Morning, everyone! Yesterday marked the end of my two week vacation, and last night I spent all my downtime at work getting started on the first patch!

Here's the cliffnotes!

New sprite systems and animations!

I've been meaning to rework Eddie's sprite for a while, and while doing so, I decided to try implementing the new sprite system I've been planning for a while, using layers (or, "zorders.") This will allow for me to swap out the different parts comprising each sprite easier, allowing for characters to have varied wardrobes, subtle gestures like head tilting, broad gestures like arm movements, and BLINKING and rudimentary lip syncing/mouth flapping :D

While the latter feature would've been achievable even without this new system, it was a heck of an experience getting it to work with my method, which I was not willing to sacrifice. But, as you can see, with Eddie here, it works like a dream! Still some minor kinks to work out, but holy hell. It feels good to have the basics done!

Accessibility features

Here's a screenshot showing both a selected menu item (top) and its default, idle state (bottom)

One of the first changes I'm making is adjusting the text used in-game to be more accessible to players with dyslexia, vision impairments, and color blindness. If you're in any of those groups, or a related one I've left out, please feel free to weigh in :) Your input is extremely valuable to me. I'm of course doing good old fashion research, and in the end I'd like to add UI presets to the settings menu that will be tailored to different visual impairments, but that'll be a feature in the making, as it'll take some time to learn how to implement. Until then...

The usual suspects - edits, typos, and missing links

Nothing too crazy to report here! I fixed the part of Mindy's route where she inexplicably breaks the forth wall by referring to "you" instead of Pixy. Now, when you visit the beach a second time, it won't play the same cutscene twice :) And I took my editor's suggestion and changed Mindy's name plate to Mindy Mindovitch. Since that's what everyone calls her.

Okay, well... I'm off to bed! Till next time <3

Oh! And happy pride~!