitting objects. Turns out, some bugs were still present in the trial version even in this regard - for example, Pain Mode Lamias shot big pellets that could still be deflected. This is now fixed.

One additional minor change is with how Time Rain interacts with Stage Clear - in the trial version, Time Rain resets when Pawn takes damage, unless there are no more enemies on the screen. This now has been changed, and Time Rain will now always reset when Pawn takes a hit, regardless of the stage's state.

Another, probably major change, is that now spamming attacks at the beginning of a stage will accelerate the wakening wave, greatly reducing the wait time between swinging the blade and the enemies waking up. This also allows to manipulate the phase differences between enemies, creating niche and high-level strategy opportunities.

The beginnings of Prime Sin have been added to the game - the boss spawns, attacks, gets damaged, dies, triggers victory, and properly deletes itself upon stage transitions.

As it is the first boss of SDR, Prime Sin is supposed to be a buffed-up version of an average enemy. It may have different and unique patterns of movement and attacking, but at the end of the day it is defeated like any other ordinary foe - albeit after taking more than a single hit. The purpose of this boss is more of a difficulty spike that still aligns with the game's typical gameplay, than an event that bends the game's rules to accomodate itself. That is the domain of future bosses.

By the time of the next entry, Prime Sin will be functional, and occupy the Stage 5 slot, which the trial version of SDR skips.