Freshly Squeezed Progress Report: Tracking Time

Last week, I reported that I successfully loaded the level data from a file in a way that works on Android and other platforms seamlessly, then spent time on design and planning for The Dungeon Under My House, my non-violent, first-person role-playing game and my second Freshly Squeezed Entertainment project.

I worked on adding the concept of Time into the game this week.

Sprint 2024-22: Project Management

Planned and complete:

• Advance time when navigating dungeon/performing actions

I decided a core part of the game would involve managing time. While the game is turn-based and wouldn’t require dexterity and perfect timing of button presses to do well, it will require the player to pay attention to the clock and to manage time as a valuable and scarce resource.

Why? Because I decided that the major theme of the game is the idea that there is too much to do and not enough time to do it all.

And with a concrete concept of time, the rest of the mechanics can work to either directly or indirectly involve time somehow.

To start with, the main values to worry about are the minutes, hours, and days that can pass as the player plays the game. While I want the game to end after a period of in-game time has elapsed, I haven’t decided if it will be a weekend, or a week, or an entire month.

But the player should know how much time has passed, so I created a watch that will be on the HUD and visible almost all the time.

Eventually this watch will be a button that the player can press. I envision being able to set alarms and reminders to help the player manage their time.

But for now, it just needs to display the current time and day.

I also advanced time by five minutes whenever the player walks 30 steps in the dungeon. I don’t expect that either of those numbers will be in the final game, but it is a start.

I think the watch looks pretty decent, and with time in the game, I can build more mechanics on top of it, and I can even create an ending, which is what I anticipate doing next.

Thanks for reading!

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