*Secret* Final Profit 1.02 lighting preview

Originally posted on cohost: 29/01/2024

I've been busy working on the next update, and there's a bunch of new gameplay stuff happening, but I want to talk a little about something big that's coming on the visual side of things. 

I'm about half way through adding lighting to every map in the game. These aren't a background image effect, it's rendered in real time on it's own layer. I'm going through and painting the light values onto each tile, alongside adding emission to appropriate events. In some cases areas have been darkened significantly so additional props have been added to use as light sources.

The reason I'm doing this is to add an additional point of difference to the typical RPG Maker look, to try and make it more immediately apparent how much effort has gone into building this game. Because that snap bias against RPG Maker games remains a significant hurdle when trying to get people to give the game a chance.

I also tinkered with adding real time shadows (and they looked damn good) but unfortunately the change wasn't compatible with existing saves. Initially it was only my intention to spruce up the start of the game where the assets are more "default-y" but it quickly turned into a larger affair.

It's also been fun thinking about how to use the darkness while still giving the player the tools they need to see. As an example in certain dark forest-y areas the Mana infused butterflies now give off light as they fly around. One of them will even follow Biz and rest comfortably on her head when you stay still.

My background is in lighting so it's been easy to slip into the workflow, and a little nostalgic. There's some other small visual additions such as dust particles in the Tutetown shop and updates to certain sprites.

It's worth noting that it's likely some players will prefer the original look, so I've added a toggle in the options menu to swap back and forth between them.