"In the beginning, there were no plugins or scripts. Everything was done by events and engines. 
And so, with no smart scripts to download, people  had to use their brain."

Ancient NPC from RpgMaker2000

As an old user of RM i learned how to insert features without the excesive use of plugins, there were wonderfull engines and game mechanics using exclusively switches and variables, even local switches didn't were used. 

I commonly use plugins for basic features, like UI, HUD and light effects, mainly for visuals, i don't really want to waste so much time learning how to use somebody's plugin, i made my own plugins whenever i have the time and if those already released plugins don't do what i want.

This, of course leads me to learn more about javascript and internal names for game classes and objetcs.

Being restricted from using plugins or event calls made me remember and enjoy those good old days.
Definitely if I had the possibility of using plugins, the development time would have been less, but it is precisely this restriction that made me enjoy, again, the primitive development process.

I want my Hud back!!!

I wanted so badly to show some info about stamina and hp to the player, so i decided to do it the old way, using graphics and layers to show the basic HUD, and over there the HP and SP bars.

This basic feature uses a common event call to update any of those values, i just use 10 values to set the image width in fork conditions, this reduces the time expended, but still works, with plugins i just had to set variables to calculate and nothing else. Then obviously use fork conditions to change the width of the bar.

The scavenge thing.

With the use of just mere scripts that work shall be done in no time, because i just assignate to an array the item and qty to recieve. Instead i decided to set a value to a random variable (one of the most important things working without plugins is recycle... recycle everywhere) I made various common events to call similar mechanics, like the "item get" this way i can tell the game: give an item accordly to the value on the random variable and tell wich item is.

I wanted to add a carry limit, and i planned to insert it, but i needed to work on maps and this feature was not inserted, the feature was so simply as to say: this variable tells how much items you can carry, then if you buy a bag, this variable increases by 8, 10.. whatever

 So, in the common event of delivery of objects, I only had to add a condition that would check if the variable "quantity of objects carried" was less than the variable "maximum to carry" and that's all.

The fog is missed

I also decided to work on graphics to make it look less rpgmakeresque, walls in rmmv are terrible compared to XP so i decided to work on walls limit the right way and made independent tilesets to show vertical, horizontal and angles for each kind of wall i have on game.

I also missed so much the fog in XP, deleted forever from MV, and i know there should be a plugin that does this... i really don't know, but it has been solved , again, using a picture and showing it on the maps that should have that old and dusty look.

And what about the storage system?

Storage system was one of the easiest parts, i just set the item amount to a variable, and add this variable to the main variable that it represents, you then add the total of the items you already have and that's all, if you want an item back just select wich one and the engine does the opposite proccess: sustract one from main variable and adds an item. Nothing very complicated.

Canned fod goes right to the food variable. Chocolate, Junk food and soda wasn't added because i want to add another features to those objects and they don't fit in there.

Lights and shadow.

One classic feature from ancient rpg maker development was the day/night system and coloring the game screen accordly, i will not extend explaining how it has been doing because screen tint and conditional branches are all you need. Set them right in a common event and call this event whenever you need it and voilá, it's done.

For the inside/outside changes, i had to insert a switch and a conditional branch whenever you enter a place it switches to on and screen tint is set to 0, if you get outside then the game calls the  light event.

For the inside of the shelter i made it own light engine similar to the main light system, in this case it depends on the variable Energy, not on the variable time of the day. I also added a picture to this map, this picture is dark with a circle of transparency on the middle to show the less light possible when the energy is 0.

Funny thing is when i inserted the "torch" effect the image show over the Hud and i had to redo the show bars event... and i haven't noticed it until i made the 5th revision of the last features added.

Las words

I'm sure i'm missing some engines i inserted on the game, and there are other that i planned but had not time to implement them, however i really want to go deep on the story even when i know it will not be well recieved by a powerful minority, but i don't care, this is a work of art and i'm free to do whatever i want. 

And about the future?

If you have played it you surely found you can invite characters to your shelter, well this feature is a must and it has been done already, i had not time to implement yet the building room system, neded for character recruit. This game will be a base management, exploration, there will be battles, using just events and variables, in fact they are done and tested, but you will not be able to play until the next update.

I will go out of plugin restrictions to the next update and i will add the real hud, i will work on enemies to add battles and i will finish the upgrading events for the shelter to exploit this feature asap.

If you decided to read all this, thank you very much, any feedback and criticism is well received, also if you have played the game you surely notice the NSFW version is a must, because i already have all ingredients to apply rule 34 to this game.

JAM version will not be updated and will be keep for comparison whenever a new version is released.

Thank you for your time and i hope you enjoyed the game.