27042020

Made a number of minor improvemenets and changes to the log experience, the most significant of which being the addition of a fully functional main menu screen that allows the player to write new entries, access stored entries, upload any local entries to cloud storage (which can only happen in a specific window of time during the day), and exit to the home page. 

As I just mentioned, I also implemented a day counter into the game finally, as well as a global variable tracking the status of the outpost’s connection to the satellite server, which only becomes stable enough to sustain full networked activity for a brief, semi-randomised period during the day (anywhere between ten minutes to two in-game hours, occurring any time between midnight and 0300). This way the player is constantly given the choice of whether it’s worthwhile to keep Avery up pretty late into the night waiting for the signal to come online so she can upload her logs (and save the game for the player), which will cause her to sleep longer and thus waste daylight the next day. 

I’ve been thinking a lot more about timekeeping in the game, and I think at some point – maybe tomorrow if I get tired of this interface stuff – I’d like to experiment with the idea of implementing a mindmap of sorts, that allows the player to direct Avery to “reflect” on certain concepts (ie, how she feels overally, how hungry she is, etc). Amongst these I think I’ll add a prompt that allows her to estimate the time based on the available light, within a range of the actual backend time. When she’s indoors, or where there’s little meaningful natural light such as when it’s raining, this will be more difficult, if not outright impossible, for her. I’ll start drafting all that tomorrow I suppose. 

In the meantime I still have to figure out how to store logs. I’m thinking I’ll just take the easy way out and keep two copies of each log – one finished, and one to-be-finished – that get synced up once Avery submits them. I’m too tired right now though to think through it properly, I’m just gonna go to sleep and hopefully it’ll come much more clearly to me tomorrow.